Excalidraw MCP Server, CLI & Agent Skill

mcp-excalidraw-server gives AI agents a live Excalidraw canvas they can draw on, look at, refine, and save into your repo. Your agent creates architecture diagrams and flowcharts programmatically, sees its own work via screenshots, fixes layout problems, and exports .excalidraw files you can commit next to your code.

One canvas, three ways to drive it:

• Agent Skill + CLI — recommended for coding agents (Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, OpenCode): npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server <command>. Zero config, auto-starts the canvas, composable JSON in/out.
• MCP Server — 26 tools over stdio for any Model Context Protocol client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex CLI, Antigravity, ...).
• REST API — plain HTTP for LangChain and custom frameworks.

Core drawing runs fully local (Node ≥ 18, MIT licensed) — no API keys. Mermaid conversion runs in the local browser canvas; share is optional and uploads an encrypted scene to excalidraw.com.

Demo

AI agent creates a complete architecture diagram from a single prompt (4x speed). Watch full video on YouTube

Table of Contents

• Demo
• What It Is
• How We Differ from the Official Excalidraw MCP
• What's New
• Installation
• Agent Skill
• CLI Reference
• Configure MCP Clients
  • Claude Desktop
  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • Codex CLI
  • OpenCode
  • Antigravity (Google)
• MCP Tools (26 Total)
• Quick Start (From Source / Docker)
• Testing
• FAQ
• Troubleshooting
• Known Issues / TODO
• Development
• License

What It Is

Ask your agent to "draw the architecture of this service" and it produces a real, editable Excalidraw diagram — not a one-shot image. Because the agent can query, screenshot, and update individual elements, it iterates until labels fit, nothing overlaps, and arrows route cleanly; then it exports the result as a .excalidraw file that lives in your repo and gets updated when the code changes.

Under the hood there are two processes, one product:

• Canvas server: Excalidraw web UI + REST API + WebSocket real-time sync (default http://127.0.0.1:3000)
• A thin front-end of your choice: the CLI, the MCP stdio server, or raw HTTP — all drive the same canvas

Since v1.1 the canvas server starts itself: canvas-driving CLI commands (and the MCP server on launch) auto-spawn it if nothing is listening. status only inspects the current server state. Set EXCALIDRAW_NO_AUTOSTART=1 to opt out.

How We Differ from the Official Excalidraw MCP

Excalidraw has an official MCP — a chat widget that streams a diagram inline from a single prompt (the model gets two tools: a format reference and create_view). It's great for "draw me a cat" in Claude or ChatGPT. We solve a different problem: giving coding agents a persistent canvas workbench.

	Official Excalidraw MCP	This Project
Approach	Prompt in, diagram out (one-shot widget)	Programmatic element-level control (CLI + 26 MCP tools)
State	Checkpoints inside the chat widget	Persistent live canvas with real-time sync
Element CRUD	Declarative re-send with delete markers	Full create / read / update / delete per element
AI sees the canvas	No	describe (structured text) + screenshot (image)
Iterative refinement	Regenerate from checkpoint	Draw → look → adjust → look again, element by element
Layout tools	No	align, distribute, group / ungroup, lock, duplicate
File I/O	No model-facing export	.excalidraw export/import — diagrams as repo artifacts
Snapshot & rollback	Widget-side checkpoints	Named server-side snapshots
Mermaid conversion	No	mermaid / create_from_mermaid
Shareable URLs	Widget-only	share / export_to_excalidraw_url
Viewport control	Camera animations	set_viewport (zoom-to-fit all or selected elements, center on one element, manual zoom)
Works without MCP	No	Yes — CLI + agent skill + REST API
Multi-agent	Single chat	Multiple agents on the same canvas concurrently

TL;DR — The official MCP shows Excalidraw diagrams in your chat. This project gives your coding agent a full Excalidraw workbench: a canvas it can draw on, inspect, refine, and commit to your repo.

