SMF·MIRO
Can a prompt replace Miro?
Whiteboards & diagrams — collaborative whiteboard
Exhibit tracking slip
Verdict
A personal whiteboard built on an existing open-source canvas SDK — sticky notes, shapes, connectors, autosave — is a real weekend build, not a from-scratch canvas engine. What doesn't come with it is Miro's actual product: reliable performance with dozens of simultaneous editors, a deep template library, and workshop-facilitation tooling.
Exhibit A — The prompt
Received on30.07.2026Don't write a canvas engine from scratch — build a personal whiteboard on top of an existing open-source canvas SDK (tldraw is a solid choice; it already handles shapes, sticky notes, connectors, and selection well). A board picker for named boards with thumbnails. Autosave each board's canvas state to a database a couple of seconds after the last change, keeping a short history of recent snapshots as undo insurance. Export the current board to PNG and SVG. Seed a handful of starter templates (a retro grid, brainstorm columns, a weekly plan) from simple config files rather than building a template marketplace. Everything works fully offline and locally by default.
Do not build workshop-facilitation tools (timers, voting), third-party integrations, or performance tuning for boards with dozens of simultaneous editors — those are Miro's actual product depth. Real-time sync between exactly two people is a reasonable stretch goal; supporting a whole team on one board at once is not.Opening prefills the prompt — press enter to run it.
Exhibit B — What you lose
- B.1 reliable performance with many simultaneous editors
- B.2 a deep template library
- B.3 third-party integrations
- B.4 workshop-facilitation tools like timers and voting
- B.5 enterprise permission controls
Prior art
Exhibit C — Why people still pay: collaboration/performance/templates
People pay for workshops where dozens of people can join a board at once and everything still holds up — not for the ability to draw a sticky note, which open-source canvas tooling already solves.
Questions
Can I import my existing Miro boards?
Miro exports boards as images or PDFs, which preserve the visual but not the editable shapes. There's no supported way to bring boards back in as live, editable elements.
Will it work on my phone?
Viewing a board works on a phone browser, but precise shape placement and connector drawing are genuinely harder on a touchscreen — this is realistically a desktop and tablet tool.
What does it cost to run?
Hosting and a database, typically a few dollars a month — no per-seat pricing to think about.
What's the one thing that doesn't survive the rebuild?
A room full of people editing the same board at once. Real-time multiplayer at Miro's scale needs the same kind of conflict-resolution engineering as Figma's — this build is honestly a personal thinking canvas, not a workshop venue.
Related tools
Receipt