visual-explainer vs maidr
visual-explainer is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by Joe Amditis. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Community GitHub marketplaces). maidr is an MCP server published by xability. Marketplaces we read that list it: 2 (Official MCP Registry, PyPI (MCP servers)). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-24. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  maidr | |
|---|---|---|
| Community marketplace jamditis/claude-skills-journalism | Listed Version: 0.7.5 Forks (GitHub): 69 Stars (GitHub): 432 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.1.3 Downloads/month (PyPI): 232 Downloads/week (PyPI): 146 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 1 Not marked · First seen |
| PyPI (MCP servers) | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.1.3 Downloads/month (PyPI): 232 Downloads/week (PyPI): 146 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 1 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | visual-explainer | maidr |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it (differs) | 1 (worse) | 2 (better) |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 432 (better) | 1 (worse) |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 69 (better) | 0 (worse) |
| Last release (differs) | 2026-10-24 (better) | 2026-10-20 (worse) |
| Where it runs (differs) | Installs as a plugin bundle | On your machine (maidr-mcp) |
| Transport (differs) | Not stated | stdio |
| Tools it declares | Not published | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for | Not published | Not published |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | 8 | Not a bundle |
| Licence (differs) | Not stated | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/jamditis/claude-skills-journalism | github.com/xability/maidr-mcp |
| Changes in the last 7 days (differs) | 3 | 2 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-22 | 2026-10-11 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
visual-explainer
HTML diagrams, data tables, and architecture views adapted from nicobailon/visual-explainer with newsroom and academic design sensibilities. Generates self-contained pages with Mermaid diagrams, KPI cards, slide decks, and zoom/pan controls.
maidr
Accessible maidr charts in ChatGPT and Claude, explored by sound, braille and screen reader
How to run each
visual-explainer As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add jamditis/claude-skills-journalism
/plugin install visual-explainer@claude-skills-journalismmaidr As a local MCP server: PyPI package
claude mcp add --transport stdio maidr-mcp -- uvx maidr-mcp --stdioCommands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
Neither one's marketplaces publish a list of tools, so there is nothing to compare.
Settings each asks for
Neither one's marketplaces publish the settings it asks for.
What it can do: visual-explainer · What it can do: maidr · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Package data comes from the Python Package Index (pypi.org). Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.