Excalidraw — AI-Friendly Whiteboard & Diagramming

Why Developers Love It

Hand-Drawn Style

Diagrams look informal and approachable — perfect for architecture discussions, not formal documentation.

Instant Start

No account, no login, no install. Open excalidraw.com and start drawing.

Real-Time Collaboration

Share a link and draw together:

https://excalidraw.com/#room=abc123

Developer-Friendly Features

AI Diagram Generation

Use with Claude Code or ChatGPT to generate diagrams:

"Create an Excalidraw diagram showing:
- User sends request to API Gateway
- Gateway routes to Auth Service and Product Service
- Both services connect to PostgreSQL
- Product Service uses Redis cache"

AI generates .excalidraw JSON that opens directly in Excalidraw.

Common Diagram Types

React Component

import { Excalidraw } from "@excalidraw/excalidraw";

function DiagramEditor() {
  return (
    <div style={{ height: "500px" }}>
      <Excalidraw />
    </div>
  );
}

VS Code Extension

Edit .excalidraw files directly in VS Code with the Excalidraw extension.

Key Stats

• 90,000+ GitHub stars
• No signup required
• Real-time collaboration
• SVG/PNG/JSON export
• React component + VS Code extension

FAQ

Q: What is Excalidraw? A: An open-source virtual whiteboard for creating hand-drawn style diagrams — system architecture, flowcharts, wireframes, and more — with real-time collaboration.

Q: Is Excalidraw free? A: Yes, fully open-source under MIT. Excalidraw+ (paid) adds team features.

Q: Can AI generate Excalidraw diagrams? A: Yes, Claude and GPT-4 can generate .excalidraw JSON files from text descriptions.