excalidraw-mcp README

The project's README from github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw-mcp. As one markdown file: README.md.

Excalidraw MCP App Server

MCP server that streams hand-drawn Excalidraw diagrams with smooth viewport camera control and interactive fullscreen editing.

Demo

Install

Works with any client that supports MCP Apps — Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code, Goose, and others. If something doesn't work, please open an issue.

https://mcp.excalidraw.com

For apps that don't yet have an official integration, you can add a custom MCP / connector (naming can vary between apps).

Local

Option A: Download Extension

  1. Download excalidraw-mcp-app.mcpb from Releases
  2. Double-click to install in Claude Desktop

Option B: Build from Source

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

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "excalidraw": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/excalidraw-mcp-app/dist/index.js", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop.

Usage

Example prompts:

What are MCP Apps and how can I build one?

Text responses can only go so far. Sometimes users need to interact with data, not just read about it. MCP Apps is an official Model Context Protocol extension that lets servers return interactive HTML interfaces (data visualizations, forms, dashboards) that render directly in the chat.

Contributing

PRs welcome! See Local above for build instructions.

Deploy your own instance

You can deploy your own copy to Vercel in a few clicks:

  1. Fork this repo
  2. Go to vercel.com/new and import your fork
  3. No environment variables needed — just deploy
  4. Your server will be at https://your-project.vercel.app/mcp

Release checklist

For maintainers 
# 1. Bump version in manifest.json and package.json
# 2. Build and pack
pnpm run build && mcpb pack .

# 3. Create GitHub release
gh release create v0.3.0 excalidraw-mcp-app.mcpb --title "v0.3.0" --notes "What changed"

# 4. Deploy to Vercel
vercel --prod

Credits

Built with Excalidraw — a virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams.

License

MIT

excalidraw-mcp (excalidraw/excalidraw-mcp)

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5.5K ·GitHub
Excalidraw-mcp
What is this?It's an MCP server that lets an AI assistant draw interactive, hand-drawn style Excalidraw diagrams right inside the chat, with smooth camera panning/zooming and fullscreen editing.
Is this just a text-based MCP tool or something more visual?It's an MCP App — a newer MCP extension where the server returns an interactive HTML interface that renders directly inside the chat, instead of plain text.
How do I get it running?The recommended path is adding the remote server to any client that supports MCP Apps; for a local setup you can download the excalidraw-mcp-app.mcpb extension from Releases and double-click to install in Claude Desktop, or build it from source.
Which clients can actually use this?Any client that supports the MCP Apps extension — the README lists Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code, and Goose as examples.
What's the catch if my client isn't officially supported yet?For apps without an official integration you have to add it manually as a custom MCP connector, and the option's name varies from app to app, so it's not always a one-click setup.
What is Excalidraw itself?Excalidraw is a virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn-like diagrams, and this MCP server is built on top of it to expose that drawing surface to AI assistants.
Can I host my own copy instead of using a shared instance?Yes — you can fork the repo and deploy your own instance to Vercel in a few clicks with no environment variables needed.
What kind of prompts can I give it?Example prompts include 'Draw a cute cat using excalidraw' or 'Draw an architecture diagram showing a user connecting to an API server which talks to a database'.
What's the tech stack under the hood?It's a TypeScript/Node project using Express, React, Vite and the official MCP SDK, with optional Redis (via Upstash) for state.
What are similar projects?rankme.fast, next-ai-draw-io, growth-engineer, evenfire, boardui, smart-excalidraw-next, NextChat, commerce-agents
Which topics is it in?diagrams, vercel, express, vite, data-visualization, redis, model-context-protocol, anthropic, mcp-server, claude, ai-agent, react
Creator
excalidraw
Size
29.9 MB
Stars
5.5K
Updated
CommitMar 24Releasev0.3.2Feb 09
Age
8mo
Commits · 90 Days