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

Download the latest excalidraw-mcp-app.mcpb from Releases and double-click (Claude Desktop)

Or clone & build:

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.