Merisio

A modern MERISE database modeling tool built with Python and PySide6.

Features

MCD Editor - Visual diagram editor for entities, associations, and links
- Drag-and-drop positioning
- Multi-selection and deletion
- Cardinalities: (0,1), (0,N), (1,1), (1,N)
- Link styles: Curved (Catmull-Rom smoothed), Orthogonal (L-routing), Straight
- Toggle attribute visibility
- Zoom controls with slider (25%-400%)
- Customizable colors for entities, associations, and links
Link Editing (v1.6.0) - Reshape relation paths interactively
- Waypoint handles to drag bend points; segment-midpoint handles to insert new bends
- Magnetic snap during drag, orthogonal segment-axis-lock
- "Tidy Up Link" to collapse near-collinear waypoints, "Straighten Link" to wipe them all
- Draggable cardinality label position (stored as card_t in the file format)
- Curves bow outward away from the diagram centroid
Undo / Redo (v1.6.0) - Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z covering every modification (drag, edit, waypoints, labels, colours, link style); snapshot-based 100-entry history
Left Sidebar - MySQL Workbench-inspired collapsible panel (Ctrl+B)
- Minimap: bird's eye diagram overview with click-to-navigate
- Project Tree: entities and associations navigator with selection sync
- Properties Panel: view and edit selected entity, association, or link
- Link cardinality inline editing (Min/Max dropdowns)
- Edit button opens full entity/association dialog
Bottom Output Panel - Collapsible panel (Ctrl+J)
- Dictionary: attribute overview with selection highlighting
- Validation: model validation results (F5 to validate)
- SQL Preview: auto-generated PostgreSQL DDL
Export - Export diagrams to SVG, PNG, or PDF formats
CLI Tool (merisio-cli) - Command-line interface for batch processing
- Validate MCD models
- Generate PostgreSQL DDL
- Inspect MLD tables
- Export diagrams (PNG, SVG, PDF) headlessly
MLD View - Logical Data Model with table/column tree view
- Editable column names (right-click or double-click to rename)
- Custom names saved in project and used in SQL generation
SQL Generation - PostgreSQL CREATE TABLE statements
Project Management - Save/load projects in .merisio JSON format (file format v2.2)
Options Menu - Show/hide attributes, link style, diagram colors

Screenshots

MCD Editor (v1.5.0) — e-commerce example with sidebar, central canvas, and bottom output panel

Man Pages

Man pages are provided for both binaries:

# Install system-wide (requires root)
sudo python build.py install-man

# Then use:
man merisio
man merisio-cli

# Uninstall
sudo python build.py uninstall-man

You can also read them directly from the source tree:

man ./man/merisio.1
man ./man/merisio-cli.1

Requirements

Python 3.11+
PySide6

Installation

Pre-built Binaries

Download the latest release from the Releases page.

Linux:

Merisio-x.x.x-linux-x64.tar.gz - Portable archive
merisio_x.x.x_amd64.deb - Debian/Ubuntu package

Windows:

Merisio-x.x.x-windows-x64.zip - Portable archive

Linux Installation

From .deb package (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo dpkg -i merisio_1.6.0_amd64.deb

This installs both merisio (GUI) and merisio-cli (CLI) to /usr/bin/.

From archive:

tar -xzvf Merisio-linux-x64.tar.gz
cd Merisio-linux-x64
./Merisio        # GUI
./merisio-cli    # CLI

From Source

git clone https://github.com/AchrafSoltani/Merisio.git
cd Merisio
./run.sh                            # creates .venv on first run, then launches the GUI

Manual setup (any args after python main.py are forwarded by run.sh):

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate           # Linux/macOS — or .venv\Scripts\activate on Windows
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

Building from Source

Prerequisites

pip install pyinstaller

Build Commands

# Activate virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate   # Linux/macOS
# or: venv\Scripts\activate  # Windows

# Build both GUI and CLI (default)
python build.py build-all

# Build GUI only
python build.py build

# Build CLI only
python build.py build-cli

# Create .ico from PNG (Windows, requires ImageMagick)
python build.py ico

# Install/uninstall man pages (Linux, requires root)
sudo python build.py install-man
sudo python build.py uninstall-man

# Clean build files
python build.py clean

Output:

dist/Merisio (GUI) and dist/merisio-cli (CLI) on Linux
dist\Merisio.exe and dist\merisio-cli.exe on Windows

Usage

Both binaries support --help and --version:

merisio --help          # Print usage and exit
merisio --version       # Print version and exit
merisio-cli --help      # Print CLI usage and exit
merisio-cli --version   # Print CLI version and exit

GUI Workflow

Create Entities - Right-click on the MCD canvas or use the toolbar to add entities
Create Associations - Add associations to define relationships between entities
Link Them - Connect entities to associations with cardinalities
Use the Sidebar - Browse entities/associations in the project tree, inspect and edit properties in the properties panel
View MLD - Switch to MLD tab to see the logical model (double-click columns to rename)
Validate - Model > Validate (F5) or check the Validation tab in the output panel
Generate SQL - Switch to SQL tab or check the SQL Preview tab in the output panel
Save Project - File > Save to save your work

