Since GitLab 10.3. you can use Mermaid Show archive.org snapshot in GitLab comments: Gitlab Doc Show archive.org snapshot .
With Mermaid you can create diagrams based on text / code.

Sometimes a picture says more than thousand words and can help you express your thoughts more clearly.

Some Examples from the Mermaid documentation:

Flowcharts

graph TD;
    A-->B;
    A-->C;
    B-->D;
    C-->D;

Class diagrams

classDiagram
Class01 <|-- AveryLongClass : Cool
Class03 *-- Class04
Class05 o-- Class06
Class07 .. Class08
Class09 --> C2 : Where am i?
Class09 --* C3
Class09 --|> Class07
Class07 : equals()
Class07 : Object[] elementData
Class01 : size()
Class01 : int chimp
Class01 : int gorilla
Class08 <--> C2: Cool label