# Flowchart

A flowchart is the diagram most teams draw first, because almost any process can be written down as steps with a decision or two in the middle. It is also the one most often drawn badly, usually by having every arrow point somewhere different.

In Capable you can draw one on a canvas or write one as text. Both produce a real, editable diagram on the page.

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## When to reach for one

* Documenting a process somebody else will have to follow at 2am.
* Explaining a decision: what happens when the answer is no, not just when it is yes.
* Onboarding, where a picture of the happy path saves an hour of explanation.

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## How to draw it in Capable

| **Route**  | **Use when**                                                      |
| ---------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Mermaid    | You want the diagram to diff in review and lay itself out.        |
| draw.io    | Position carries meaning, or you need precise shapes and colours. |
| Excalidraw | It is a sketch for a discussion, not a document.                  |

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## A worked example

A support triage flow, written as six lines of text:

![Flowchart](https://help.gocapable.com/images/att1418461185.svg)

The source, which you can paste into a new diagram and edit:

```
flowchart TD
  A([Ticket raised]) --> B{Customer impact?}
  B -- None --> C[Queue as backlog]
  B -- Some --> D[Assign to on-call]
  D --> E{Fixed in 30 min?}
  E -- Yes --> F([Close and note])
  E -- No --> G[Escalate to engineering]
  G --> F
```

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## A few things that catch people out

* Arrows that cross are usually a sign the steps are in the wrong order, not that you need a bigger canvas.
* Label every decision branch. An unlabelled fork is the most common reason a reader guesses wrong.
* If it will not fit on one screen, split it and link the parts. Nobody reads a flowchart they have to scroll.

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## Related

[Flowchart symbolsWhat each shape actually means.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/flowchart-symbols.html)

[Swimlane diagramWho does what, laid out in lanes.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/swimlane-diagram.html)

[ExamplesWorking diagrams you can copy.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/examples.html)

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_Draw the unhappy path too._