Inkscape Mcps

Inkscape MCP Server

A secure, hardened MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for Inkscape operations, providing both CLI actions and DOM manipulation capabilities.

Features

• CLI Actions: Execute Inkscape command-line actions (export, transforms, path operations)
• DOM Manipulation: Direct SVG DOM editing with CSS selectors
• Security Hardened: Workspace-scoped paths, size limits, action allowlists
• Async Support: Non-blocking operations with rate limiting
• Atomic Operations: Safe file writes and process cleanup

Installation

From PyPI (when published)

# Using uv (recommended)
uv add inkscape-mcp

# Using pip
pip install inkscape-mcp

From Source

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/inkscape-mcp
cd inkscape-mcp

# Quick development setup
./scripts/dev-setup

# Or manual setup
uv sync --dev         # Install with dev dependencies
uv build              # Build distribution packages

Usage

As Individual Servers

Start the CLI server:

inkscape-mcp-cli

Start the DOM server:

inkscape-mcp-dom  

Start combined server (both CLI and DOM tools):

inkscape-mcp

Configuration

Configure via environment variables:

export INKS_WORKSPACE="./my-workspace"  # Default: ./inkspace
export INKS_MAX_FILE="104857600"        # Default: 50MB
export INKS_TIMEOUT="120"               # Default: 60s
export INKS_MAX_CONC="8"                # Default: 4

MCP Client Integration

Add to your MCP client configuration (e.g., Claude Desktop):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "inkscape-mcp": {
      "command": "inkscape-mcp",
      "env": {
        "INKS_WORKSPACE": "/path/to/workspace",
        "INKS_MAX_FILE": "52428800"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

CLI Tools (inkscape-mcp-cli)

• action_list - List all available Inkscape actions
• action_run - Execute Inkscape actions on documents

DOM Tools (inkscape-mcp-dom)

• dom_validate - Validate SVG document structure
• dom_set - Set attributes/styles using CSS selectors
• dom_clean - Clean/optimize SVG using scour

Examples

Export SVG to PNG

# Via MCP client
await action_run({
    "doc": {"type": "file", "path": "input.svg"},
    "export": {"type": "png", "out": "output.png", "dpi": 300}
})

Modify SVG Elements

# Change fill color of all circles
await dom_set({
    "doc": {"type": "file", "path": "input.svg"},
    "ops": [{
        "selector": {"type": "css", "value": "circle"},
        "set": {"style.fill": "#ff6600"}
    }],
    "save_as": "modified.svg"
})

Path Operations

# Union selected paths
await action_run({
    "doc": {"type": "file", "path": "input.svg"},
    "actions": ["select-all", "path-union"]
})

Security Features

• Workspace Scoping: All file operations restricted to configured workspace
• Size Limits: Configurable file size caps prevent resource exhaustion
• Action Allowlist: Only explicitly approved Inkscape actions permitted
• Safe Selectors: CSS selectors limited to safe subset (no XPath injection)
• Process Isolation: Robust subprocess management with timeouts and cleanup
• Atomic Writes: Temporary files with atomic rename prevent corruption
• Rate Limiting: Concurrent operation limits prevent resource abuse

Development

Setup Development Environment

# Clone and setup
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/inkscape-mcp
cd inkscape-mcp

# Quick setup using just (recommended)
just setup

# Or manual setup
uv sync --dev         # Install with dev dependencies

Development Workflow

This project uses just for task running:

just                  # Show available commands
just setup           # Development setup
just test            # Run tests (64 integration tests)
just lint            # Run linting with ruff
just format          # Format code with black + ruff
just type-check      # Run type checking with ty
just check           # Run all checks (lint + type + test)
just build           # Build distribution packages
just clean           # Clean build artifacts

Individual Server Testing

just test-cli        # Test CLI server only
just test-dom        # Test DOM server only  
just test-combined   # Test combined server only

Claude Code Integration

Install the Package

# Install from your local development copy
just build
uv pip install dist/*.whl

# Or install in development mode
uv sync --dev

Configure Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "inkscape-mcp": {
      "command": "inkscape-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "INKS_WORKSPACE": "/Users/yourname/inkscape-workspace",
        "INKS_MAX_FILE": "52428800",
        "INKS_TIMEOUT": "120"
      }
    }
  }
}

Testing with Claude Code

1. Setup workspace:

```bash mkdir -p ~/inkscape-workspace cd ~/inkscape-workspace

# Create a test SVG file cat > test.svg

EOF ```

1. Restart Claude Desktop after updating config

1. Test in Claude Code:

``` Can you list available Inkscape actions?

Can you validate this SVG: /Users/yourname/inkscape-workspace/test.svg

Change all circles to red color in test.svg and save as test-red.svg

Export test.svg to PNG at 300 DPI ```

Entry Points Available

Three MCP servers are available:

• inkscape-mcp - Combined server (5 tools: all CLI + DOM)
• inkscape-mcp-cli - CLI only (2 tools: actionlist, actionrun)
• inkscape-mcp-dom - DOM only (3 tools: domvalidate, domset, dom_clean)

Troubleshooting

Server not found:

# Check if entry points are installed
which inkscape-mcp
uv run which inkscape-mcp

Permission errors:

# Ensure workspace directory exists and is writable
mkdir -p ~/inkscape-workspace
chmod 755 ~/inkscape-workspace

Inkscape not found:

# Install Inkscape
brew install inkscape  # macOS
# or check if already installed
which inkscape
# If Inkscape lives outside PATH, point INKS_INKSCAPE_BIN at the binary
# macOS/Linux example:
export INKS_INKSCAPE_BIN="/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/MacOS/inkscape"
# Windows PowerShell example:
$Env:INKS_INKSCAPE_BIN = "C:\Program Files\Inkscape\bin\inkscape.exe"

Manual Server Testing

If you need to test servers manually (without Claude Code):

# Test entry points are working
which inkscape-mcp
which inkscape-mcp-cli  
which inkscape-mcp-dom

# Test servers start correctly
inkscape-mcp --help      # Should show MCP server info
inkscape-mcp-cli --help  # CLI server 
inkscape-mcp-dom --help  # DOM server

# Or run directly with Python
uv run python -m inkscape_mcp.cli_server
uv run python -m inkscape_mcp.dom_server  
uv run python -m inkscape_mcp.combined

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• Inkscape installed and available in PATH
• Dependencies: fastmcp, pydantic, anyio, filelock, inkex, scour

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass and code is formatted
5. Submit a pull request

Security

This server is designed for trusted environments. While it includes multiple security hardening measures, it should not be exposed to untrusted networks or users without additional authentication and authorization layers.

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: grumpydevorg
• Source: grumpydevorg/inkscape-mcps
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.