Creating Designs with MCP

Once your MCP server is connected, you can ask your AI assistant to create any diagram directly in Excalimate. The AI has access to 8 scene/element tools for full control over your canvas — creating, updating, and removing elements at will.

Let's create a simple flowchart with three boxes connected by arrows. Just describe what you want in plain language:

Create a simple flowchart with three steps: Research, Design, and Build. Connect them with arrows.

Behind the scenes, the AI translates your request into MCP tool calls:

create_scene({
  elements: [
    rectangle("Research", x: 100, y: 200),
    rectangle("Design",   x: 400, y: 200),
    rectangle("Build",    x: 700, y: 200),
    arrow(from: "Research", to: "Design"),
    arrow(from: "Design",  to: "Build"),
  ]
})

The result appears instantly in the Excalimate live preview — three labeled boxes in a horizontal flow, connected by arrows.

Here are the element types you can ask the AI to create:

You can control colors, fills, stroke styles, and more — just describe the look you want. The AI maps your descriptions to Excalidraw's color palette and fill options.

Make the Research box blue with a light blue fill, and the Build box green.

Elements support solid fills, hatching, cross-hatching, and transparent backgrounds. You can also ask for specific stroke colors, dashed borders, or different font sizes for text labels.

You don't have to get everything right on the first try. The MCP server provides tools to iteratively refine your design:

Just describe the changes you want:

Add a fourth step called "Launch" after Build, and change the Research box to be wider.

The AI will use get_scene to inspect the current canvas, then apply targeted updates — no need to recreate everything from scratch.

• Be specific about layout — mention positions or say "horizontal flow" / "vertical flow" to guide placement.
• Name your elements — it helps when modifying later, since the AI can reference them by name.
• Ask for hand-drawn style explicitly if you want the sketchy Excalidraw look.
• Use get_scene to inspect what's on the canvas before making changes.
• Save checkpoints with save_checkpoint before major changes — you can always roll back.