[1] Earlier versions carried the name GLEE (Graph Layout Execution Engine).
MSAGL performs layout based on "principles of the Sugiyama scheme;[3] it produces so called layered, or hierarchical, layouts" (according to the MSAGL home page).
A modified Coffman–Graham scheduling algorithm is then used to find a layout that would fit in a given space.
At some time, it did not support a wide range of different layout algorithms, unlike, for instance, GraphViz or GUESS.
[4] MSAGL is distributed under MIT License as open source at GitHub.