Project of the Week: Excalidraw

Excalidraw is presented as an open-source virtual whiteboard for sketching diagrams with a hand-drawn feel. The page links its popularity to real-time collaboration, end-to-end encryption, and a workflow that keeps development fast while staying quality-focused.

Reading notes

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• The project is described as a collaborative drawing platform used by developers, designers, and teams for wireframes and system architecture diagrams.
• 71% of pull requests receive reviews before merging, with quality control pushed earlier through issue discussion and automated testing.
• Contributors report 4 minutes and 30 seconds of overall wait time, supported by semantic commit prefixes and a defined roadmap.
• 78% of pull requests come from core team members, showing strong maintainer involvement and a guided contribution model.
• Bot activity is 15.1%, with automation handling testing and translation through Crowdin while human judgment remains central.
• The median merge time is 8 hours and 44 minutes, and the page presents this as part of an efficient, maintainer-led process.