What's New

Current package version: 1.1.0. The current release line is v1.1 — CLI-First.

v1.1 — CLI-First

• First-class CLI: every capability is now a composable command — npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server add|query|describe|screenshot|export|import|mermaid|snapshot|arrange|share|... — JSON on stdout, meaningful exit codes. Also installed as the excalidraw-canvas alias.
• Zero-setup: canvas-driving CLI commands and the MCP server auto-start the canvas server if it isn't running (closes #66). Opt out with EXCALIDRAW_NO_AUTOSTART=1.
• apply: multi-op patches ({"create":[...],"update":[{"id":"a","set":{...}}],"delete":[...]}) in a single invocation.
• install-skill: npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill --dir <skills-root> copies the portable agent skill into the directory your agent chooses (project or global), cleanly replacing older versions.
• Skill is now CLI-first and no longer needs a cloned repo or configured MCP server to work.
• Typed queries: query --filter locked=true --filter label.text=API — booleans, numbers, and nested keys work.
• Internals: shared core library (src/core/) behind both the CLI and MCP server; canvas groupIds are the source of truth for grouping (ungroup now works across restarts); node-fetch dropped; MCP version metadata derived from package.json; canvas server writes a pidfile and shuts down cleanly.

Installation

The only prerequisite is Node.js ≥ 18.

Easiest: let your agent install it

Copy this into your coding agent — it installs the portable skill into the project/global skill directory that agent already knows how to use, then verifies it by drawing a test diagram:

Install the Excalidraw canvas toolkit so you can draw diagrams for me:

1. Choose the right skill directory for this agent and scope (project or global).
2. Run: npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill --dir <that-skills-directory>
3. Read the installed excalidraw-skill/SKILL.md so you know the drawing workflow.
4. Start the canvas with: npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server start
   then tell me to open http://127.0.0.1:3000 in my browser (screenshots need an open tab).
5. Draw a small test diagram — two labeled boxes connected by an arrow — take a
   screenshot, and show me the result to confirm everything works.

Manual install

You are...	Install with	Then
Modern coding agent	npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill --dir <skills-root>	Let the agent choose project/global scope and its skill root
Claude Code shortcut	npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill	Installs to ~/.claude/skills for backward compatibility
Codex shortcut	npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill --target codex	Installs to ~/.codex/skills for backward compatibility
MCP client user (Claude Desktop, Cursor, ...)	Add the npx config below	See Configure MCP Clients
CLI user / scripting	Nothing — npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server <command>	See CLI Reference
Contributor / from source	git clone + npm ci + npm run build	See Quick Start (From Source / Docker)

There is no separate server setup: any drawing command auto-starts the local canvas server on http://127.0.0.1:3000.

60-Second Quick Start (CLI)

No clone, no config:

# start the canvas (drawing commands auto-start it too) and open it
npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server start
open http://127.0.0.1:3000   # browser tab enables screenshots & mermaid

# draw something
echo '[
  {"id":"api","type":"rectangle","x":100,"y":100,"width":160,"height":80,"text":"API Server","backgroundColor":"#a5d8ff"},
  {"id":"db","type":"rectangle","x":400,"y":100,"width":160,"height":80,"text":"Database","backgroundColor":"#99e9f2"},
  {"type":"arrow","x":0,"y":0,"startElementId":"api","endElementId":"db","text":"SQL"}
]' | npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server add

# let your agent see its work
npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server describe
npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server screenshot --out diagram.png

# diagrams as repo artifacts
mkdir -p docs
npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server export --out docs/architecture.excalidraw

# or straight into an Obsidian vault (.md extension → Obsidian Excalidraw plugin format)
npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server export --out ~/vault/diagrams/architecture.excalidraw.md

Give your agent the full playbook:

npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill --dir <skills-root>
npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill --print-source  # inspect bundled source path

Security note: The canvas server binds 127.0.0.1 only by default. If you expose it on a network interface (HOST=0.0.0.0), put network-level access controls in front — the API has no built-in authentication.

Agent Skill

The skill at skills/excalidraw-skill/ teaches agents the full workflow — layout planning, the screenshot-verify-fix quality loop, arrow routing, anti-patterns, snapshots, and file I/O. It works through the CLI (preferred, zero setup), MCP tools (if configured), or raw REST — in that order.

npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill --dir <skills-root>

The command copies the bundled excalidraw-skill/ directory into <skills-root>/excalidraw-skill. Let your agent choose whether that root should be project-level or global. Re-running install-skill upgrades in place — it replaces the target directory, so files removed upstream don't linger.

