# D2 vs draw.io + MCP

> D2 scores 65.3 (B) on agent readiness against draw.io + MCP's 62.2 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. draw.io + MCP leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do diagram as code. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-drawio
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-drawio.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-drawio.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-drawio.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

D2 scores 65.3 (B) on agent readiness against draw.io + MCP's 62.2 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. draw.io + MCP leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do diagram as code.

- D2: grade B, 65.3/100, rank #295 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/d2.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/d2.json
- draw.io + MCP: grade B, 62.2/100, rank #397 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/drawio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/drawio.json

## Which one, for what

### D2 (B)

Good 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 50
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 49

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

### draw.io + MCP (B)

Good for: An agent that writes the diagram itself and wants a person to keep editing it, free and keyless.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 65
- Security & auth, 55 against 48
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 74

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Tool descriptions embed a 34.5 KB XML reference and a 14 KB Mermaid reference, roughly 13,000 tokens


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | D2 | draw.io + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 50 | D2 +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 82 | draw.io + MCP +17 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 49 | D2 +29 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 48 | 55 | draw.io + MCP +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 86 | draw.io + MCP +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 72 | draw.io + MCP +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **65.3 · B** | **62.2 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | D2 | draw.io + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | MCP server |
| Vendor | D2 project (The Hack Foundation) | draw.io |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.draw.io/mcp` |
| Transports |  | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 2 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.draw/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-07 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 26k stars, 22k npm/wk | 8.5k stars, 25k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**D2.** A single local command turns text into a diagram in six formats with no account, key or network call, and CI passes on the default branch. The language is at 0.9.0 with no stable release, its company sponsor has shut down, and one maintainer with limited time wrote every commit since July.

**draw.io + MCP.** Free, keyless and Apache 2.0, with a Docker image for self-hosting. Tool descriptions embed a 34.5 KB XML reference and a 14 KB Mermaid reference, roughly 13,000 tokens.

## Before you call either

### 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

### draw.io + MCP

1. Pass `mermaid` to `create_diagram` for any type on its Mermaid list. Use `xml` only for icons, mockups or hand-placed layouts
2. Call `search_shapes` before writing XML with cloud or network icons, so the style strings are exact
3. Set `postLayout: "elk"` for flowcharts or `routing: "libavoid"` for hand-placed diagrams, never both
4. Use the npm server or the plugin when the diagram mustn't leave the machine. The hosted App sends it to draw.io's server
5. Expect the tool list to cost about 13,000 tokens before the first call

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, D2 or draw.io + MCP?

D2 scores 65.3 (B) on agent readiness against draw.io + MCP's 62.2 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. draw.io + MCP leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and maintenance & community.

### Can an agent call D2 and draw.io + MCP without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for D2. draw.io + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.draw.io/mcp.

### Are D2 and draw.io + MCP open source?

Yes. D2 is open source (MPL-2.0). draw.io + MCP is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-drawio.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-drawio.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "d2", "b": "drawio"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare d2 drawio`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/d2.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/drawio.json

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- [Cloudviz API vs draw.io + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudviz-vs-drawio.md)
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- [draw.io + MCP vs tldraw SDK + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drawio-vs-tldraw.md)
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- [D2 vs Eraser API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-eraser.md)
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- [D2 vs PlantUML](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-plantuml.md)
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