Canva MCP Server

Official Canva MCP server for design generation, editing, asset uploads, exports, folder management, and collaborative comments via mcp.canva.com.

Design by Canva OAuth2 active

Connect (Remote Server) Docs

Overview

The Canva MCP server is the official remote Model Context Protocol endpoint hosted by Canva at https://mcp.canva.com/mcp. It exposes Canva's design platform to AI agents so they can generate new designs from prompts, edit existing designs with transactional editing operations, manage assets and folders, export to multiple formats, and collaborate via comments. Authentication uses OAuth2 with Dynamic Client Registration (DCR), so each user signs in with their own Canva account.

The server surfaces around 32 tools organized into categories: design generation and lookup (search-designs, generate-design, get-design-content, get-design-pages), editing transactions (start-editing-transaction, perform-editing-operations, commit-editing-transaction), assets (upload-asset-from-url, get-assets), folders (create-folder, list-folder-items, move-item-to-folder), exports (export-design, get-design-export-formats), comments and replies, design import from URL, and design resize. Enterprise customers also get autofill, brand templates, and brand kit tools.

Because it is provider-hosted, there is no GitHub repo to clone or package to install. Clients connect either through native remote MCP support or through the mcp-remote shim distributed by Anthropic. Plan tier affects which tools are available: most features work on any plan, resize requires Pro or above, and autofill, brand templates, and brand kits are Enterprise only.

Tools

Tool	Description
`search-designs`	Find designs by keywords across docs, presentations, videos, whiteboards, and sheets.
`get-design`	Retrieve metadata for a specific design (owner, URLs, thumbnails).
`get-design-pages`	List individual pages within a design.
`get-design-content`	Extract elements and structure from a design.
`get-presenter-notes`	Retrieve speaker notes from a presentation.
`get-design-export-formats`	List the export formats available for a design.
`get-design-thumbnail`	Fetch a thumbnail image for a design.
`generate-design`	Create a new design from a natural language prompt.
`generate-design-structured`	Generate a design with a specified structure or schema.
`create-design-from-candidate`	Build a design from a template or candidate variation.
`request-outline-review`	Submit a design outline for structural feedback before generation.
`import-design-from-url`	Convert content at a URL into an editable Canva design.
`resize-design`	Resize an existing design to new dimensions (Pro and above).
`start-editing-transaction`	Begin a batched editing transaction on a design.
`perform-editing-operations`	Apply edits within an active editing transaction.
`commit-editing-transaction`	Commit pending edits to the design.
`cancel-editing-transaction`	Discard pending edits in a transaction.
`export-design`	Export a design to PDF, PNG, JPG, PPTX, GIF, or MP4.
`upload-asset-from-url`	Import an external asset into the user's Canva assets.
`get-assets`	List stored assets available for use in designs.
`create-folder`	Create a new folder for organizing designs and assets.
`list-folder-items`	List the items inside a folder.
`search-folders`	Search folders by name.
`move-item-to-folder`	Move a design or asset into a folder.
`comment-on-design`	Add a comment to a design.
`reply-to-comment`	Reply to an existing comment thread.
`list-comments`	List comments on a design.
`list-replies`	List replies to a specific comment.
`autofill-design`	Populate a brand template with data (Enterprise only).
`get-brand-template-dataset`	Retrieve the data schema for a brand template (Enterprise only).
`search-brand-templates`	Search organization brand templates (Enterprise only).
`list-brand-kits`	List available brand kits (Enterprise only).

Setup Guide

The Canva MCP server is hosted by Canva. You do not install anything from npm; you point your MCP client at the remote endpoint and authenticate through OAuth2 (DCR) with your Canva account.

Prerequisites

Active Canva account (any plan tier)
MCP-capable client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT, Codex, Gemini, or any client that supports remote MCP)

Server endpoint

https://mcp.canva.com/mcp

Config for clients that need an stdio bridge (Claude Desktop, VS Code, Cursor)

Use the mcp-remote wrapper to proxy stdio to the remote HTTP endpoint:

{
  "servers": {
    "Canva": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote@latest",
        "https://mcp.canva.com/mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Authentication

On first use, the client will open a browser window to complete OAuth2 sign-in with Canva. Dynamic Client Registration is the recommended path; clients without DCR support can use manual client registration as described in the Canva docs.

Plan-based access

All plans: design generation, editing, search, comments, exports, asset uploads, folders
Canva Pro and above: resize-design
Enterprise: autofill-design, get-brand-template-dataset, search-brand-templates, list-brand-kits

Use Cases

Generate first-draft pitch decks, social posts, or one-pagers from a prompt and a target format, then export to PDF or PPTX.
Programmatically resize a single design into multiple ad sizes (Pro and above) for paid social campaigns.
Import landing page or article URLs and turn them into editable Canva designs for repurposing as carousels or PDFs.
Bulk-generate localized variants of an Enterprise brand template by combining autofill-design with a row of campaign data.
Run review workflows by listing comments on a design, summarizing feedback, and replying or applying changes via editing transactions.

Example Prompts

"Generate a 10-slide investor pitch deck for a B2B fintech startup and export it as PPTX."
"Find all designs in my Canva account with 'Q3 launch' in the title and list the most recent five."
"Take this landing page URL and import it into Canva, then resize the result for Instagram Stories."
"Add a comment on design abc123 asking the team to update the headline, and list any existing comments first."
"Use the Acme brand template to autofill 20 social posts from this CSV of product names and prices."

Pros

Official, provider-hosted server maintained by Canva at a stable endpoint.
Broad coverage across generation, editing transactions, exports, assets, folders, and comments (around 32 tools).
Standards-based OAuth2 with Dynamic Client Registration, so each user authenticates with their own account.
Works with any plan tier for core features; no extra paid tier needed to get started.

Limitations

Several useful tools (resize, autofill, brand templates, brand kits) are gated behind Pro or Enterprise plans.
Per-tool rate limits are tight on generation and editing endpoints (often 20 requests per minute).
Remote-only: clients that do not natively support remote MCP need the mcp-remote shim, adding a moving part.

Alternatives

Figma MCP server (Dev Mode MCP) for design context inside a code-oriented design tool.
Adobe Express or Photoshop community MCP servers for Adobe-centric creative workflows.
Direct use of the Canva Connect API without MCP if you need fine-grained programmatic control outside an AI client.