CTOrg
CTOrg is a small, open-source tool that draws your org chart from a plain JSON file. Describe who reports to whom, then print the tree in your terminal or export it as PNG or SVG. It also lists people and reports headcount, levels and span of control, so you can see the shape of the organisation at a glance.
What It Does
- Reads a JSON array of people, with a name, role, optional seniority, team and manager
- Validates the data: duplicate names, unknown managers, invalid seniority and manager cycles are all rejected
- Renders the chart as coloured ASCII in the terminal, or as a PNG or SVG file
- Lists people with filters for role, seniority and team
- Prints stats: headcount, levels, managers, and average and maximum direct reports
- Writes no files for
listandstats, so it is safe to run against live data - Runs locally from the command line, with no hosted backend
Why CTOs Should Care
- Org charts go stale quickly. A tool driven by a text file is easy to update in a pull request, diff over time and keep out of a slide-deck workflow.
- The stats command gives a quick, honest read on span of control. If your CTO or engineering managers have too many direct reports, the numbers show it before the calendar does. See Dunbar's Number for why those limits matter.
- Keeping the data local avoids sending headcount, team structure and reporting lines to a third-party service.
- Use it for planning sessions: change a manager in the JSON, re-run the chart and see how the structure looks before you commit to a reorg.