diff --git a/modules/lang/plantuml/autoload.el b/modules/lang/plantuml/autoload.el
index 5ae3d4c6e..c42902891 100644
--- a/modules/lang/plantuml/autoload.el
+++ b/modules/lang/plantuml/autoload.el
@@ -1,10 +1,49 @@
 ;;; lang/plantuml/autoload.el -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-
 
 ;;;###autoload
-(defun +plantuml/install ()
-  "Install plantuml.jar."
-  (interactive)
-  (if (file-exists-p plantuml-jar-path)
-      (user-error "plantuml.jar already installed")
-    (url-copy-file "https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/plantuml/plantuml.jar"
-                   plantuml-jar-path)))
+(defun +plantuml-org-babel-execute:plantuml-a (body params)
+  "Execute a block of plantuml code with org-babel.
+This function is called by `org-babel-execute-src-block'."
+  (require 'plantuml-mode)
+  (let* ((body (replace-regexp-in-string
+                "^[[:blank:]\n]*\\(@start\\)"
+                "\\\\\\1"
+                body))
+         (out-file (or (cdr (assoc :file params))
+                       (concat doom-cache-dir
+                               "ob-plantuml/"
+                               (md5 str nil nil nil t)
+                               ".png")))
+         (in-file (org-babel-temp-file "plantuml-")))
+    (if (eq plantuml-default-exec-mode 'server)
+        (let* ((url-request-location ))
+          (with-current-buffer
+              (url-retrieve-synchronously (plantuml-server-encode-url body))
+            (goto-char (point-min))
+            ;; skip the HTTP headers
+            (while (not (looking-at "\n")) (forward-line))
+            (kill-region (point-min) (+ 1 (point)))
+            (write-file (org-babel-process-file-name out-file))))
+      (let* ((cmd (concat (cond ((eq plantuml-default-exec-mode 'executable)
+                                 (unless (executable-find plantuml-executable-path)
+                                   (error "Could not find plantuml at %s"
+                                          (executable-find plantuml-executable-path)))
+                                 (concat (shell-quote-argument (executable-find plantuml-executable-path))
+                                         " --headless "))
+                                ((not (file-exists-p org-plantuml-jar-path))
+                                 (error "Could not find plantuml.jar at %s" org-plantuml-jar-path))
+                                ((concat "java " (or (cdr (assoc :java params)) "") " -jar "
+                                         (shell-quote-argument (expand-file-name plantuml-executable-path)))))
+                          (concat (if (string= (file-name-extension out-file) "svg")
+                                      " -tsvg" "")
+                                  (if (string= (file-name-extension out-file) "eps")
+                                      " -teps" "")
+                                  " -p " (cdr (assoc :cmdline params)) " < "
+                                  (org-babel-process-file-name in-file)
+                                  " > "
+                                  (org-babel-process-file-name out-file)))))
+        (with-temp-file in-file
+          (insert (concat "@startuml\n" body "\n@enduml")))
+        (message "%s" cmd)
+        (org-babel-eval cmd "")
+        nil)))) ;; signal that output has already been written to file
diff --git a/modules/lang/plantuml/config.el b/modules/lang/plantuml/config.el
index 1daf6eba3..4c7d1e749 100644
--- a/modules/lang/plantuml/config.el
+++ b/modules/lang/plantuml/config.el
@@ -1,12 +1,17 @@
 ;;; lang/plantuml/config.el -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-
 
 (use-package! plantuml-mode
-  :defer t
+  :commands plantuml-download-jar
   :init
   (setq plantuml-jar-path (concat doom-etc-dir "plantuml.jar")
         org-plantuml-jar-path plantuml-jar-path)
   :config
-  (set-popup-rule! "^\\*PLANTUML" :size 0.4 :select nil :ttl 0))
+  (set-popup-rule! "^\\*PLANTUML" :size 0.4 :select nil :ttl 0)
+
+  (setq plantuml-default-exec-mode
+        (cond ((executable-find "plantuml") 'executable)
+              ((file-exists-p plantuml-jar-path) 'jar)
+              (plantuml-default-exec-mode))))
 
 
 (use-package! flycheck-plantuml
@@ -16,19 +21,9 @@
 
 
 (after! ob-plantuml
-  (defadvice! +plantuml--fix-atstart-in-org-src-blocks-a (args)
-    "Fix error when executing plantuml src blocks in org-mode for code that
-begins with '@'. This character needs to be escaped with a backslash or comma
-for the block to execute correctly, so we do it automatically."
-    :filter-args #'org-babel-execute:plantuml
-    (cl-destructuring-bind (body params) args
-      (let* ((origin-body body)
-             (fix-body
-              (replace-regexp-in-string
-               "^[[:blank:]\n]*\\(@start\\)"
-               "\\\\\\1"
-               origin-body)))
-        (list fix-body params))))
-
+  ;; HACK We force ob-plantuml to use `plantuml-mode''s building mechanism,
+  ;; which is more sophisticated.
+  (advice-add #'org-babel-execute:plantuml
+              :override #'+plantuml-org-babel-execute:plantuml-a)
   (add-to-list 'org-babel-default-header-args:plantuml
                '(:cmdline . "-charset utf-8")))