Inkscape MCP — AI-powered vector graphics
AI agents create, edit, layer, animate, and export SVG files using Inkscape. Works as an MCP server (stdio/HTTP), Claude Desktop .mcpb bundle, webapp dashboard, or Windows desktop app.
Preview
| Dashboard | Animation Studio | Layer Manager |
|---|
| | |
Animated SVG presets render live in the browser — no Inkscape CLI needed.
How it runs
| Mode | Inkscape | When |
|---|
| Headless (default) | CLI via inkscape --actions | Batch processing, export, validation, fleet pipelines |
| Live GUI (optional) | Open Inkscape manually + --active-window | Interactive editing with agent co-pilot |
Headless by default — no GUI needed for most operations.
Features
- Create and edit SVG files (shapes, text, paths, booleans)
- Layer management — list, create, rename, hide, lock, reorder
- SMIL animation — bounce, fade, slide, rotate, pulse, shake presets
- Live Path Effects — bend, roughen, envelope, spiro, power stroke
- Export to PNG, PDF, EPS, DXF
- Fleet pipeline — hand off to GIMP, Blender, Unity, Resonite
- LPEs, text operations, object inspection, hands-in control
Install
Let your AI set it up
Do you use an AI coding assistant (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot, ...)? Paste this into it:
Set up inkscape-mcp on this PC for me: https://github.com/sandraschi/inkscape-mcp - follow docs/AI_SETUP.md in that repository.
It checks your PC first (Inkscape, ports, disk) and installs nothing until that passes. It asks before
installing Inkscape, then sets up the server and connects it to your AI app.
Or do it yourself
Claude Desktop only: download the .mcpb from Releases and drag it onto Claude.
Windows, with the dashboard: git clone https://github.com/sandraschi/inkscape-mcp, then double-click
start.bat. It installs what is missing (uv, bun, dependencies), starts the server and opens the dashboard
at http://127.0.0.1:11029. Run it again any time: it resumes or reports that it is already running.
stop.bat stops it. start.bat -Check tells you whether it will work here, without installing anything.
Windows desktop app: the NSIS installer from Releases.
Every method: INSTALL.md.
The first start.bat run takes 2-4 minutes and the window can sit quiet while Python packages
install. This is normal. Don't close it.
Something went wrong?
- It stopped during install. Run
start.bat again. It continues where it stopped.
- "held by another program" on port 11028 or 11029. Another app uses that port. Close it, then rerun.
- Export / convert does nothing. Inkscape is missing.
winget install Inkscape.Inkscape, then restart.
- Still stuck? See TROUBLESHOOTING.md, or open an
issue and attach
logs\start.log.
What You Can Do
"Create a bouncing circle animation with a pink fill and 2-second duration, then export as PNG."
"List all layers in my SVG, hide the background layer, and rename the top layer to 'Hero'."
"Convert this text element to paths, then apply a roughen LPE with medium intensity."
Documentation
Requirements
- Windows, macOS, or Linux
- Inkscape 1.0+ (1.2+ recommended for Actions API)
- uv (fetches Python 3.12+ itself;
start.bat installs uv for you)
- Optional: Ollama for AI-assisted SVG generation
License
MIT — see LICENSE.md.
