Next AI Draw IO README

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/66b9f12f-219f-4d62-acc0-0725e6850eec

Describe a diagram in a sentence and the AI draws it on a real draw.io canvas. Edit it by hand like any draw.io file, or select a few shapes and tell the AI what to change. Every AI change is a version you can compare, restore or undo, and the result exports as .drawio, .png or .svg.

Available as a web app, a desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux, and an MCP server for AI agents such as Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code.

Highlights

Draw

• Architecture diagrams, flowcharts, sequence diagrams and more from one sentence, with built-in AWS, Azure, GCP and Kubernetes icon libraries
• Connectors can carry a flowing animation
• Upload a screenshot or a sketch and the AI redraws it; upload PDF, Markdown, code and other text files and get a diagram of their content

Edit

• Edit by chat: changes stream onto the canvas and the shapes the AI just changed are highlighted
• Ask about a selection: select shapes on the canvas and the AI changes only those
• Versions and undo: every AI change is a version card with a thumbnail; compare it with the canvas, restore it or undo it, and Ctrl+Z on the canvas also takes back an AI change in one step
• It is a normal draw.io diagram: double-click to rename, drag, restyle, use several pages, and export as .drawio, .png, .svg or .drawio.svg at any time

Use

• 25 model providers, including an OpenAI-compatible preset for any other URL; enter your own API key in the browser and it stays on your machine
• Models that reason show their thinking
• Dark mode; the interface is available in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Japanese

Examples

Transformer architecture with animated connectors Prompt: Give me a animated connector diagram of transformer's architecture.
RAG architecture Prompt: Generate a RAG architecture diagram for chat application. Use connected diagram for data ingestion	Authentication with React and AWS Prompt: Generate authentication process using React with AWS. Use Serverless architecture.
Open Innovation model Prompt: Create visualization of Henry Chesbrough's Open Innovation model.	Cat sketch Prompt: Draw a cute cat for me.

Use it

Online demo

Open next-ai-drawio.jiang.jp, nothing to install. The demo has a usage limit; click the settings icon in the chat panel and enter your own provider and API key to lift it. The key stays in your browser and is never sent to the server for storage.

Desktop app

Download the Windows, macOS or Linux installer from the Releases page.

In your AI agent (MCP)

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6f53a67b-ab21-4113-9fee-7fb32f9de678

Through MCP (Model Context Protocol, the protocol AI agents use to call outside tools), Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code and others can draw draw.io diagrams directly. Add this to your client's MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "drawio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@next-ai-drawio/mcp-server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

For Claude Code, one command does it (--scope user makes it available in every project):

claude mcp add --scope user drawio -- npx @next-ai-drawio/mcp-server@latest

It is also a plugin in the Claude Code community marketplace (Claude Code 2.1.275 or later):

/plugin install next-ai-drawio --marketplace anthropics/claude-plugins-community

Then ask the AI for "a flowchart of user authentication with login, MFA and session management" and the diagram appears in your browser as it is drawn. The MCP server has most of the web app's drawing features:

• The same drawing rules and icon libraries (AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes and more)
• The preview is the same canvas as the web app: the AI's changes are outlined, one Ctrl+Z takes them back, and the AI can read the shapes you select
• The draw.io editor ships inside the package, so after install the preview works offline (DRAWIO_BASE_URL points it at an external draw.io instead)
• A screenshot tool, so the AI can look at the rendered diagram and fix it
• Version history, multi-page diagrams, and download as .drawio, .png, .svg or .drawio.svg
• Auto-save to ~/.next-ai-drawio/, so a diagram survives a restart
• Ask the AI to undo, and keep your own drawing rules in ~/.next-ai-drawio/instructions.md

See the MCP server README for VS Code, Cursor and other client configurations, and for how it compares with other draw.io MCP servers.

Compared with draw.io's built-in AI

draw.io has its own Generate tool (Arrange > Insert > Generate). It runs inside draw.io on a free hosted model or your own API key, and it can change a diagram, page or selection that you attach to its chat. Next AI Draw.io sends the current canvas, including your hand edits, with every message, turns every AI change into a version you can compare or restore, and works with 25 providers, including local models through Ollama, on the demo site, in the desktop app or on your own server.

Self-host

Run locally

git clone https://github.com/DayuanJiang/next-ai-draw-io
cd next-ai-draw-io
npm install
cp env.example .env.local   # add your provider and API key, see "Models and providers" below
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:6002.

One-click deploy

Platform	How
Tencent EdgeOne Pages	Deploying there also gives you a daily free quota for DeepSeek models
Vercel	Set the same environment variables in the Vercel dashboard as in your .env.local
Cloudflare Workers	Cloudflare deploy guide
Docker	Docker guide
Offline or intranet	Offline deployment

Models and providers

25 providers are supported: AWS Bedrock (default), OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI, Google Vertex AI, Azure OpenAI, Ollama, OpenRouter, AIHubMix, DeepSeek, SiliconFlow, SGLang, Vercel AI Gateway, Tencent EdgeOne, ByteDance Doubao, ModelScope, Zhipu GLM, Qwen, Qiniu, Kimi, MiniMax, Novita, Xiaomi MiMo, Atlas Cloud, and an OpenAI-compatible preset for any other URL (vLLM, LM Studio, a gateway). The environment variables and notes for each are in the provider configuration guide.

Which model: the task is to produce long text in a strict format (draw.io XML), so pick a capable model; small models tend to produce broken diagrams.

Several models and the admin panel: list several model IDs in AI_MODEL separated by commas, or configure models from several providers with the AI_MODELS_CONFIG environment variable or an ai-models.json file, and every user can use them without a key of their own. Set ADMIN_PASSWORD and open /admin to manage models, access codes, feature switches, observability and quotas from a web page; see the admin panel guide.

Support

• Questions and ideas: open a GitHub issue or email me[at]jiang.jp
• Common problems: FAQ
• If the project is useful to you, consider sponsoring to help keep the demo site running