Head to head · Diagram creation · October 2026 research run

AI Diagram Maker MCP vs D2

D2 scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against AI Diagram Maker MCP's 43.8 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. AI Diagram Maker MCP leads on schema & documentation. Both do diagram creation.

Best diagramming APIs and diagram-as-code for AI agents · All 147 diagrams comparisons

Which one, for what

AI Diagram Maker MCP E

Best for Quick architecture, sequence, ERD and flowchart diagrams from a coding agent, with a link to edit them.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 75 against 65

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Runs on your own machine
  • No incidents deducted, where D2 loses 3 points for them

Watch for

Last release 3.0.8 on 10 April 2026, and the registry entry still says 1.0.0

D2 B

Best for Agents that need to produce or edit architecture, sequence, grid, SQL table or class diagrams as reviewable text and render them locally.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 68 against 30
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 66
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 74 against 17
  • Transparency & trust, 70 against 35

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

No 1.0 release. The maintainer lists a stable 1.0 with a formal grammar as a goal, and 0.8.2 changed Dagre and ELK layout output

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community D2 +57

AI Diagram Maker MCP 17

Last release v3.0.8, published to npm on 10 April 2026, 210 days before this check (0). No release since 8 August (0). Four issues in all. The two open ones, from 4 May (hosted MCP credit usage) and 13 October 2026, show no reply, and one closed issue had a comment (5 of 25). In the official MCP registry under the GitHub-verified namespace io.github.erajasekar, but the entry is 1.0.0 from 19 March 2026 while npm is on 3.0.8 (10 of 15). The only workflow publishes to the registry. No tests or CI, and the MCP SDK floor is ^1.9.0 (2 of 10). 0 + 0 + 5 + 10 + 2 = 17.

D2 74

Release 0.9.0 on 7 September 2026, 56 days before this check, and no release since (20). Five tagged versions since 4 August, 0.7.2, 0.8.0 and 0.8.1 on 6 August, 0.8.2 on 24 August and 0.9.0 (20); the three 6 August versions leave the 90-day window after 4 November. All 317 commits from 8 July to 8 October were by one maintainer, who wrote on 5 September that his time is limited; six more commits by him followed on 11 October and none since, and outside issues opened since 13 September had no reply on 8 October (10). The Go library and @d2lang/d2 0.1.34 match 0.9.0 (15). Go 1.27, dependencies refreshed in 0.8.2 and CI on every push (9). 20+20+10+15+9 = 74.

Payments & pricing D2 +40

AI Diagram Maker MCP 20

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public (Plus $10, Max $20 a month), with credits counted at 1,000 tokens each, so there's no per-diagram price (10 of 20). Basic is free forever with 50 credits a month, but the page doesn't say whether a card is needed or whether API and MCP calls are included (10 of 20, half as with an unstated card rule). A person signs up in the app and creates the key (0). 0 + 10 + 10 + 0 = 20.

D2 60

Read with the self-hosted rule. Free MPL-2.0 software with nothing to buy and no payment protocol (0). No price to publish (20). No card or trial needed (20). An agent can install and run it with no signup (20).

Reliability D2 +38

AI Diagram Maker MCP 30

Hosted lines, because every tool call is generated on the AI Diagram Maker service, through the hosted endpoint or the npx server. No status page found on the site or in the README (0). No readable incident history (5). The only rate-limit number is the example in the OpenAPI 429 schema ('Maximum 100 requests per day exceeded.'), which isn't stated as the limit (5 of 15). The 429 body is specified with limit, remaining, resetAt and retryAfter, while there's no idempotency or retry guidance for calls that spend credits (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). Nothing labels the service or server beta (10). 0 + 5 + 5 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 30.

D2 68

Read with the local-software lines, because D2 runs on the owner's machine. Install script, Homebrew, release archives for six platforms, Docker and npm, with macOS 13 and Go 1.27 stated (20). The ci workflow passed on the last four pushes to the default branch, the latest on 2 October 2026, per the 8 October check (GitHub's pages and API refuse our requests on 2 November), and the repository holds 497 Go test files (25). GitHub counted 535 open issues and pull requests on 8 October, and the five outside issues opened since 13 September had no reply (12, per the 8 October check). Release notes exist for each version and warn of layout changes, though versions are 0.x and we found no note for the Go import path moving to github.com/d2lang/d2 (11). The latest release is 0.9.0, and the maintainer lists a stable 1.0 as a goal (0).

Transparency & trust D2 +35

AI Diagram Maker MCP 35

The MCP server is MIT (package.json and LICENSE, added 18 March 2026). The service is closed, under terms last updated 24 September 2025 that name the operator only as AI Diagram Maker (20 of 30). The privacy policy of the same date keeps diagrams, revisions and chat prompts and responses 'as long as necessary', and the terms license user input 'to provide and improve our services', with no retention periods and no word on model training or the AI providers used (8 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices (0). No subprocessors or data locations named (0). The MCP server's source sends no telemetry of its own. 20 + 8 + 0 + 0 = 28.

D2 70

MPL-2.0 for the language, the renderers and TALA (30). No privacy policy, and the software runs locally. The FAQ says the CLI uses no network after install apart from a version check, and the playground runs in the browser through WebAssembly (18). Release notes mark deprecated Go and d2.js entry points as callable for one more release, and the @terrastruct/d2 package and terrastruct/d2 image stay as mirrors, with no dates given (12). The FAQ states there is no telemetry. We found no documented switch for the version check (14).

