Excalidraw MCP

Overview

Excalidraw MCP is the official MCP (Model Context Protocol) server from the Excalidraw team. It turns natural language prompts into streaming, hand-drawn style diagrams that appear live inside AI chat interfaces.

Built on the core Excalidraw engine, it supports smooth viewport camera control, interactive fullscreen editing, and server-side checkpoint storage — making it the fastest and most polished way for LLMs to create visual explanations.

Hosted remote instance available at https://mcp.excalidraw.com (no setup required for most clients).

Features

• Real-time streaming with smooth animations and camera control
• Interactive fullscreen editing inside the chat window
• Server-side checkpoint storage for persistent diagrams
• Cross-platform builds and dev Vite server
• Works with any MCP App–compatible client
• One-click install via .mcpb extension for Claude Desktop
• Deploy your own instance on Vercel in seconds
• MIT licensed and fully open source

Installation

Remote (Recommended)

Add https://mcp.excalidraw.com as a custom MCP connector in your client (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, Goose, etc.). Many apps now have built-in search for “Excalidraw”.

Local / Self-Hosted

1. Download the latest excalidraw-mcp-app.mcpb from Releases and double-click (Claude Desktop)
2. Or clone & build:
   Copy

   git clone https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw-mcp.git
   cd excalidraw-mcp
   pnpm install && pnpm run build
   

   Then add the stdio config to your client’s MCP settings.

Compatibility

• Claude Desktop / Claude.ai
• ChatGPT (MCP support)
• VS Code extensions
• Cursor, Goose, and other MCP hosts

Example Prompts

• “Draw a cute cat using Excalidraw”
• “Create an architecture diagram: user → API server → database”
• “Sketch a flowchart for our CI/CD pipeline”

Use Cases

• Instant system architecture & network diagrams
• Live flowcharts and mind maps from code or specs
• UI wireframing and product mockups
• Educational illustrations and documentation visuals
• Real-time collaborative diagramming with AI assistance

Excalidraw MCP bridges the gap between text-based AI and visual communication, making complex ideas instantly understandable.