Excalidraw CLI
The official command-line tool for Excalidraw+, for humans and agents.
Render Excalidraw drawings and Mermaid diagrams from your terminal, free and without an account. With an Excalidraw+ API key, manage your workspace too.
Install
npm install -g @excalidraw/cliOr try it without installing: npx @excalidraw/cli --help. Requires Node.js 22 or newer.
To update, run excalidraw update. It installs the latest version with the package manager you installed the CLI with: npm, pnpm, yarn, bun or Volta. excalidraw update --check only reports whether a newer version is out.
Commands you run in a terminal check for a newer version at most once a day, while the command runs, and mention it after the output. Set EXCALIDRAW_NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER=1 to turn this off.
Quick start
No account needed
render and mermaid run on your computer with an installed Chrome, Chromium, Edge or Firefox. Nothing is uploaded.
# Render a drawing, or each slide of a deck
excalidraw render drawing.excalidraw --out drawing.png
excalidraw render deck.excalidraw --all-frames --out slides/
# Turn a Mermaid diagram into an editable Excalidraw scene, or straight into an SVG
excalidraw mermaid flow.mmd --out flow.excalidraw
excalidraw mermaid flow.mmd --out flow.svgWith Excalidraw+
Workspace commands need an Excalidraw+ API key. Create one in Excalidraw+ under Account settings → MCP/API key (a personal key) or Workspace settings → MCP/API Keys; the authentication docs explain both. Logging in with the browser (OAuth) is coming soon.
# Paste your API key once; later commands use it
excalidraw login
# Check which workspace the key belongs to
excalidraw whoami
# Create a collection, then a scene in it from a local file
excalidraw collections create --name "Product diagrams"
excalidraw scenes create --name "Architecture" --collection-id <collectionId> --file drawing.excalidraw
# Save a scene's content, or render it straight to PNG
excalidraw scenes content get <sceneId> --out scene.json
excalidraw scenes render <sceneId> --out scene.png
# Share it with anyone who has the link
excalidraw scenes share <sceneId> --access viewEvery command has --help with examples, for instance excalidraw scenes content patch --help.
Commands
No account needed:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
render | Render a local file to PNG or SVG |
mermaid | Convert a Mermaid diagram into an Excalidraw scene, PNG or SVG |
update | Update the CLI to the latest version |
With an Excalidraw+ API key:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
login | Check an API key and save it for later commands |
logout | Remove the saved API key |
whoami | Show the workspace, key type, credential source and API origin in use |
scenes | List, create, rename, move, pin and trash scenes |
scenes share | Turn a scene's public view or edit link on or off |
scenes share-slides | Share a scene's frames as a presentation link |
scenes content | Read, replace or patch a scene's drawing |
scenes render | Render a workspace scene to PNG or SVG |
collections | Manage collections and the scenes in them |
workspace | Read or update the workspace name and picture |
workspace users | List, update or remove members |
workspace invites | Manage email invites and invite links |
logs | Query the workspace audit log |
Updating the workspace, and the users, invites and logs commands, need admin rights. A personal key that belongs to a member gets HTTP 403.
Guides
- Render to PNG or SVG: image options, slides, fonts and browsers.
- Mermaid diagrams: turn Mermaid into editable Excalidraw scenes.
- Editing scene content: replace or patch a workspace scene.
- Scripting and agents: JSON output, stdin and stdout, retries and exit codes.
- Configuration: flags, environment variables and API keys.
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