Excalidraw MCP server

The Excalidraw MCP Server provides Model Context Protocol functionality for operating on Excalidraw drawings. It allows you to create, manage, and export drawings through a simple API server with file-based storage.

Installation

To install the Excalidraw MCP server, follow these steps:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/excalidraw-mcp.git
cd excalidraw-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

Usage

Starting the Server

Once installed, you can start the server with:

npm start

The server will begin running and listening for API requests.

API Endpoints

The server provides several tools divided into two main categories:

Drawing Management

• create_drawing: Create a new Excalidraw drawing
• get_drawing: Retrieve an Excalidraw drawing by ID
• update_drawing: Update an existing Excalidraw drawing
• delete_drawing: Remove an Excalidraw drawing by ID
• list_drawings: Get a list of all available Excalidraw drawings

Export Operations

• export_to_svg: Convert an Excalidraw drawing to SVG format
• export_to_png: Export a drawing as a PNG image
• export_to_json: Save a drawing in JSON format

Example API Usage

To interact with the server, you can use HTTP requests to the appropriate endpoints. For example:

// Example of creating a new drawing (using fetch API)
fetch('http://localhost:3000/api', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    tool: 'create_drawing',
    params: {
      name: 'My New Drawing',
      elements: []
    }
  }),
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

Running in Development Mode

For testing purposes, you can run the server in development mode with:

npm run dev

This starts the server with hot reloading enabled for a smoother development experience.

How to add this MCP server to Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.