excalidraw

Installation
Summary

Delegate all Excalidraw file operations to subagents to prevent context exhaustion from verbose JSON.

  • Single Excalidraw files consume 4k–22k tokens with low signal-to-noise ratio; reading multiple diagrams quickly exhausts context budget (7 files = 67k tokens = 33% of total)
  • Trigger delegation on any .excalidraw or .excalidraw.json file path, or user requests involving diagrams, flowcharts, or architecture visualization
  • Main agent never reads Excalidraw files directly; always dispatch to subagents with task templates for extract, modify, create, or compare operations
  • Subagents return text-only summaries (component lists, relationships, change confirmations) instead of raw JSON, preserving 96–98% of main context budget
SKILL.md

Excalidraw Subagent Delegation

Overview

Core principle: Main agents NEVER read Excalidraw files directly. Always delegate to subagents to isolate context consumption.

Excalidraw files are JSON with high token cost but low information density. Single files range from 4k-22k tokens (largest can exceed read tool limits). Reading multiple diagrams quickly exhausts context budget (7 files = 67k tokens = 33% of budget).

The Problem

Excalidraw JSON structure:

  • Each shape has 20+ properties (x, y, width, height, strokeColor, seed, version, etc.)
  • Most properties are visual metadata (positioning, styling, roughness)
  • Actual content: text labels and element relationships (<10% of file)
  • Signal-to-noise ratio is extremely low

Example: 14-element diagram = 596 lines, 16K, ~4k tokens. 79-element diagram = 2,916 lines, 88K, ~22k tokens (exceeds read limit).

When to Use

Related skills

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Jan 25, 2026