# D2 vs draw.io + MCP (slim)

> 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…

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-drawio.md (~2,150 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-drawio.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-drawio
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.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: B 65.3, rank #295 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/d2.min.md
- draw.io + MCP: B 62.2, rank #397 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/drawio.min.md
- D2, 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.
- draw.io + MCP, 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 A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Runs on your own machine; Free to start without a card.

| Category | D2 | draw.io + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 68 | 50 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 65 | 82 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 78 | 49 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 48 | 55 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 74 | 86 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 69 | 72 |

| Fact (where they differ) | 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 |
| Licence | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 2 |
| 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) |