Adobe Illustrator MCP server

This MCP server allows your AI assistant to interact directly with Adobe Illustrator, sending JavaScript scripts to automate tasks and generate content. It creates a bridge between Claude Desktop and Illustrator, enabling programmatic control for complex design tasks.

System Requirements

• macOS only (due to AppleScript dependency)
• Adobe Illustrator installed
• Claude Desktop
• Python with uv package manager

Installation

1. Install the Server

Clone or download the illustrator-mcp-server repository to your local machine:

git clone https://github.com/username/illustrator-mcp-server.git
# or download and extract the zip file to a location of your choice

2. Configure Claude Desktop

Add the MCP server configuration to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

1. Locate the configuration file at:

   ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   

2. Add the following configuration (modify the paths to match your setup):

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "illustrator": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/Users/your-username/path/to/illustrator-mcp-server",
                "run",
                "illustrator"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Make sure to replace /Users/your-username/path/to/illustrator-mcp-server with the actual path where you installed the server.

Usage

Basic Operation

1. Ensure Adobe Illustrator is installed and can be launched on your system
2. Start Claude Desktop
3. In your conversation with Claude, you can now instruct it to create and execute Illustrator scripts

Example Commands

You can ask Claude to generate Illustrator scripts and have them automatically executed. For example:

Claude, please create a simple Illustrator script that creates a red square.

Claude will generate the JavaScript code and use the MCP server to execute it in Illustrator.

JavaScript Examples

Here's a sample script you can ask Claude to execute:

// Create a new document
var doc = app.documents.add();

// Set up a new rectangle
var rect = doc.pathItems.rectangle(100, 100, 200, 200);

// Make it red
rect.fillColor = new RGBColor();
rect.fillColor.red = 255;
rect.fillColor.green = 0;
rect.fillColor.blue = 0;

Troubleshooting

• Ensure Illustrator is installed and can be launched
• Verify the path in your claude_desktop_config.json is correct
• Check that you have the necessary permissions to run scripts in Illustrator
• Make sure Claude Desktop is properly configured to use MCP servers

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "illustrator" '{"command":"uv","args":["--directory","/Users/you/code/mcp/illustrator-mcp-server","run","illustrator"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "illustrator": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/Users/you/code/mcp/illustrator-mcp-server",
                "run",
                "illustrator"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "illustrator": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/Users/you/code/mcp/illustrator-mcp-server",
                "run",
                "illustrator"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect