# draw.io + MCP vs Mural MCP

> draw.io + MCP scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Mural MCP's 42 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Mural MCP leads on security & auth. Both do diagram create. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drawio-vs-mural-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drawio-vs-mural-mcp.md (~2,100 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drawio-vs-mural-mcp.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drawio-vs-mural-mcp.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: 2026-10-06

draw.io + MCP scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Mural MCP's 42 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Mural MCP leads on security & auth. Both do diagram create.

- draw.io + MCP: grade B, 62.4/100, rank #222 of 460. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/drawio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/drawio.json
- Mural MCP: grade E, 42/100, rank #422 of 460. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mural-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mural-mcp.json

## Which one, for what

### 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:
- Reliability, 50 against 35
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 30
- Agent ergonomics, 49 against 26
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 75
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 63

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

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

### Mural MCP (E)

Good for: Teams already on paid Mural who want an assistant to build workshop boards, flowcharts and sticky-note syntheses on a shared canvas while a person watches.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 72 against 55

Watch for: Public preview, with Mural's service levels and support obligations excluded


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | draw.io + MCP | Mural MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 35 | draw.io + MCP +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 30 | draw.io + MCP +52 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 26 | draw.io + MCP +23 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 72 | Mural MCP +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 10 | draw.io + MCP +50 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 75 | draw.io + MCP +11 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 63 | draw.io + MCP +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.4 · B** | **42 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | draw.io + MCP | Mural MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | MCP server |
| Vendor | draw.io | Tactivos, Inc. (d/b/a Mural) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.draw.io/mcp` | `https://mcp-canvas.mural.co/mcp` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary hosted service under Mural's Terms of Service. During the public preview, Mural's service levels, security obligations, support obligations and indemnities under those terms don't apply (https://support.mural.co/s/article/MCP-preview) |
| Tools exposed | 2 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | `io.draw/mcp` | `co.mural/mural` |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-05 |
| Popularity | 8.5k stars, 25k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 2/5 (1) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Mural MCP.** Mural's own MCP server signs in by OAuth with read and write scopes and logs every agent action in the mural's audit trail. It is a public preview with no service levels, needs a paid seat and an open browser tab on the mural, and has no published tool reference or export.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Mural MCP

1. Ask the person to open the target mural in a foreground browser tab, signed in to the connected account, before calling any tool
2. Work on one mural at a time and name it explicitly when switching
3. Request only murals:read when the task only reads a board
4. Deletes go through without a server-side prompt. Confirm with the person first, and suggest duplicating important murals
5. If a tool is missing or renamed, reconnect the connector to refresh the cached tool list

## Questions

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

draw.io + MCP scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Mural MCP's 42 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Mural MCP leads on security & auth.

### Do draw.io + MCP and Mural MCP need an API key?

draw.io + MCP needs no key. Mural MCP uses an OAuth sign-in.

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

Yes. draw.io + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.draw.io/mcp and Mural MCP at https://mcp-canvas.mural.co/mcp.

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

draw.io + MCP is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Mural MCP.


## For agents

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

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