Saving a project
Click File → Save in the menu bar (or Ctrl+S). The first time you save, a file dialog appears where you choose the location and filename. The project is written as a single .tesseract.json file. The project title is used as the suggested filename.
On subsequent saves, Tesseract reuses the last file path — no picker dialog appears, so saving is instant. To choose a different location, use File → Save As (Ctrl+Shift+S), which always opens the file picker.
The file contains your entire architecture: all components, connections, subgraphs, flows, layer definitions, and project metadata (title, description).
.tesseract.json format is plain JSON. You can version-control it with Git, diff it, or generate it programmatically.Loading a project
Click File → Load in the toolbar. A file picker opens where you select a .tesseract.json file. The current architecture is replaced by the loaded one, and the view automatically fits all components.
If you have unsaved changes, a confirmation dialog asks whether you want to discard them before loading.
Creating a new project
Click File → New in the toolbar. You are offered two options:
- Empty Project — a blank canvas with the default layers
- Load Demo — the "Chirp" demo architecture, a pre-built microblogging app
As with loading, you will be asked to confirm if there are unsaved changes.
Auto-save
Tesseract automatically saves your work to the browser's local storage as you edit. If the application closes unexpectedly — a crash, a power loss, or an accidental tab close — your latest state is preserved.
On the next launch, the auto-saved state is restored automatically. This is a safety net, not a replacement for saving to a file: local storage can be cleared by the browser, so always save important work to disk.
Unsaved changes
When you have changes that haven't been saved to a file, the window title shows an indicator. Before any operation that would discard your work (New, Load), a confirmation dialog appears so you don't lose anything by accident.
Mermaid import/export
Tesseract can export and import Mermaid flowchart diagrams, making it easy to embed your architecture in Markdown files, READMEs, wikis, or any tool that supports Mermaid rendering.
Exporting: click File → Export Mermaid. The entire architecture is serialized as a Mermaid graph TD flowchart with layer subgraphs, component nodes, protocol-labeled edges, and nested subgraphs. The output is saved as a .mermaid file.
Importing: click File → Import Mermaid. Select a .mermaid or .mmd file. The parser reconstructs components, connections, and layers from the Mermaid source and replaces the current architecture. If you have unsaved changes, a confirmation dialog appears first.
The exported file includes special metadata comments (@layer, @component, @connection, @flow) that preserve component types, technologies, positions, descriptions, and data flows. When re-importing, all this metadata is restored for a lossless roundtrip. Plain Mermaid files without metadata are also supported with sensible defaults.
export_mermaid and import_mermaid provide the same functionality programmatically, so Claude can export or import Mermaid diagrams directly from your terminal. See MCP API Reference.Sharing a project
To share an architecture with a colleague:
- Save the project to a
.tesseract.jsonfile - Send the file (email, Slack, Git, shared drive…)
- The recipient opens it with File → Load
The file is self-contained — no external dependencies. Anyone with Tesseract can open it. However, projects saved with a Pro account may use features that are not available on the Free tier (custom shapes, additional layers, flows). A Free-tier user can still open the file, but some elements may not render the same way.