Where the skill shines:

• Diagrams as code artifacts: export .excalidraw files into the repo, commit them, re-import + refine when the architecture changes.
• Obsidian vaults: export with a .excalidraw.md extension and the file opens natively in the Obsidian Excalidraw plugin — no compatibility-mode warning, block references and sync work; import reads both plain and lz-string-compressed vault files back.
• Self-verifying diagrams: the agent screenshots its own work and fixes truncation/overlap before calling it done.
• No-MCP environments: CI jobs, plain shells, and frameworks get the same capabilities through the CLI.

CLI Reference

npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server <command> or (after npm i -g mcp-excalidraw-server) excalidraw-canvas <command>.

Conventions: JSON results on stdout — except describe (plain text by design) and raw-content output when --out is omitted (export prints the scene JSON, screenshot --format svg prints SVG). Diagnostics on stderr. Exit codes: 0 ok, 1 error, 2 usage, 3 canvas unreachable, 4 browser tab required. Canvas URL from EXPRESS_SERVER_URL or --url. Canvas-driving commands auto-start the server; status only reports current state. Explicit start overrides the EXCALIDRAW_NO_AUTOSTART=1 opt-out (it's user intent, not auto-start).

Command	Description
start / stop / status	Manage the canvas server (detached; stop identity-checks the live server via /health before signaling)
add [file|-]	Batch-create elements from a JSON array (file or stdin); --one '{...}' for a single element
apply [file|-]	One-call multi-op patch: {"create":[...],"update":[{"id":"a","set":{...}}],"delete":["id"]}
get <id> / delete <id...>	Read / remove elements
update <id> --set '{...}'	Update an element
query	--type, --bbox x0,y0,x1,y1, --filter k=v (typed, nested keys), --filter-json '{...}'
describe	AI-readable scene summary (plain text)
screenshot	--out f.png, --format png|svg, --no-background (browser tab required)
export [--out f.excalidraw] [--format json|obsidian] / import [file|-] [--replace]	Scene file I/O — a .md out path writes Obsidian's .excalidraw.md format; import reads it back
mermaid [file|-]	Mermaid → canvas (browser tab required)
snapshot save|list|restore <name>	Named snapshots
arrange align|distribute|group|ungroup|lock|unlock|duplicate	Layout ops (--ids a,b,c, --to left|horizontal|...)
share	Encrypted upload → shareable excalidraw.com URL
clear --yes	Wipe the canvas
install-skill [--dir <skills-root>]	Install the portable agent skill

Labels and arrow bindings use the agent-friendly format everywhere in the CLI: "text" on any shape, "startElementId"/"endElementId" on arrows — normalization is automatic.

Configure MCP Clients

The MCP server runs over stdio. Since v1.1 the simplest config is npx — no clone, no absolute paths, and the canvas auto-starts:

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
EXPRESS_SERVER_URL	URL of the canvas server	http://127.0.0.1:3000
ENABLE_CANVAS_SYNC	Enable real-time canvas sync	true
EXCALIDRAW_NO_AUTOSTART	Set 1 to disable canvas auto-start	(unset)
EXCALIDRAW_EXPORT_DIR	Base directory MCP file exports may write to	current working dir
PORT / HOST	Canvas server bind address	3000 / 127.0.0.1

---

Claude Desktop

Config location:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

npx (recommended)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "excalidraw": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-excalidraw-server"]
    }
  }
}

Local (node)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "excalidraw": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp_excalidraw/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "EXPRESS_SERVER_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:3000",
        "ENABLE_CANVAS_SYNC": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Docker

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "excalidraw": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "EXPRESS_SERVER_URL=http://host.docker.internal:3000",
        "-e", "ENABLE_CANVAS_SYNC=true",
        "ghcr.io/yctimlin/mcp_excalidraw:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

---

Claude Code

npx (recommended)

claude mcp add excalidraw --scope user -- npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server

Tip: for coding agents, the skill + CLI often beats MCP config entirely — let the agent pick its skill root, then run npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill --dir <skills-root>.