CLI Usage

The merisio-cli tool allows you to work with .merisio project files from the command line, useful for CI pipelines and scripting.

merisio-cli <file.merisio> <command> [options]

Command	Description
`info`	Show project metadata and statistics
`validate`	Validate the MCD model (exit code 1 on errors)
`sql`	Generate PostgreSQL DDL
`mld`	Show the logical data model (MLD tables)
`export`	Export diagram to PNG, SVG, or PDF

Examples:

# Show project info
merisio-cli project.merisio info

# Validate and fail CI on errors
merisio-cli project.merisio validate

# Generate SQL to stdout or file
merisio-cli project.merisio sql
merisio-cli project.merisio sql -o schema.sql

# View MLD tables
merisio-cli project.merisio mld

# Export diagram
merisio-cli project.merisio export --format png -o diagram.png
merisio-cli project.merisio export --format svg -o diagram.svg
merisio-cli project.merisio export --format pdf -o diagram.pdf
merisio-cli project.merisio export --format png -o diagram.png --scale 3.0

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+N	New Project
Ctrl+O	Open Project
Ctrl+S	Save Project
Ctrl+B	Toggle Sidebar
Ctrl+J	Toggle Output Panel
F5	Validate Model
Ctrl+1	MCD Tab
Ctrl+2	MLD Tab
Delete	Delete Selected
Ctrl+Scroll	Zoom In/Out
Ctrl++	Zoom In
Ctrl+-	Zoom Out
Ctrl+0	Fit to View
Ctrl+Shift+0	Reset Zoom (100%)

Options Menu

Option	Description
Show Attributes	Toggle attribute visibility in MCD entities/associations
Link Style > Curved	Bezier curve links (default)
Link Style > Orthogonal	Right-angle links
Link Style > Straight	Direct line links
Diagram Colors	Customize colors for entities, associations, and links

Project Structure

Merisio/
├── main.py                 # GUI entry point
├── cli.py                  # CLI entry point (merisio-cli)
├── build.py                # Build script for PyInstaller
├── requirements.txt        # Python dependencies
├── packaging/              # Linux integration files
│   ├── merisio.desktop                                # Desktop entry
│   ├── com.github.achrafsoltani.Merisio.yml           # Flatpak manifest
│   └── com.github.achrafsoltani.Merisio.metainfo.xml  # AppStream metadata
├── snap/
│   └── snapcraft.yaml      # Snap package manifest
├── man/
│   ├── merisio.1           # GUI man page
│   └── merisio-cli.1       # CLI man page
├── resources/
│   └── icons/
│       ├── app_icon.svg    # Vector icon
│       └── app_icon.png    # PNG icon (256x256)
├── src/
│   ├── models/             # Data models (Entity, Association, Link, Project)
│   ├── views/              # UI components (Canvas, Dialogs, Views)
│   │   ├── sidebar/        # Left sidebar (Minimap, Project Tree, Properties Panel)
│   │   └── output_panel.py # Bottom output panel (Dictionary, Validation, SQL Preview)
│   ├── controllers/        # Business logic (MLD transformer, SQL generator)
│   ├── export/             # Headless diagram renderer (used by CLI)
│   └── utils/              # Utilities, constants, theme
├── tests/                  # Unit tests
└── .github/
    └── workflows/
        └── build.yml       # GitHub Actions CI/CD

File Format

Merisio uses a JSON-based project format with the .merisio extension:

{
  "version": "2.1",
  "metadata": {
    "name": "Project Name",
    "description": "Project description",
    "author": "Author Name",
    "created_at": "2026-01-20T10:00:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-02-01T15:30:00"
  },
  "mcd": {
    "entities": [...],
    "associations": [...],
    "links": [...]
  },
  "mld": {
    "column_overrides": { "TABLE.original_col": "renamed_col" }
  },
  "colors": {
    "entity_fill": "#E3F2FD",
    "entity_border": "#1976D2",
    "association_fill": "#FFF3E0",
    "association_border": "#F57C00",
    "link_color": "#000000"
  }
}

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history and release notes.

License

GNU GPL v2

Author

Achraf SOLTANI Email: achraf.soltani@pm.me GitHub: @AchrafSoltani

Acknowledgments

Inspired by the original AnalyseSI Java project.

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Merisio

Features

Screenshots

Man Pages

Requirements

Installation

Pre-built Binaries

Linux Installation

From Source

Building from Source

Prerequisites

Build Commands

Usage

GUI Workflow

CLI Usage

Keyboard Shortcuts

Options Menu

Project Structure

File Format

Changelog

License

Author

Acknowledgments

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.github/workflows		.github/workflows
docs		docs
examples		examples
man		man
packaging		packaging
resources		resources
snap		snap
src		src
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
README.md		README.md
build.py		build.py
cli.py		cli.py
documentation.md		documentation.md
main.py		main.py
requirements.txt		requirements.txt
run.sh		run.sh

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Merisio

Features

Screenshots

Man Pages

Requirements

Installation

Pre-built Binaries

Linux Installation

From Source

Building from Source

Prerequisites

Build Commands

Usage

GUI Workflow

CLI Usage

Keyboard Shortcuts

Options Menu

Project Structure

File Format

Changelog

License

Author

Acknowledgments

About

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