topopt

Install | Use | Examples | Documentation | License

It gives your AI agent a topology optimizer that sets itself up and runs on your own computer. The start part can be an STL file you already have, a sketch, a description in words, or a shape you work out with the agent in the chat: the rough form, where it is mounted and where the loads go, checked in a picture and changed until it is right. Then topopt runs the topology optimization: it finds a light shape that carries those loads and writes a smooth STL file that you can print.

More on the website: topopt.ai

Three ways to start a part:

• An STL file that you have. "Here is bracket.stl. Keep the two screw holes, the tip carries 5 kg. Make it lighter."

• A sketch and a few words. "I'm building a bike frame with 3D-printed lugs. Can the head tube lug be topology optimized?" With a sketch like this one:

• Words only. "A wall hook for a T-shirt, two screws, 2 kg." Or a footbridge on two supports, or a stool that holds 100 kg.

A footbridge on two supports: a recorded run (200 passes, 39 minutes with gpu-mg on an integrated GPU) in the dashboard replay.

Install

topopt works with any agent client that supports MCP servers. We test it most with Claude and recommend it, but topopt is not tied to Claude. topopt runs on a Mac with Apple silicon or on Linux x86_64, with at least 16 GB of memory for the example. You need no tool first: topopt uses your uv if you have one (uv 0.6.8 or newer); else the setup downloads a pinned uv release and checks its checksum.

What the setup downloads, and what topopt sends

• uv 0.13.5, only if topopt finds no uv that it can use (18 MB, checked by its SHA256). Python 3.13 through uv (35 MB), the 55 packages of requirements.lock from PyPI, and setuptools (the setup builds the topopt code with it): about 200 MB in all, about 700 MB on disk. The sizes are from Linux x86_64.
• After a plugin update, a complete setup links the code again offline. It downloads only when the lock file changed, and once when the Python of the launcher changes (the update to Python 3.13 downloads Python 3.13 and the packages again, about 180 MB, and needs the network).
• topopt sends no data unless you allow it to send diagnostic data. A run, the dashboard server (127.0.0.1 only), the tools and the pages that open in your browser connect to nothing outside your computer, and they work offline.
• The details, and how we checked them: What the setup downloads.

Clients

Claude Desktop is the most tested client and the one we recommend: the chat shows the pictures that topopt makes of your part.

1. Download topopt.mcpb from the newest release (v0.5.1).
2. Open the file with Claude Desktop.
3. In a new chat, ask for the first example: "Run the topopt example examples/hook/hook.yaml and give me the dashboard link."

The first start sets up Python in the background: 1 to 3 minutes. Until then, the chat marks a topopt call as Failed: that is the setup status, not a fault. Everything else (the skills for the chat, the work folder field, problems): Claude Desktop.

The Code tab of Claude Desktop uses the Claude Code plugin: see Claude Code below.

This repo is a Claude Code plugin and also its marketplace. #latest is the newest release. In a terminal:

claude plugin marketplace add chartergroup/topopt#latest
claude plugin install topopt@topopt

Or in a Claude Code session:

/plugin marketplace add chartergroup/topopt#latest
/plugin install topopt@topopt

Then start Claude Code in your work folder and type:

/topopt:start-here

Claude checks the machine, helps you describe the part, checks the problem, starts the run and gives you the dashboard link (usually http://127.0.0.1:8765/). The first start sets up Python for the plugin: 1 to 3 minutes, about 200 MB (what it downloads). Until then, a topopt tool answers with the setup status.

In the Code tab of Claude Desktop, the plugin command opens Settings > Plugins. Add the plugin there:

1. Open Settings > Plugins. Press + Add, choose Add marketplace, then Add from a repository.
2. Type chartergroup/topopt#latest in the field URL and press Sync.
3. Right after the sync, press Add on topopt: topology optimization for 3D printing. In the dialog about local MCP servers, press Continue.
4. Start a session in a project folder and ask for the first example.

More: The Code tab: the plugin.

To update an install from #latest, run these in a terminal, then start a new session:

claude plugin marketplace update topopt
claude plugin update topopt@topopt

A pinned install updates another way: Update. Pinned releases, a checkout and first-run problems: Install the Claude Code plugin.

Every client starts the same server. Get a checkout and set it up once:

git clone https://github.com/chartergroup/topopt
cd topopt
sh scripts/topopt-env.sh sync

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