AI Diagram Maker MCP Server

MCP server for AI Diagram Maker — generate beautiful software engineering diagrams directly inside Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any MCP-compatible AI agent.

• ai-diagram-maker-mcp 🌐 ☁️ - Generate professional software diagrams from plain English descriptions.

Features

• 5 tools covering every input type: natural language text, code, ASCII diagram, images, and Mermaid
• Inline rendering — diagrams appear directly in the chat using MCP Apps UI, no downloads
• Diagram URL in responses — open it in your browser to view and edit the diagram
• 5 diagram types: flowchart, sequence, ERD, system architecture, UML
• Supports both stdio (local) and HTTP/Streamable HTTP (remote) transports

Contents

• Prerequisites
• Hosted MCP server
• Installation
• MCP client configuration
• Environment variables
• Tools
• Trigger keywords
• Local developer setup
• License

Prerequisites

1. Node.js 18+
2. An AI Diagram Maker account and API key

Hosted MCP server

The public MCP endpoint is https://mcp.aidiagrammaker.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP). Nothing to install for this option.

Authentication (HTTP)

For remote HTTP clients, send your API key on every request — not via environment variables:

• X-ADM-API-Key: <your_api_key> (recommended), or
• Authorization: Bearer <your_api_key>

Use the API key from your AI Diagram Maker account (see Prerequisites).

Remote server JSON example

Merge this into your client’s MCP config (replace the API key placeholder):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-diagram-maker": {
      "url": "https://mcp.aidiagrammaker.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-ADM-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Installation

Option A — hosted server (recommended)

Use the remote server JSON example above and wire it into your client using MCP client configuration. No global install.

Option B — run locally with npx

Nothing to install permanently — npx runs the package on demand. The package name is ai-diagram-maker-mcp; append @latest if you want every invocation to resolve the newest release (recommended for one-off runs and claude mcp add).

ADM_API_KEY=your_api_key npx ai-diagram-maker-mcp@latest

MCP client configuration

Cursor

Remote (recommended)

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json or Settings → MCP using the remote server JSON example. No environment variables are required for this setup.

Local (stdio)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-diagram-maker": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ai-diagram-maker-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "ADM_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Optional: add "ADM_DEBUG": "1" to env for debug logging — see Environment variables.

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-diagram-maker": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ai-diagram-maker-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "ADM_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

macOS

claude mcp add ai-diagram-maker -t stdio -e ADM_API_KEY=<api_key> -- npx -y ai-diagram-maker-mcp@latest

Windows

claude mcp add ai-diagram-maker \
  --command "npx" \
  --args "-y,ai-diagram-maker-mcp@latest" \
  --env ADM_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

HTTP transport (local or self-hosted)

To run an HTTP server yourself (same header-based auth as Authentication (HTTP)):

npx ai-diagram-maker-mcp@latest --transport http

The server listens on $PORT or 3001. Point clients at /mcp and send the API key with each request using the headers above.

Environment variables

| Variable | Required | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | ADM_API_KEY | Yes (stdio only) | — | Your AI Diagram Maker API key (stdio transport only; remote HTTP clients use headers — see Authentication (HTTP)) | | ADM_BASE_URL | No | https://app.aidiagrammaker.com | Override for local/staging API; also used as the base for diagram URLs in tool responses | | ADM_DEBUG | No | — | Set to 1, true, or yes to log request parameters from the AI agent and the payload sent to the AI Diagram Maker API. Logs go to stderr. In Cursor, open Output, choose the MCP or ai-diagram-maker channel to read the server logs. |

Tools

generate_diagram_from_text

Generate a diagram from a natural language description.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | content | string | Yes | Natural language description of the diagram | | diagramType | enum | No | flowchart, sequence, erd, system_architecture, uml | | prompt | string | No | Additional styling/layout instruction |

Example prompts:

• "Create a microservices architecture with API gateway, auth service, user service, and PostgreSQL database"
• "Draw a sequence diagram for user login flow with JWT token generation"
• "adm show the CI/CD pipeline for a Next.js app deployed to Vercel"

generate_diagram_from_json

Convert a JSON structure into a diagram (great for API responses, database schemas, config files).

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | content | string | Yes | JSON string to visualise | | prompt | string | No | How to interpret the JSON | | diagramType | enum | No | Preferred diagram type |

generate_diagram_from_ascii

Convert ASCII art into a polished diagram.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | content | string | Yes | Raw ASCII art diagram | | prompt | string | No | Rendering instructions | | diagramType | enum | No | Preferred diagram type |

generate_diagram_from_image

Convert a whiteboard photo, screenshot, or any image into a clean diagram.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | content | string | Yes | Public image URL or base64 data URI | | prompt | string | No | What to extract or how to render | | diagramType | enum | No | Preferred output diagram type |

generate_diagram_from_mermaid

Convert a Mermaid diagram definition to D2 and return a PNG image.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |---|---|---|---| | content | string | Yes | Mermaid diagram source (e.g. flowchart, sequenceDiagram, erDiagram) | | prompt | string | No | Optional layout or styling instruction | | diagramType | enum | No | Preferred diagram type for the converted output |

Trigger keywords

The AI agent will automatically select the right tool when you use phrases like:

• adm ...
• ai diagram maker ...
• create a diagram of ...
• show me a flowchart / sequence diagram / ERD / architecture ...
• visualise / draw / diagram ...

Local developer setup

Use these steps to clone the repo, build locally, and run the MCP server with Node.

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/erajasekar/ai-diagram-maker-mcp.git
cd ai-diagram-maker-mcp

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. (Optional) Regenerate API client

If you change the AI Diagram Maker OpenAPI spec or config, regenerate the client:

npm run generate

4. Build

npm run build

This compiles TypeScript and builds the MCP app UI into dist/. The server entrypoint is dist/index.js.

5. Run the local MCP server

stdio (default) — for use with Cursor, Claude Desktop, etc.:

ADM_API_KEY=your_api_key node dist/index.js

Or use the npm script:

ADM_API_KEY=your_api_key npm start

HTTP transport — for remote clients or testing (same headers as Authentication (HTTP)):

ADM_API_KEY=your_api_key node dist/index.js --transport http

Or:

ADM_API_KEY=your_api_key npm run start:http

The HTTP server listens on $PORT (default 3001).

6. Use the local server in Cursor

Point Cursor at your built server via Settings → MCP (or ~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-diagram-maker": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/ai-diagram-maker-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "ADM_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace /absolute/path/to/ai-diagram-maker-mcp with the actual path to your cloned repo. After changing the config, restart Cursor or reload the MCP servers.

For debug logging, add "ADM_DEBUG": "1" to env — see Environment variables.

License

MIT