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+# Programmatically create SVG elements
+
+This is simple, but it tripped me up for a bit. TL;DR you can't do this:
+
+```js
+const svg = document.createElement("svg");
+const line = document.createElement("line");
+svg.append(line);
+```
+
+I mean, you can, but it won't work. These will both throw exceptions:
+
+```js
+console.assert(svg instanceof SVGSVGElement, "%o is an SVG element", svg);
+console.assert(line instanceof SVGLineElement, "%o is an SVG element", svg);
+```
+
+What you need instead is [`document.createElementNS`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/createElementNS):
+
+```js
+const svg = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "svg");
+const line = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "line");
+svg.append(line);
+```