DIAGRAMMO · STUCK + ASKING · 2026-04-30

Tried to build my factory map in Diagrammo — got stuck. Want to help?

Quick note from a single operator. Loved the tool enough to ship an operator-onboarding page for it this morning. Then tried to actually use it for real production work and got held up at the very first step. Sharing the .dgmo source for what I would have built — and asking for a pointer to get past the stuck spot.

PJ Zonis Single operator · SideGuy Solutions · Encinitas · about →

TL;DR: Tried to render my real SideGuy factory map (the one running ~158 shareables, 6 paid tiers, 3 cron-driven autonomous agents) in Diagrammo today. Got held up at file creation — couldn't figure out the new-file button on first try. The .dgmo source for the diagram is on this page. If Demian (or any Diagrammo user) wants to point me at the right click, I'd love to actually see it render — and I'll happily send back operator-tier notes once it's working.

What happened

This morning I shipped a 30-second operator-onboarding page for Diagrammo as the first move in the SideGuy "smash-back" pattern — when a builder ships something gorgeous, you don't pitch them, you USE it and ship something better than the README on top.

Step two was supposed to be: build my own real production diagram (the SideGuy factory map) IN Diagrammo and ship that as a second proof point. The plan was about 30 seconds of paste-and-render.

I got stuck before the diagram. Couldn't figure out how to make a new file. Probably user error — but it was the kind of friction where 10 minutes pass and you're still on step one. Eventually shifted to the meta-move you're reading: ship the .dgmo source on my domain and ask the builder for a pointer.

Here's the .dgmo I was trying to render

The actual factory map for SideGuy Solutions — capture, generate, publish, distribute, convert, compound — plus the three background cron agents that ship while I sleep. Paste this into a fresh Diagrammo file and the diagram should render in 30 seconds (which is the whole point of diagram-as-code):

boxes-and-lines
direction TD

[Capture]
  News Radar
  Inbound DM
  Featured Form
  Public Comments

[Generate]
  News Take
  Personal Page
  Custom Shareable
  Listing Read

[Publish]
  Shareable Wall
  LinkedIn Post
  X Post
  HN Post

[Distribute]
  Sniper DM List
  Touch Sequence
  Comment Threads

[Convert]
  Lead in CSV
  Tier Match
  Paid Engagement

[Compound]
  Receipts Page
  Doctrine Essay
  Cross-Links

[Background Agents]
  3am swarm-improver
  7am morning-snapshot
  9am improve-bot

News Radar -> News Take
News Take -> Shareable Wall
Shareable Wall -> LinkedIn Post
LinkedIn Post -> Inbound DM
Featured Form -> Personal Page
Public Comments -> Inbound DM
Inbound DM -> Lead in CSV
Personal Page -> Lead in CSV
Lead in CSV -> Custom Shareable
Lead in CSV -> Listing Read
Custom Shareable -> Touch Sequence
Listing Read -> Touch Sequence
Sniper DM List -> Touch Sequence
Touch Sequence -> Paid Engagement
Touch Sequence -> Comment Threads
Comment Threads -> Inbound DM
Paid Engagement -> Receipts Page
Receipts Page -> Shareable Wall
9am improve-bot -> Cross-Links
3am swarm-improver -> Cross-Links
7am morning-snapshot -> News Radar
Cross-Links -> Shareable Wall

For Demian (or anyone reading): if you paste this into Diagrammo on your end and want to share the rendered version back, that becomes the public demo of "real operator factory built in Diagrammo." Yours to use however — quote it, post it, ignore it.

Why I'm shipping this as a public page (instead of just DMing)

Two reasons. One: shareables are designed for exactly this — substantive peer-to-peer asks live longer as a permanent URL than as a buried DM. Two: if other operators are hitting the same friction, this page becomes the place they land when they Google it. Compounds for both sides.

Public-by-default is the SideGuy pattern. Private DMs die in inboxes; URLs persist.

About Diagrammo: built by Demian Neidetcher — VP at Major League Baseball, shipped with Claude Code. Diagram-as-code, .dgmo files in git, browser or Mac. The core product is genuinely good — I shipped an operator-onboarding page for it this morning as proof I think it's the right architecture. The friction here is first-30-min onboarding stuff, not the diagram engine.

Want to help me past the stuck spot?

If you're Demian, another Diagrammo user, or anyone who knows the click I'm missing — text or DM PJ. I'd love to actually render this and ship the screenshot as the second SideGuy × Diagrammo proof point.

📲 Text PJ · 858-461-8054 DM on LinkedIn →

— PJ · SideGuy Solutions · Encinitas · The operator-translation layer for tools like Diagrammo