Agent ergonomics D2 +12

AI Diagram Maker MCP 66

Five compact tools (25). Output can be SVG or PNG and the API can return the D2 source with debug, but there's nothing to page or trim, and results carry the rendered image (10 of 20). Typed error bodies with codes, a 422 that returns the failing D2 code, and retryAfter on 429 (16 of 20). No readOnlyHint or other annotations in the source and no idempotency key, and every call spends credits (5 of 20). Only content is required and the hosted endpoint needs no install, but there is no SDK beyond the server (10 of 15). 25 + 10 + 16 + 5 + 10 = 66.

D2 78

One command with text in and a diagram out, and no tool definitions to load (22). --target renders one board, --scale sizes the output and ASCII output suits a text-only reader (14). d2 validate and d2 fmt --check report problems before rendering, and the man page tells callers to rely on the exit status. No list of error codes (13). Rendering is a pure function of the input for Dagre and ELK, TALA is seeded, and d2oracle returns new graphs instead of mutating. A partial file can be written on error (15). d2 in.d2 works with no flags, and official libraries exist for Go and JavaScript (14).

Schema & documentation AI Diagram Maker MCP +10

AI Diagram Maker MCP 75

All five tools have zod input schemas in src/tools, and the repository ships an OpenAPI 3 file for POST /api/v2/diagrams/generate (25). No llms.txt (404) and no docs site for agents beyond the README (0). Each description says what the tool does and when to use it, listing trigger phrases and the diagram types, without saying when another tool fits better (16 of 20). content has a minimum length and diagramType an eight-value enum; the OpenAPI adds inputType and format enums (13 of 15). Examples in the parameter descriptions and README, and the OpenAPI documents 400, 401, 402, 422 (D2 failed to compile) and 429 with typed error bodies (13 of 15). Git tags from v1.1.1 to v3.0.8 and a /api/v2 path, with no changelog or release notes (8 of 15). 25 + 0 + 16 + 13 + 13 + 8 = 75.

D2 65

Read as a CLI and library. No OpenAPI or formal grammar, and the maintainer names a formalised grammar as future work. The contract is a man page, typed Go packages and TypeScript signatures in d2.js (12). No llms.txt (HTTP 404), though the docs are Markdown in a public repository (3). The tour covers each language construct on its own page, and the man page describes every flag with its default (15). Flags are typed with defaults and environment variables, and d2.js lists its compile and render options (10). Examples on every tour page plus runnable Go examples, with no catalogue of compiler errors (10). Release notes for every version on the docs site and a separate d2.js changelog (15).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAI Diagram Maker MCPD2Edge
Reliability16%203068D2 +38
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27565AI Diagram Maker MCP +10
Agent ergonomics13%16.26678D2 +12
Security & auth14%17.54548D2 +3
Payments & pricing10%12.52060D2 +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.81774D2 +57
Transparency & trust7%8.83570D2 +35
Negative events≤150-3
TotalE 43.8/100B 62.3/100

Facts side by side

FactAI Diagram Maker MCPD2
KindMCP serverSDK + MCP
VendorAI Diagram Maker (Rajasekar Elango)D2 project (The Hack Foundation)
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.aidiagrammaker.com/mcpno (local only)
TransportsStreamable HTTP, stdio
AuthAPI keyNone
PricingFreemiumFree
x402nono
LicenceMIT for the MCP server. The AI Diagram Maker service it calls is closed, under terms last updated 24 September 2025MPL-2.0
Tools exposed5none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
MCP registryio.github.erajasekar/ai-diagram-maker-mcpnot listed
Last release2026-04-102026-09-07
Terms last updated2025-09-24no document linked
Privacy policy last updated2025-09-24no document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot read yet
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot read yet
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot read yet
Popularity63 npm/wk26k stars, 22k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.5/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

AI Diagram Maker MCP

Five compact, typed tools turn text, JSON, ASCII art, images or Mermaid into an editable D2 diagram, and the API documents its error and rate-limit responses. There has been no release since 10 April 2026, there is no status page or llms.txt, and the API key opens the whole account with no scopes.

D2

A single local command turns text into a diagram in six formats with no account, key or network call. The language is at 0.9.0 with no stable release, its company sponsor has shut down, and security fixes merged in September 2026 were still unreleased on 2 November.

Before you call either

AI Diagram Maker MCP

  1. Send the key in the X-ADM-API-Key header to https://mcp.aidiagrammaker.com/mcp, never in the URL
  2. Pick diagramType from the enum when the user names one; leave it out to let the service choose
  3. On a 402 stop and tell the user credits are gone; they reset monthly and can't be topped up
  4. On a 429 wait for retryAfter seconds before the next call
  5. Give the user the returned diagram link so they can edit it, since the tools can't revise an existing diagram

D2

  1. Check the exit status of d2, never the output file. The man page says a partial render can be written when an error occurs
  2. Run d2 validate file.d2 before rendering, and d2 fmt to normalise the source
  3. Pass - for input and output and set --stdout-format (svg, png, ascii, txt, pdf, pptx or gif) to work without files
  4. Use --stdout-format ascii when the reader is a text-only model
  5. Pass --bundle=false or review image URLs and imports before rendering D2 text from an untrusted source. Release 0.9.0 fetches remote images when bundling

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, AI Diagram Maker MCP or D2?

D2 scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against AI Diagram Maker MCP's 43.8 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. AI Diagram Maker MCP leads on schema & documentation.

Can an agent call AI Diagram Maker MCP and D2 without installing anything?

AI Diagram Maker MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.aidiagrammaker.com/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for D2.

Are AI Diagram Maker MCP and D2 open source?

No open-source release is listed for AI Diagram Maker MCP. D2 is open source (MPL-2.0).

Other comparisons with AI Diagram Maker MCP or D2

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