Local (node) - User-level (available across all projects):

claude mcp add excalidraw --scope user \
  -e EXPRESS_SERVER_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3000 \
  -e ENABLE_CANVAS_SYNC=true \
  -- node /absolute/path/to/mcp_excalidraw/dist/index.js

Docker

claude mcp add excalidraw --scope user \
  -- docker run -i --rm \
  -e EXPRESS_SERVER_URL=http://host.docker.internal:3000 \
  -e ENABLE_CANVAS_SYNC=true \
  ghcr.io/yctimlin/mcp_excalidraw:latest

Manage servers:

claude mcp list              # List configured servers
claude mcp remove excalidraw # Remove a server

---

Cursor

Config location: .cursor/mcp.json in your project root (or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for global config)

npx (recommended)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "excalidraw": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-excalidraw-server"]
    }
  }
}

Docker

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "excalidraw": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "EXPRESS_SERVER_URL=http://host.docker.internal:3000",
        "-e", "ENABLE_CANVAS_SYNC=true",
        "ghcr.io/yctimlin/mcp_excalidraw:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

---

Codex CLI

npx (recommended)

codex mcp add excalidraw -- npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server

Docker

codex mcp add excalidraw \
  -- docker run -i --rm \
  -e EXPRESS_SERVER_URL=http://host.docker.internal:3000 \
  -e ENABLE_CANVAS_SYNC=true \
  ghcr.io/yctimlin/mcp_excalidraw:latest

Manage servers:

codex mcp list              # List configured servers
codex mcp remove excalidraw # Remove a server

---

OpenCode

Config location: ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json or project-level opencode.json

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "excalidraw": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["npx", "-y", "mcp-excalidraw-server"],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

---

Antigravity (Google)

Config location: ~/.gemini/antigravity/mcp_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "excalidraw": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-excalidraw-server"]
    }
  }
}

---

Notes

• Docker networking: Use host.docker.internal to reach the canvas server running on your host machine. On Linux, you may need --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway or use 172.17.0.1. The Docker MCP image sets EXCALIDRAW_NO_AUTOSTART=1 (it has no frontend build) — run the canvas as its own container.
• In-memory storage: The canvas server stores elements in memory. Restarting the server clears all elements — use export / snapshot for persistence.

MCP Tools (26 Total)

Category	Tools
Element CRUD	create_element, get_element, update_element, delete_element, query_elements, batch_create_elements, duplicate_elements
Layout	align_elements, distribute_elements, group_elements, ungroup_elements, lock_elements, unlock_elements
Scene Awareness	describe_scene, get_canvas_screenshot
File I/O	export_scene, import_scene, export_to_image, export_to_excalidraw_url, create_from_mermaid
State Management	clear_canvas, snapshot_scene, restore_snapshot
Viewport	set_viewport
Design Guide	read_diagram_guide
Resources	get_resource

Full schemas are discoverable via tools/list or in skills/excalidraw-skill/references/cheatsheet.md.

Viewport group focus can tune framing with viewportZoomFactor:

{
  "scrollToElementIds": ["id1", "id2", "id3"],
  "viewportZoomFactor": 0.85
}

scrollToElementIds zooms to fit every requested element, while scrollToElementId centers one element without changing the current zoom. Specify only one viewport mode per request. viewportZoomFactor accepts values greater than 0 and at most 1.

Quick Start (From Source / Docker)

From source (Node >= 18):

npm ci
npm run build
PORT=3000 npm run canvas          # canvas server (terminal 1)
node dist/index.js                # MCP server over stdio (terminal 2, usually launched by your MCP client)
node dist/bin.js status           # or drive the CLI straight from the build

Docker canvas server:

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 --name mcp-excalidraw-canvas ghcr.io/yctimlin/mcp_excalidraw-canvas:latest

MCP server image: ghcr.io/yctimlin/mcp_excalidraw:latest (stdio; point EXPRESS_SERVER_URL at the canvas container).

