Question 1

What is Excaliwow?

Accepted Answer

Excaliwow is a hosted, real-time Excalidraw workspace with a developer platform. You can sketch on a shared canvas with your team — live cursors, comments, and share links — or create and edit the same diagrams programmatically from the command line, a REST API, or an AI agent over MCP.

Question 2

Is Excaliwow free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The first 10,000 verified accounts keep the core Excaliwow workspace at a $0 subscription fee while Excaliwow operates. That includes browser collaboration, sharing, and the REST API, CLI, and MCP server. Accounts start with 3 diagram slots and can earn more capacity. No credit card is required.

Question 3

What does Founding Free guarantee?

Accepted Answer

A qualifying account receives a permanent, non-recycled founding number from 1 to 10,000 after verification. Its current core workspace stays at a $0 subscription fee while Excaliwow operates. Normal diagram capacity, API rate, abuse, security, and availability limits still apply, and optional future add-ons or new products may be paid.

Question 4

How is Excaliwow different from Excalidraw?

Accepted Answer

Excalidraw is the open-source drawing editor. Excaliwow is built on it and adds what teams need to work together over time: hosted accounts, persistent diagrams and folders, real-time multiplayer in a shared workspace, public share links, and a developer platform — a REST API, CLI, and MCP server — for automating diagrams.

Question 5

Can I create and edit diagrams from the command line or an API?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The REST API under /api/v1 lets you list, read, create, render, and additively edit diagrams over plain HTTP. The @excaliwow/cli package wraps that surface for your terminal and scripts, and both speak the same diagram DSL the browser editor uses.

Question 6

Does Excaliwow work with Claude and other AI agents?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The @excaliwow/mcp server connects Excaliwow to Claude and other MCP clients through a small set of tools to create, read, render, and edit diagrams. Your agent builds and updates real diagrams in your account, which you can then open and refine in the browser.

Question 7

How do I authenticate the API, CLI, and MCP server?

Accepted Answer

You mint a Personal Access Token in your account settings and choose its scope. Tokens carry per-capability grants — read, write, publish, and delete — so you can give a script or an AI agent exactly the access it needs, and nothing more.

Question 8

Can my team collaborate in real time?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Open a diagram and teammates edit the same canvas together, with live cursors, presence, and comments. Invite people to your workspace as editors or viewers so they get access to your diagrams as a group, rather than one diagram at a time.

Question 9

Can I share a diagram publicly?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can publish a read-only public link to any diagram, optionally protected with a password, and turn it off again at any time. Viewers can see the diagram but never edit it, and misused links have an abuse-report path plus admin takedown, so public sharing stays safe.

Question 10

Can I export my diagrams or delete my account?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Excaliwow supports self-serve data export and account deletion from your account settings — no support request needed. Your diagrams are yours: export a copy to take with you, or permanently delete them along with your account whenever you want.

Question 11

What formats can I render diagrams to?

Accepted Answer

The API renders any diagram to PNG or SVG on demand, and by default it uses the editor's own exporter — real hand-drawn strokes and fonts, not a stripped-down preview. You can request a faster, lower-fidelity mode when you don't need full fidelity, and it also kicks in automatically if the faithful renderer is briefly unavailable.

Question 12

Is my data private?

Accepted Answer

Excaliwow stores your diagrams so you can return to them and collaborate. They're private to your workspace by default — visible only to people you invite, or to anyone you hand a public link. Our Privacy Policy covers how data is collected, used, and protected, and our Terms set the rules.

Frequently asked questions