Excalidraw MCP App Server

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

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.

Remote (recommended)

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:

• "Draw a cute cat using excalidraw"
• "Draw an architecture diagram showing a user connecting to an API server which talks to a database"

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.

• Getting started for humans: documentation
• Getting started for AIs: skill

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

# 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