Setup PlantUML

Download PlantUML

wget -O plantuml.jar https://github.com/plantuml/plantuml/releases/download/v1.2022.5/plantuml-1.2022.5.jar

PlantUML can be run locally or through a (local) server. The server is slightly harder to set up is much faster and produces better results. Run the server in the same directory where you downloaded plantuml.jar:

java -jar plantuml.jar -picoweb

By default this will expose a server on port 8080.

VS Code Plugin

Vs Code has an excellent PlantUML plugin (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jebbs.plantuml). To make it work with the PlantUML server some additional configuration is needed. Add the following to the vs code settings.

{
    "plantuml.render": "PlantUMLServer",
    "plantuml.server": "http://localhost:8080"
}