Free Enhanced Excalidraw MCP

English (main) · Tiếng Việt · Benchmark methodology

A community fork of the official Excalidraw MCP App with local PNG previews, editable exports, layout diagnostics and reusable sketch libraries. It uses the real Excalidraw renderer and needs no Excalidraw Plus API key.

This is an unofficial project. Excalidraw and Excalidraw Plus are separate upstream products; their authors do not endorse this fork.

Text-to-drawing benchmark

One complex text brief, GPT-6.1 Sol with max reasoning, three fresh tool-calling contexts. Each model run invents its own scene using one provider's drawing tools and guides. No reference image, coordinates or shared scene plan is supplied.

Open the full-size results: Original free MCP · Enhanced free MCP · Plus.

The brief asks for a cutaway greenhouse with a swirling cloud, winding pipes, a water-cycle feedback route, plants, a gardener and mechanical details. The model may inspect and refine its own drawing under the same budget for every provider.

See the exact prompt, method and review criteria, visual observations, and results with tool traces. This is one trial per provider, not a statistically reliable quality ranking. The earlier fixed-plan rendering diagnostics test a different question.

Related MCP server: excalidraw-mcp

Compare the three options

Use the original free MCP for the simplest hosted MCP App setup. Use this fork for a local workflow with previews, exports, typography control and diagnostics. Use Plus when its hosted workspace, collections, presentation or other API functions fit your work. The text-to-drawing trial and rendering diagnostics exercise selected tasks; they are not an overall quality ranking.

Render and font diagnostics

These older tests intentionally replay the same scene through all three providers. They isolate renderer, typography and export behavior; they do not test independent scene generation.

• Local-first illustration

• Fonts and Vietnamese glyphs

• Prompts, source inputs and diagnostic method

Install from source

Requirements:

• Node.js 22 or newer.

• Google Chrome installed on the machine running the MCP server. Native previews and exports launch Chrome headlessly through Playwright.

• pnpm 10.11.0, or npx to run the pinned pnpm version below.

git clone https://github.com/IvanLyVodka11/excalidraw-free-enhanced-mcp.git
cd excalidraw-free-enhanced-mcp
npx --yes pnpm@10.11.0 install --frozen-lockfile
npx --yes pnpm@10.11.0 run build

This preview is distributed as source. It has not been published as an npm package; the build prepares the local server in dist/.

Add a stdio server to your MCP client's configuration. Replace the example path with the absolute path on your machine:

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

On Windows, forward slashes work in JSON paths, for example C:/projects/excalidraw-free-enhanced-mcp/dist/index.js. Restart the client after changing its MCP configuration.

Clients with MCP Apps support can display the interactive editor. Clients that support image tool results can receive PNG previews from the native tools.

Exports default to Downloads/Excalidraw. Set EXCALIDRAW_OUTPUT_DIR in the server's environment to choose another directory. No .env file or Plus API key is needed for this server.

What is added

• Native @excalidraw/excalidraw@0.18.0 rendering and editable elements.

• PNG, self-contained SVG with embedded fonts, and .excalidraw export.

• Fonts loaded before text measurement; per-label font and size, wrapping, centering and NFC normalization.

• Vietnamese additions to Excalifont and Virgil, preserving their handwriting outlines. These are community extensions, not official font updates.

• Grouped graph layouts in four directions, curved/straight/elbow connectors and real arrow bindings.

• Diagnostics for text overflow, overlaps, rotated geometry and arrows crossing unrelated content.

• A sketch kit plus community computer and office libraries, with .excalidrawlib import and reusable placement.

Layout, strokes, colors and fonts are design choices for each request. The comparison fixtures demonstrate specific tasks; they do not prescribe a style for all drawings.

Tools

The original five tools remain. Six tools are added:

Call read_me first. Use create_diagram for graph layouts, or create_view for free-form work. Review the returned image and diagnostics before exporting. Composite icons share groupIds; reserve customData.allowOverlap for deliberate overlays.

Verify and develop

npx --yes pnpm@10.11.0 run build
npx --yes pnpm@10.11.0 test

The tests exercise the real stdio server and browser renderer. They cover fonts, Vietnamese text, wrapping, graph directions/groups, arrow bindings, geometry diagnostics, library transformations and invalid inputs. Generated test files go to the ignored samples/ directory.

For interactive development:

npx --yes pnpm@10.11.0 run dev:ui

Optional font rebuilding uses Python, fontTools and Brotli; the generated WOFF2 files are already included for normal installation. See scripts/build-vietnamese-fonts.py.

Practical limits

• Google Chrome is a runtime dependency for local rendering.

• The interactive MCP App retains upstream public CDN module/CSS loading. Exported PNG/SVG files are self-contained; this does not make the entire interactive widget an offline application.

• The public Excalidraw website may not have this fork's Vietnamese font extensions when opening an editable file. Keep the PNG/SVG for the exact exported appearance.

• Diagnostics approximate geometry. Curves, freehand shapes and intended overlaps still require visual review.

• This fork does not reproduce Plus account, collaboration, storage or presentation services.

Credits and licenses

Based on excalidraw/excalidraw-mcp, starting at commit 157aa23. Built with Excalidraw, Rough.js, Dagre, the MCP SDK and Playwright.

Code: MIT. Fonts retain SIL Open Font License 1.1. Community libraries retain their MIT notice. See third-party notices.