We provide a way of incorporating primitive recursion in a graphical language for a symmetric monoidal category, such that diagrams can be converted into code and executed (we have a proof-of-concept eDSL in Haskell). This enables graphical languages (such as the ZX calculus) to express recursive algorithms as diagrams and perform proofs. We outline two different semantics for these recursive diagrams. The first involves translating diagrams into endofunctor algebras, which in turn allows for the use of paramorphisms to model primitive recursion. The second interprets diagrams as a composition of coends. Finally, we give an example by depicting the Quantum Fourier Transform.