HN Showcase
Back to browse
GitHub Repository

Open and edit .excalidraw files from the terminal. Offline, auto-saves to disk.

5 starsJavaScript

Excalidraw-edit – Open and edit .excalidraw files from the terminal

by wh1le·Apr 11, 2026·1 point·0 comments
Visit ProjectView on HN

AI Analysis

●●SolidNiche GemShip It

Fills a 2020 feature request gap: offline Excalidraw editing from the terminal.

Strengths
  • •Bundles Excalidraw + React at build time—zero CDN dependencies, fully offline
  • •Auto-saves to disk on every edit with debouncing, no manual export needed
  • •Creates new .excalidraw files on the fly from CLI arguments
Weaknesses
  • •Still fundamentally wraps existing Excalidraw—no new drawing capabilities
  • •Firefox text clipping bug inherited from upstream excalidraw.com
Target Audience

Developers who use Excalidraw and prefer terminal workflows

Similar To

go-grip · excalidraw-cli

Post Description

Wanted a way to open .excalidraw files straight from the terminal without the web app. Couldn't find one, so I built it. Install via npm or flake.

Opens Excalidraw locally in your browser as a server

Auto-saves to disk, Works fully offline

Original feature request from 2020: https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw/issues/1261

Similar Projects