Best practices for creating research diagrams with Excalidraw MCP tools
Create a diagram when your research findings involve:
create_element or batch_create_elementsalign_elements and distribute_elements for clean layoutdescribe_scene to verify the diagram looks rightupdate_element to fix positioning or textgroup_elements to lock related items togetherNote: Do NOT export or share links — the user sees a live embedded canvas that auto-syncs.
Use consistent colors across diagrams:
| Purpose | Color | Hex |
|---|---|---|
| Primary concepts | Blue | #1971c2 |
| Positive / supported | Green | #2f9e44 |
| Negative / limitations | Red | #e03131 |
| Warning / caveats | Orange | #e8590c |
| Neutral / context | Gray | #868e96 |
| Highlight / focus | Yellow | #f08c00 |
[Option A] [Option B] [Option C]
| | |
[Pros] [Pros] [Pros]
[Cons] [Cons] [Cons]
| | |
└──── [Verdict] ─────────┘
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ [System Name] │
│ ┌──────┐ ┌──────┐ │
│ │Comp A│──│Comp B│ │
│ └──────┘ └──┬───┘ │
│ │ │
│ ┌────▼────┐ │
│ │ Comp C │ │
│ └─────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────┘
[2020]──[2021]──[2022]──[2023]──[2024]──[2025]
│ │ │ │ │ │
Event Event Event Event Event Event
describe_scene after creating elements to verify layoutbatch_create_elements for efficiency (multiple elements at once)create_from_mermaid — it produces invisible results. Always use batch_create_elements with element JSON instead