DALL-E 3 Image Generator MCP server

This MCP server generates images based on prompts using OpenAI's DALL-E 3 model. It provides a simple interface to create and save images through the Claude Desktop application.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js and npm installed on your system
• An OpenAI API key
• Claude Desktop application

Setup

1. Install the package dependencies:

npm install

2. Build the server:

npm run build

3. