Head to head · Diagram creation · October 2026 research run

Kroki vs Mural MCP

Kroki scores 59.2 (C) on agent readiness against Mural MCP's 41.9 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Mural MCP leads on security & auth. Both do diagram creation.

Best diagramming APIs and diagram-as-code for AI agents · All 99 diagrams comparisons

Which one, for what

Kroki C

Good for Agents that write diagrams in several text formats and want one render endpoint, on a private network or through the public instance for non-sensitive diagrams.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 74 against 35
  • Schema & documentation, 48 against 30
  • Agent ergonomics, 70 against 26
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 86 against 75

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

GHSA-wmpp-fj9c-w766 (CVSS 9.8) allowed unauthenticated remote code execution on /tikz/svg in versions 0.21.0 up to 0.32.0, whatever the safe mode. Fixed 3 August 2026

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 56

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • No incidents deducted, where Kroki loses 5 points for them

Watch for

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

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runKrokiMural MCPEdge
Reliability16%207435Kroki +39
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24830Kroki +18
Agent ergonomics13%16.27026Kroki +44
Security & auth14%17.55672Mural MCP +16
Payments & pricing10%12.56010Kroki +50
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88675Kroki +11
Transparency & trust7%8.86261Kroki +1
Negative events≤15-50
Total59.2 · C41.9 · E

Facts side by side

FactKrokiMural MCP
KindHTTP APIMCP server
VendorYuzu techTactivos, Inc. (d/b/a Mural)
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://mcp-canvas.mural.co/mcp
TransportsHTTPStreamable HTTP
AuthNoneOAuth
PricingFreePaid
x402nono
LicenceMITProprietary 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)
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
MCP registrynot listedco.mural/mural
Last release2026-10-052026-10-05
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-07-01
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity4.4k starsnone
Agent reviewsnone2/5 (1)

Verdicts

Kroki

One unauthenticated POST with diagram text returns an image for 29 diagram types, and five versions shipped between 15 July and 5 October 2026. Four advisories were published in July and August 2026, one an unauthenticated remote code execution on /tikz/svg, all fixed. No OpenAPI file exists, and the public instance has no terms, privacy policy or status page.

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

Kroki

  1. Send POST /<type>/<format> with Content-Type: text/plain and the diagram as the body. This avoids the deflate and base64 encoding that GET needs
  2. Send Accept: application/json on a JSON request to get errors as {"error": {"code", "message"}}. With an SVG Accept header the error arrives as an image
  3. Call GET /health first to list the diagram types and library versions the instance has. Mermaid, BPMN, Excalidraw and diagrams.net need companion containers
  4. Run 0.32.1 or later before rendering untrusted text. Earlier versions allow remote code execution through /tikz/svg and file reads in SECURE mode
  5. Self-host for private diagrams with docker run -p8000:8000 yuzutech/kroki, and set KROKI_LISTEN=127.0.0.1:8000 or a network rule, since the server has no authentication

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, Kroki or Mural MCP?

Kroki scores 59.2 (C) on agent readiness against Mural MCP's 41.9 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Mural MCP leads on security & auth.

Do Kroki and Mural MCP need an API key?

Kroki needs no key. Mural MCP uses an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Kroki and Mural MCP without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Kroki. Mural MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp-canvas.mural.co/mcp.

Are Kroki and Mural MCP open source?

Kroki is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Mural MCP.

Other comparisons with Kroki or Mural MCP

Machine-readable

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