Sketchfab MCP server

This MCP server allows you to interact with Sketchfab's 3D model platform directly through Claude or Cursor. With it, you can search for models, view detailed information, and download 3D models in various formats without leaving your development environment.

Installation

To get started with the Sketchfab MCP server, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository to your local machine
2. Install the required dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Build the project:

   npm run build
   

Running the Server

You can start the MCP server using npm:

npm start

Authentication

You'll need a Sketchfab API key to use this server. There are two ways to provide it:

1. Using the command line parameter:

   node build/index.js --api-key YOUR_API_KEY
   

2. Using an environment variable:

   export SKETCHFAB_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY
   npm start
   

Available Tools

The MCP server provides three main tools for interacting with Sketchfab:

Search for 3D Models

The sketchfab-search tool allows you to find models based on keywords and filters.

Parameters:

• query (optional): Text search query (e.g., "car", "house", "character")
• tags (optional): Filter by specific tags (e.g., ["animated", "rigged", "pbr"])
• categories (optional): Filter by categories (e.g., ["characters", "architecture", "vehicles"])
• downloadable (optional): Set to true to show only downloadable models
• limit (optional): Maximum number of results to return (1-24, default: 10)

View Model Details

Use sketchfab-model-details to get comprehensive information about a specific 3D model.

Parameters:

• modelId: The unique ID of the Sketchfab model

Download Models

The sketchfab-download tool enables you to download 3D models in various formats.

Parameters:

• modelId: The unique ID of the Sketchfab model to download
• format (optional): Preferred format to download the model in (gltf, glb, usdz, source)
• outputPath (optional): Local directory or file path to save the downloaded file

Integration with AI Tools

Using with Cursor

1. Open Cursor Settings → MCP → Add new MCP server
2. Configure your MCP with these settings:
   • Name: Sketchfab MCP
   • Type: command
   • Command: node /path/to/build/index.js --api-key YOUR_API_KEY

Using with Claude Desktop

Add the following MCP configuration to your Claude Desktop setup:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sketchfab": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/build/index.js", "--api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY"]
    }
  }
}

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 "sketchfab" '{"command":"node","args":["/path/to/build/index.js","--api-key","YOUR_API_KEY"]}'

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": {
        "sketchfab": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/build/index.js",
                "--api-key",
                "YOUR_API_KEY"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "sketchfab": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/path/to/build/index.js",
                "--api-key",
                "YOUR_API_KEY"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect