Sketchshelf is a Mac app for hand-drawn diagrams and whiteboards, built on the open-source Excalidraw editor. It keeps all your drawings in a library, lets you mark up text the way you would by hand, and lets Claude draw with you.
Every drawing sits in the sidebar. Click one to switch; the drawing you leave is saved first. Sort by name or by what you edited last, double-click a name to rename it, and collapse the sidebar when you want the whole window.
Each drawing is a standard .excalidraw file in a folder on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account.
In Excalidraw a text box has one colour. In Sketchshelf, one note can mix styles: colour a date, highlight the line that matters, underline a name, put a box around a word.
⌘-double-click any text to open the editor, select a word and press a shortcut. Typing **word**, ==word== or __word__ styles it as you go.
Drag a note's left or right edge to re-wrap it at the same size. Corners still scale it, as usual.
One text block, five styles.
| ⌘ B | Blue |
| ⌘ 1 2 3 | Red, green, orange |
| ⌘ H | Highlight |
| ⌘ U | Underline |
| ⌘ E | Box |
| ⌘ \ | Clear the styling |
There is no save button. Your drawing is written to disk a moment after you stop, and again whenever you switch drawings or leave the window.
Each save replaces the file in one step, so a crash can't leave half a drawing. The last 20 versions of every drawing are kept in a hidden .history folder, in case you need one back.
Sketchshelf comes with an MCP server for Claude Code. Ask for a diagram and it appears in your library, laid out and ready to edit by hand. Change it yourself and Claude sees your changes the next time it looks.
If the drawing is open, it updates in place. ⌘ Z undoes anything Claude did.
> draw the checkout flow: cart, address, payment, confirm ● draw "Checkout flow" 4 boxes, 3 arrows ✓ opened in Sketchshelf
Double-click any .excalidraw file in Finder, or press ⌘ O to pick several at once. Each is copied into your library, and the original stays where it was.
Export a PNG or SVG, or save a copy of the file anywhere, from the menu on the canvas.
The tools, shortcuts, shapes, libraries and file format are the Excalidraw you know. Sketchshelf adds to the editor; it doesn't change it.
| excalidraw.com | Sketchshelf | |
|---|---|---|
| Drawings open at once | One scene. Others are files you save and reopen. | A library of them, one click apart |
| Where they're kept | Your browser's storage, or Excalidraw's servers for share links | Files on your Mac, never uploaded |
| Styling text | One colour per text box | Colour, highlight, underline and box inside one note |
| Saving | Kept in the browser; export to keep a file | Every change saved to disk, 20 versions kept |
| AI drawing on your canvas | Text-to-diagram inside the web app | Claude Code edits your real drawings |
| Live collaboration | Yes | No, it's a single-person app |
No account, no analytics, no crash reporting. The app is built so it cannot connect to the internet at all, even for Excalidraw's own online features. Privacy policy