Cloudviz API vs Excalidraw

Cloudviz API

Diagrams come from the live AWS account through a read-only cross-account role with a per-customer external ID. AWS only, and API access starts at the $49 a month Team plan.

Excalidraw

Excalidraw+ keys carry read or full permission, route restrictions and an expiry, and the MCP server shows a key only the tools its routes allow. The API and MCP server are in public beta with breaking changes expected, sit behind the $6 Plus plan, and have no published OpenAPI file, SDK or idempotency keys.

Cloudviz API

1. Call GET /aws/accounts/ first to get the Cloudviz account ID, then request /aws/accounts/{account-id}/{region}/{format}
2. On a 202, wait and repeat the same GET until the diagram is ready
3. Ask for jsonSnapshot or jsonDiagram (there is no plain json format) when the agent has to reason over resources
4. Use a read-only key unless the agent has to add, change or delete AWS accounts

Excalidraw

1. Send Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY> to https://api.excalidraw.com/api/v1. For MCP, use POST /api/v1/mcp only. The server is stateless and answers 405 to other methods
2. Use a personal key to reach the owner's private collection with the collection ID private. A workspace admin must enable personal keys first
3. Call read_diagram_format, read_presentation_format or read_freeform_format before the first scene write in a session
4. Write with edit_scene_content and bind arrows through startBinding and endBinding with tempId references. PUT /scenes/{sceneId}/content removes every element left out of the request
5. Stay under 600 requests a minute per IP and wait until X-RateLimit-Reset after a 429