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Canva MCP

Connect your AI tools to Canva using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) through Cequence AI Gateway. The Canva MCP server gives AI assistants secure access to your Canva workspace for creating designs with AI, managing assets, exporting to multiple formats, organizing folders, and collaborating through comments — with all actions respecting your existing user-level permissions.

Overview​

Canva MCP is a remote, vendor-hosted MCP server provided by Canva. You do not run the server yourself; you connect to it from Cequence AI Gateway using the server URL and OAuth.

  • Server URL: https://mcp.canva.com/mcp
  • Transport: HTTP (Streamable HTTP)
  • Hosted by: Canva

Canva is a visual communication platform used by individuals and teams to create presentations, social media graphics, documents, posters, videos, and more. The MCP server exposes 22 tools that cover design search and retrieval, AI-powered design generation, file import and export, asset uploads, folder management, commenting, brand kits, and design resizing.

Supported authentication types​

TypeSupportedNotes
OAuth 2.1YesRecommended for Cequence AI Gateway. Uses Dynamic Client Registration (DCR); no need to create an OAuth app in Canva.
API keyNoNot used for the remote MCP server.

When you add Canva MCP in Cequence AI Gateway, authentication is handled through OAuth 2.1 with Dynamic Client Registration. You sign in with your Canva account and grant access during the gateway flow. Any Canva plan works for core functionality; some features like design resizing require Canva Pro, and brand kits with autofill templates require Canva Enterprise.

What can you do with this MCP server​

The Canva MCP server provides access to design, collaboration, and asset management capabilities across the Canva platform. Capabilities are grouped by area below.

Design search and retrieval​

  • Search your owned and shared designs by keyword, with sorting and filtering options
  • Get detailed metadata for any design including owner, title, edit/view URLs, thumbnail, timestamps, and page count
  • Retrieve page listings with thumbnails for multi-page designs like presentations
  • Read text content from docs, presentations, whiteboards, social media posts, and other design types
  • Get presenter notes from presentation slides

AI design generation​

  • Generate professionally designed content using AI, including visual designs (posters, social media posts, presentations, flyers, infographics) and text-based documents (memos, reports, proposals, business plans)
  • Choose from over 20 design types: business cards, Instagram posts, YouTube thumbnails, resumes, email templates, and more
  • Control presentation length (short, balanced, or comprehensive) for slide-based content
  • Apply brand kits to AI-generated designs for brand-consistent output
  • Include uploaded assets in generated designs, with ordering control for multi-page layouts
  • Convert AI-generated candidates into editable Canva designs

Import and export​

  • Import designs from public HTTPS URLs supporting PDF, PPTX, DOCX, XLSX, CSV, HTML, Markdown, PSD, AI, Keynote, and more
  • Export designs to PDF, PNG, JPG, GIF, PPTX, or MP4 with format-specific options (quality, page size, dimensions, transparency, lossless compression)
  • Check available export formats for any design before exporting

Asset management​

  • Upload images, videos, and other assets from URLs into your Canva account

Folders and organization​

  • Create folders at the root level or nested inside other folders
  • Move designs, folders, and images between folders
  • List folder contents with filtering by item type (design, folder, image) and sorting
  • Search folders by name and tags across owned and shared content

Comments and collaboration​

  • Add comments to any design visible to all users with access
  • List all comments on a design with pagination
  • View threaded replies on individual comments
  • Reply to existing comments to continue design discussions

Brand kits​

  • List available brand kits with names, thumbnails, and IDs
  • Use brand kit IDs when generating AI designs to maintain brand consistency

Utilities​

  • Resolve Canva shortlinks (canva.link) to full design URLs before using other tools
  • Resize designs to preset formats (presentation, whiteboard) or custom pixel dimensions

Prerequisites​

Before adding Canva MCP in Cequence AI Gateway, ensure you have:

  • Access to Cequence AI Gateway at aigateway.cequence.ai
  • A Canva account (any plan) with access to the designs and folders you want AI tools to use
  • For design resizing: Canva Pro or higher may be required
  • For brand kits and autofill templates: Canva Enterprise is required
  • For OAuth authentication: Canva uses Dynamic Client Registration (DCR), so you typically do not need to create an OAuth app manually

Example workflows​

Once connected, you can run workflows like these from your AI client.

Design creation and generation​

  • "Create a presentation about our Q3 marketing strategy with 10 slides."
  • "Generate an Instagram post announcing our summer sale."
  • "Draft a business proposal document for the new product launch."
  • "Design a flyer for the upcoming company event."

Export and sharing​

  • "Export my latest presentation as a PDF."
  • "Download the team poster as a high-resolution PNG with transparent background."
  • "Convert the sales deck to PPTX format for sharing externally."

Asset and folder management​

  • "Upload this product photo to my Canva assets."
  • "Create a folder called 'Q3 Campaign' and move my recent designs into it."
  • "Show me all designs in my Marketing folder sorted by most recently modified."

Collaboration and review​

  • "Add a comment to the brand guidelines doc asking the team to review section 3."
  • "Show me all comments on the latest design and their replies."
  • "What brand kits do I have available? Generate a social post using our company brand."

Connecting MCP server from Cequence AI Gateway​

  1. Log in to Cequence AI Gateway.
  2. Choose your tenant.
  3. Go to App catalogue.
  4. Filter by Remote MCP server.
  5. Search for Canva MCP and then select it.
  6. Select Create MCP server.
  7. Choose auth method. Canva MCP uses OAuth with DCR, so setup is straightforward.
  8. Complete the setup as prompted, select tools, and deploy.

Use the generated MCP server URL in your client (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.) as described in the Client Configuration docs. For detailed UI steps and screenshots, see Create a third-party MCP Server.

Additional information specific to Canva MCP​

  • Dynamic Client Registration: Canva MCP uses OAuth 2.1 with DCR, so you do not need to create or configure an OAuth app in Canva; the gateway and Canva handle registration automatically.
  • User-level permissions: All AI actions respect existing Canva user permissions. The agent can only access designs, folders, and assets that the authenticated user has permission to view or edit.
  • Scope reconnection: Some tools (such as asset uploads and brand kit access) require specific OAuth scopes. If a tool returns a "Missing scopes" error, disconnect and reconnect the connector to generate a new access token with the required scope.
  • Timeout: The remote server uses a 30-second timeout for requests.
  • Pro and Enterprise features: Design resizing may require Canva Pro. Brand kits and autofill templates require Canva Enterprise. Core design, export, folder, and collaboration features work on any Canva plan.
  • Shortlink resolution: When users share canva.link shortlinks, the MCP server can resolve them to full design URLs before performing other operations.
  • Official documentation: For setup instructions and troubleshooting, see Canva MCP documentation.