PlantUML now can generate diagrams other than UML. In such cases the usual @startuml does not make sense anymore. So now we allow diagrams start with @startXYZ and finish with @endXYZ, where XYZ can change with the type of diagram and can be any characters (including spaces).
This means that plugin developers are encouraged to change their code to recognize @start instead of @startuml.
DOT diagrams are usually formatted as @startdot...@enddot.
DOT
You can use the DOT language to create directed graphs (see a Gallery of examples). (Note: PlantUML uses Graphviz/DOT for layout of UML diagrams anyway.) This allows you to use Graphviz/DOT with all tools that support PlantUML. You can use @startdot/@enddot or @startuml/@enduml to delineate the diagram, and then the very first line has to be: digraph XYZ {. Here are some examples:
@startuml
digraph foo {
node [style=rounded]
node1 [shape=box]
node2 [fillcolor=yellow, style="rounded,filled", shape=diamond]
node3 [shape=record, label="{ a | b | c }"]
node1 -> node2 -> node3
}
@enduml