Testing

CLI Smoke Test

npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server start
npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server status
npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server add --one '{"type":"rectangle","x":100,"y":100,"width":300,"height":200}'
npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server describe

Canvas Smoke Test (HTTP)

curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/health

Local Bind Regression Test

npm run test:bind

MCP Smoke Test (MCP Inspector)

List tools:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector --cli \
  -e EXPRESS_SERVER_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3000 \
  -e ENABLE_CANVAS_SYNC=true -- \
  node dist/index.js --method tools/list

Create a rectangle:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector --cli \
  -e EXPRESS_SERVER_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3000 \
  -e ENABLE_CANVAS_SYNC=true -- \
  node dist/index.js --method tools/call --tool-name create_element \
  --tool-arg type=rectangle --tool-arg x=100 --tool-arg y=100 \
  --tool-arg width=300 --tool-arg height=200

Frontend Screenshots (agent-browser)

If you use agent-browser for UI checks:

agent-browser install
agent-browser open http://127.0.0.1:3000
agent-browser wait --load networkidle
agent-browser screenshot /tmp/canvas.png

FAQ

How is this different from the official Excalidraw MCP?

The official Excalidraw MCP is a chat widget: you prompt, it streams a diagram into the conversation (the model gets two tools). This project is a workbench for coding agents: a persistent local canvas with element-level create/read/update/delete, layout tools, screenshots the model can see, snapshots, and .excalidraw file I/O — driveable via CLI, MCP, or REST. See the full comparison table.

Which AI tools does it work with?

Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex CLI, OpenCode, and Google Antigravity are documented below — but any agent that can run shell commands can use the CLI, any MCP client can use the MCP server, and anything else (LangChain, custom apps) can use the REST API.

Can the AI actually see the diagram it drew?

Yes — that's the core feature. describe returns a structured text summary (ids, positions, labels, connections) and screenshot returns a rendered PNG. Agents use both to catch truncated labels, overlaps, and bad arrow routing, then fix them element by element.

Do I need a browser open?

Only for rendering-dependent features: screenshots, PNG/SVG export, viewport control, and Mermaid conversion (they render in the Excalidraw frontend). Creating, querying, updating elements and exporting .excalidraw JSON all work headless. The CLI exits with code 4 and tells you when a browser tab is needed.

Are my diagrams persistent?

The canvas is in-memory by design (restart = blank canvas). Persist by exporting .excalidraw files into your repo (export --out docs/architecture.excalidraw) or with named snapshots while working. Re-import a file to keep refining it later.

Are excalidraw.com share links private?

share encrypts the scene locally with AES-GCM before uploading; the decryption key is only in the URL fragment, which excalidraw.com's server never sees. Anyone you give the full link to can view the diagram.

Does it need an API key or cloud service?

No API key is required. Core drawing runs locally under MIT license. The only outbound call is the optional share upload to excalidraw.com.

Can I use it without configuring MCP?

Yes — that's the recommended path for coding agents: npx -y mcp-excalidraw-server install-skill --dir <skills-root> and the agent drives everything through the CLI. MCP configuration is only needed for chat clients like Claude Desktop.

Troubleshooting

• CLI exit code 3 (canvas unreachable): the server is not running for an inspecting command such as status, auto-start is disabled (EXCALIDRAW_NO_AUTOSTART=1), or EXPRESS_SERVER_URL points at a non-loopback host. Run start explicitly or fix the env.
• CLI exit code 4 (browser required): screenshots, image export, viewport, and mermaid conversion render in the frontend — open http://127.0.0.1:3000 in a browser and retry.
• Canvas not updating: confirm EXPRESS_SERVER_URL points at the running canvas server (status shows the URL in use).
• Updates/deletes fail after batch creation: ensure you are on a build that includes the batch id preservation fix (merged via PR #34).

Known Issues / TODO

• Persistent storage: Elements are stored in-memory — restarting the server clears everything. Use export / snapshots as a workaround.
• Image export requires a browser: screenshots and image export rely on the frontend doing the actual rendering. A headless rendering mode is planned.

Contributions welcome!

Development

npm run type-check
npm run build
npm run cli -- status      # run the CLI from the local build
npm run sync:skills        # after editing skills/excalidraw-skill, sync the repo-local agent copy

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub issues. If this project helps you, a ⭐ helps others find it.

License

MIT © yctimlin — not affiliated with the Excalidraw team. Excalidraw is its own MIT-licensed project; this toolkit builds on it with love.

Links: npm package · GitHub · Issues · Demo video