FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Excaliwow is a hosted, real-time Excalidraw workspace with a developer platform. Here are the questions people ask most — about what it is, what it costs, and how the API, CLI, and MCP server fit together.
- What is Excaliwow?
- 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.
- Is Excaliwow free?
- Yes. Excaliwow is free to start, with no credit card required during early access. You can create an account, draw, collaborate with your team, and use the full developer platform — the REST API, CLI, and MCP server — right away.
- Start for free →
- What happens to my account after early access?
- Accounts created during early access are grandfathered in: you keep today's full feature set — real-time collaboration, sharing, and the REST, CLI, and MCP developer platform — free, even if the free plan gets narrower for people who join later. Signing up is instant. If bot signups become a problem, we may use automated, human-reviewed checks so grandfathering still reaches genuine users.
- Start for free →
- How is Excaliwow different from Excalidraw?
- 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.
- Excaliwow vs Excalidraw →
- Can I create and edit diagrams from the command line or an API?
- 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.
- Read the API docs →
- Does Excaliwow work with Claude and other AI agents?
- 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.
- Set up the MCP server →
- How do I authenticate the API, CLI, and MCP server?
- 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.
- Authentication & tokens →
- Can my team collaborate in real time?
- 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.
- How collaboration works →
- Can I share a diagram publicly?
- 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.
- Sharing & public links →
- Can I export my diagrams or delete my account?
- 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.
- What formats can I render diagrams to?
- The API renders any diagram's saved scene to PNG or SVG on demand. PNG output is an approximate preview — system fonts and clean strokes — while SVG is vector. The browser editor remains the source of full-fidelity, hand-drawn visuals.
- Rendering in the API →
- Is my data private?
- 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.
- Read the Privacy Policy →
Still have a question? Get in touch or browse the docs.