Announcing tldraw SDK 4.0 – tldraw: Build whiteboards in React with the tldraw SDK

Hey, this is Steve Ruiz, founder of tldraw.

For anyone new to the project, hello, we’re a London-based startup behind the tldraw SDK, a TypeScript library for building infinite canvas apps on the web. In addition to building the SDK, we also build things with the SDK, including a free online whiteboard at tldraw.com and plenty of side projects like tldraw.computer.

Like our previous major releases, this release includes changes to our license together with new resources for developers. It also includes the usual collection of small improvements and fixes to the SDK. You can find these details in the full release notes.

On with the highlights!

npm create tldraw

This release includes our new CLI tool, available at npm create tldraw@latest. You can use this tool to quickly create new tldraw projects using our templates and new starter kits.

Starter kits

This release includes four new starter kits:

• agent is a Cursor-style chatbot starter. This kit replaces our AI module and AI template. If you’re interested in driving AI interactions on the canvas, this is a great place to start hacking.

• workflow is a React-flow style starter for node-and-wire applications. If you have an idea for a patch programming interface, an asynchronous workflow tool, or a ComfyUI-style pipeline for images or data, start with this one.

• branching chat is a starter kit for branching AI chats, inspired by tweets by Max Lee and Jacob Colling. Run with it!

• chat is a starter kit where the tldraw canvas is used to create and annotate images. If you’re working on an app that features a chatbot (who isn’t?) then give this one a spin and try out some ideas.

• multiplayer is clean starter kit featuring our tldraw sync multiplayer backend. Build a multiplayer whiteboard, game, or bypass your school’s chat app restrictions.

The starter kits are all MIT licensed, so go ahead and build with them as you like. Learn more on the tldraw docs or get started by running npm create tldraw in your terminal.

Licensing changes

Our 4.0 release includes a new license with changes to where tldraw can be used. Fate and capital both demand that tldraw be a sustainable project, so these changes are designed to help us commercialize the SDK without cutting off community adoption.

Under the terms of the new license, the tldraw SDK is only permitted to be used in development environments. To use the SDK in production environments, you must have either a trial license, a commercial license, or a hobby license. This policy is enforced through the license keys that come with each license. The SDK will only work in production when it has a valid license key.

If you are only using tldraw in localhost or development environments, then you do not need a license. If you wish to use the tldraw SDK in production, you can get a free 100-day trial license.

You can read more about our licensing here.

As a special offer for teams who are considering a commercial license: until the end of 2025, if you sign a one-year commercial agreement with tldraw, we will discount the cost of the license by the amount of time left on your free trial. 60 days left on your trial? That’s a cool 16%. Get started here.

Accessibility features

Over the last few months, we’ve quietly worked to make the tldraw SDK more accessible. With the help of Sarah Fossheim, we were able to complete enough features, improvements, and small fixes to become compliant with the WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standard. We will soon be publicly providing our VPAT compliance document which will provide further details.

The SDK’s improved accessibility should be a great benefit to downstream users and customers with their own accessibility goals, and who will inherit these improvements just by upgrading to 4.0. I also think it is a huge win for canvas experiences overall, with our improvements reaching thousands of applications and millions of downstream users.

If you haven’t checked in with tldraw recently, I encourage you to give it a spin through our new npm create tldraw@latest and starter kits, or else by reading about the project on the new tldraw.dev. This year we’ve opened 2000 pull requests in the tldraw repository alone, reached 40,000 GitHub Stars, brought our weekly installs above 70,000, grew our Discord channel to 8,000 members, and announced a $10M series A led by Lux Ventures and Definition Capital. We’re always hiring for product, engineering, and product engineering.

Get in! And if you build something incredible with our new starter kits, please let us know.

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