Odel
MCP server: One MCP server.

Inkscape (inksmcp)

@bhanutptMCP server · External

Create, edit and export SVG graphics with Inkscape: measured layout, templates, export.

Graphic designv0.3.0MITPython
Freeno charge per call
How to install

Runs on your machine from its package; the steps are below.

Comic page
From the README · 1 of 6

What it does

  1. Reads
  2. Writes
  3. High impact

At most: creates or changes data: records, files, settings.

What it costs

Free

Odel charges nothing per call. The publisher may charge for its own service.

Runs locally over stdio

This server isn't hosted — your MCP client launches it from a package registry. Use one of the commands below, or drop the config into your client (e.g. Claude Desktop).

PyPIinksmcpv0.3.0

Run

uvx inksmcp

MCP client config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "inkscape-inksmcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "inksmcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}
README4 min read

inksmcp

An MCP server that lets AI assistants create, edit and export vector graphics with Inkscape.

CI PyPI Python License: MIT

Describe a poster, a diagram, a chart or a comic page to your assistant, and it builds a real SVG document in Inkscape: measured, laid out and exported to PNG or PDF. It can also open drawings made elsewhere and change them.

Comic pagePeriodic table posterSwimlane flowchart
Floor planDatasheet with four plotsTamil alphabet poster

Made by Claude through inksmcp during field tests, in 13 to 41 tool calls each. The SVG was never edited by hand. The floor plan and the periodic table used a short script to prepare their data.

Why inksmcp

Asking a model to write SVG by hand works for an icon, but it breaks down on real layouts. The model can't measure text, keeps redoing coordinate arithmetic, and can't see what it drew. inksmcp takes that work off the model:

  • Measured, not guessed. Bounding boxes come from Inkscape itself, text included, in the document's own units.
  • Relationships instead of coordinates. align and layout arrange things. place keeps a caption below a title's real glyphs. fit_to sizes a box around its content. connect draws arrows that stay attached when things move.
  • Data-driven. repeat stamps a template per data row (cards, timelines, legends, table rows, character poses). split divides a page into panels or cells. Large data comes from JSON or CSV files, so it doesn't pass through the conversation.
  • Works on existing files. It opens .svg/.svgz drawings from other tools. inspect find locates elements by colour, type, text or symbol. Symbols can be placed from icon libraries.
  • Safe and checkable. Every tool is all-or-nothing. Editing responses warn about overlapping text, and render_preview shows the agent what it drew.
  • Real output. PNG, PDF (optionally with text as paths), plain SVG, EPS, EMF and more, rendered by Inkscape.

Quick start

  1. Install Inkscape 1.x and uv.

  2. Add the server to your MCP client. For Claude Code:

    bash
    claude mcp add --scope user inkscape -- uvx inksmcp

    For Claude Desktop, Cursor and others:

    json
    { "mcpServers": { "inkscape": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["inksmcp"] } } }

  3. Ask: "Using the inkscape tools, make an A5 flyer for a book swap on Saturday at 10:00 in the library garden, show me a preview, then export a PDF."

Details for each OS and client, and troubleshooting, are in getting started.

Tools

AreaTools
Documentsdocument_create, document_open, document_save, inspect (outline, real bboxes, find), inkscape_info
Elementsadd_elements (rect, circle, ellipse, line, polyline, polygon, path, text, group, arrow, image, use), update_elements, delete_elements, import_file, repeat
Arrangementalign, layout, split, connect, z_order, move_to_layer, page_fit, page_resize
Chartsgrid (linear/log graph paper and axes), plot (data series in data values)
Pathspath_operation (union, difference, intersection, combine, stroke to path, ...), run_actions (guarded raw Inkscape actions)
Outputrender_preview (PNG back to the agent), export

See the recipes for how they combine, and the tool reference for every parameter.

How it works

The document lives in the server as an lxml tree, which is the source of truth. Edits are applied there directly. Anything that needs Inkscape (measuring, boolean operations, connectors, rendering, export) goes to one persistent inkscape --shell process, so a call takes milliseconds instead of the ~1 s it takes to start Inkscape. The architecture notes have the details.

Status

inksmcp is beta (0.3). It has been through eleven field tests, in which agents used it for real tasks. The latest one edited files made in other tools. There are 160 tests, and they run against the real Inkscape.

Known limits:

  • It is developed on Windows with Inkscape 1.4.4. CI also runs on Linux and macOS.
  • The tool list costs about 9k tokens of context per session.
  • Gradients and patterns can't be created as style keys yet. They can be applied through raw style when they already exist in the document.
  • SVG 1.2 flowed text can be moved but not edited.

The roadmap lists what's next.

Contributing

Bug reports, field reports ("I asked for X, here's what the agent struggled with") and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md. The project is built experiment-first: every Inkscape behaviour it relies on is proven by a script in experiments/ and guarded by a test. The development handbook explains the method.

License

MIT. Inkscape is a separate program under the GPL; inksmcp calls it as an external process.

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