Illustrator MCP Server

Control Adobe Illustrator from Claude. Send ExtendScript code and view screenshots — all from your AI assistant.

Works with Claude Code (CLI) and Claude Desktop. macOS only (Illustrator is a desktop app).

One-line install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/victorwhale/illustrator-mcp/main/install.sh | bash

This installs everything: the MCP server, the CEP bridge panel, and configures Claude Code automatically.

After install, restart Illustrator and open the MCP Bridge panel: Window > Extensions > MCP Bridge.

What it does

Tool	Description
run	Execute ExtendScript/JavaScript code in Illustrator
view	Take a screenshot of the Illustrator window

Manual setup

Prerequisites

• macOS
• Adobe Illustrator (with active license)
• uv (Python package manager)

Install

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/victorwhale/illustrator-mcp.git ~/mcp-servers/illustrator-mcp
cd ~/mcp-servers/illustrator-mcp
uv sync

# Install CEP bridge
bash illustrator-cep-bridge/install.sh
defaults write com.adobe.CSXS.12 PlayerDebugMode 1

# Restart Illustrator, then open: Window > Extensions > MCP Bridge

Configure Claude Code

claude mcp add illustrator -- uv --directory ~/mcp-servers/illustrator-mcp run illustrator

Configure Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "illustrator": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/Users/YOU/mcp-servers/illustrator-mcp",
        "run",
        "illustrator"
      ]
    }
  }
}

How it works

Two-layer architecture:

1. CEP Bridge — A panel running inside Illustrator that exposes an HTTP server on localhost:18900. It receives ExtendScript code and executes it via the CSInterface.
2. MCP Server — A Python server that speaks the MCP protocol (stdio) and forwards tool calls to the CEP bridge. Falls back to AppleScript if the bridge is unavailable.

Credits

Originally created by Anshul Dalua. CEP bridge and improvements by victorwhale.