tldraw-mcp — headless tldraw MCP server

Node-only MCP server exposing read_tldr, write_tldr, and validate_tldr tools. No browser, no DOM, no React — runs in plain Node v24.

Pinned version

@tldraw/editor    5.1.1
@tldraw/store     5.1.1
@tldraw/tlschema  5.1.1

Verified import surface (tldraw 5.1.1)

NEVER import the tldraw umbrella package at runtime. NEVER call new Editor() or createTLStore from @tldraw/editor in read/write/validate paths. @tldraw/tlschema is CJS — load via createRequire in .mjs files (named ESM imports fail).

Tools exposed

• `read_tldr` — parse a .tldr file, return records + schema version
• `write_tldr` — accept a scene spec, build a .tldr file envelope
• `validate_tldr` — validate a .tldr JSON blob against the live schema

Provisioning

Requires Node v24.

npm ci
npm run build

Built output: dist/index.js (ESM, produced by tsc).

MCP registration (LOCAL dev form)

Add to your repo's .mcp.json (already committed at repo root):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tldraw": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["tools/tldraw-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

The universal npx -y github:jinsoo/tldraw-mcp form (see below) can also be used here once the standalone repo is published.

Upstream tracking

To upgrade to a newer tldraw release:

./track-upstream.sh

This bumps @tldraw/* in package.json, re-extracts src/defaults.json via npm run probe-defaults, vendors a fresh llms-docs.txt, rebuilds, and runs the full test suite. Do NOT run during active development.

llms-docs.txt

llms-docs.txt is the tldraw LLM reference doc vendored at the pinned version. It is fetched by track-upstream.sh from https://tldraw.dev/llms-docs.txt.

.tldr file envelope

The correct write shape (do NOT use serializeTldrawJson — needs Editor):

{
  tldrawFileFormatVersion: 1,
  schema: store.schema.serialize(),
  records: store.allRecords()   // flat ARRAY, not a map
}

schemaVersion is 2 for tldraw 5.1.1.

Universal install (any agent)

Runs straight from GitHub — no npm account, no local checkout:

npx -y github:jinsoo/tldraw-mcp

Claude Code (.mcp.json):

{ "mcpServers": { "tldraw": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "github:jinsoo/tldraw-mcp"] } } }

Any MCP host that registers stdio servers (config.yaml mcp_servers example):

tldraw: { type: stdio, command: npx, args: ["-y", "github:jinsoo/tldraw-mcp"], enabled: true }

Tools: read_tldr, write_tldr, validate_tldr.