Provides tools for reading and drawing on Excalidraw boards: listing and reading boards, creating boards, adding shapes, labels and arrows that attach to shapes, updating or deleting elements, searching the shape library for icons, and moving or renaming boards, with changes appearing live on an open board.
Click on "Deploy Server".
Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state.
In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@excalidraw Draw our checkout flow on a new board called Architecture/Checkout"
That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed.
Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.
Self-hosted Excalidraw with boards in folders, and an MCP server so your AI agent can draw on them.
The Excalidraw editor you know, plus the two things it does not do on its own:
Boards. As many boards as you like, in nested folders, saved on your server as plain .excalidraw files. Nothing lives in browser storage, and there is nothing to export.
MCP. An endpoint that lets Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or any other MCP client read and draw on your boards. A board you have open updates live while the agent draws.
git clone https://github.com/yashagw/excalidraw-boards.git
cd excalidraw-boards
docker compose up -dThe first start builds the image, which takes a minute or two. Then open http://localhost:3779 and start drawing. Boards are saved in ./data/boards.
There is no login. Anyone who can reach the port can read and edit every board. Keep it on your machine or a private network (Tailscale, WireGuard, a VPN). Seeself-hosting.
Node.js 22 or newer:
npm install
npm run build
npm start # http://localhost:3779, boards in ./dataRelated MCP server: Excalidraw MCP Server
Boards sidebar (top right): create boards and folders, double-click to rename, drag onto a folder to move, search by name. Deleted boards go to data/trash/, not into the void.
Autosave half a second after you stop drawing. Every board has its own URL, like /b/Work/Architecture.
Plain files. data/boards/Work/Architecture.excalidraw is exactly what Excalidraw's "Save to disk" writes: open it on excalidraw.com, keep it in git, back it up with rsync.
Safe to share. Two tabs, or you and an agent, can edit the same board: changes merge per element. A save can never drop elements, and earlier versions are kept in data/history/.
Your shape library is stored on the server too, so it follows you to every device.
More in docs/boards.md.
Add the MCP server to your client. For Claude Code:
claude mcp add --transport http excalidraw http://localhost:3779/mcpFor Cursor, VS Code and others, see docs/mcp.md. Then ask:
Draw our checkout flow on a new board "Architecture/Checkout flow".
Tools | What they do |
| See which boards exist and what is on one |
| Draw: shapes with labels, arrows that attach to shapes |
| Move, restyle, relabel or remove elements |
| Find icons in your library (AWS, system design, …) to place by name |
| Rename or move a board; the format guide agents read first |
Agents send ordinary Excalidraw elements with two shortcuts: a label on any shape, and arrows that name the shapes they connect. The server routes and binds them, using Excalidraw's own converter:
[
{ "type": "rectangle", "id": "api", "x": 0, "y": 0, "width": 180, "height": 80, "label": "Orders API" },
{ "type": "ellipse", "id": "db", "x": 300, "y": 0, "width": 160, "height": 80, "label": "Postgres" },
{ "type": "arrow", "start": { "id": "api" }, "end": { "id": "db" }, "label": "insert" }
]More in docs/mcp.md.
Boards: folders, autosave, merging, history, trash and the library
MCP: connecting clients, the tools, the element format, library icons
Self-hosting: Docker, reverse proxies, security, backups, configuration
Development: how the code is laid out, running it locally, tests
Issues and pull requests are welcome; see CONTRIBUTING.md. Please report security problems privately (SECURITY.md).
Built on Excalidraw: the editor is the official @excalidraw/excalidraw package, not a fork. The drawing guide agents read is adapted from the official excalidraw-mcp. Both are MIT licensed, and so is this project (LICENSE).
This server cannot be deployed
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