Model Context Protocol Overview

OpenBoard implements the open Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard over both stdio (standard input/output) and HTTP/SSE. This allows autonomous AI coding agents—such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, and Hermes—to interact with your canvas with native semantic precision instead of low-level coordinate guessing.

Board Management Tools

Tool Name	Parameters	Description
`list_boards`	`filter?: string`	Returns all boards in the local SQLite database with IDs, titles, timestamps, and shape counts.
`create_board`	`title: string, description?: string`	Creates a new canvas board and returns the generated board ID.
`get_board`	`boardId: string`	Fetches complete board metadata and full shape state.
`delete_board`	`boardId: string, permanent?: boolean`	Moves a board to Trash or permanently deletes it.

Canvas Mutation & Drawing Tools

Tool Name	Parameters	Description
`create_shape`	`boardId, type, x, y, props`	Creates rectangles, ellipses, diamonds, text, arrows, and sticky notes.
`batch_create_shapes`	`boardId, shapes[]`	Creates multiple connected nodes, flowcharts, or architecture diagrams in a single transaction.
`update_shape`	`boardId, shapeId, props`	Updates shape coordinates, dimensions, text content, color, or fill style.
`delete_shape`	`boardId, shapeId`	Removes a specific shape or connector from the canvas.
`create_arrow_connection`	`boardId, fromShapeId, toShapeId, label?`	Creates a semantic directional connector between two visual elements.
`group_shapes`	`boardId, shapeIds[], title?`	Creates a container frame around related visual nodes.

Headless Inspection & Vector Export

Tool Name	Parameters	Description
`inspect_canvas`	`boardId, depth?: number`	Returns a structured semantic tree of all shapes, groups, and text labels for agent comprehension.
`export_svg`	`boardId, shapeIds?: string[]`	Renders a pixel-perfect vector SVG snapshot of the canvas without needing a headless Chromium browser.
`search_canvas`	`query: string`	Searches across all whiteboards for specific text labels, node titles, or architecture elements.

Universal MCP Configuration

To register OpenBoard with your favorite AI agent, add the following to your agent configuration file (claude_desktop_config.json, .cursor/mcp.json, or Claude Code settings):

json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openboard": {
      "command": "openboard",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}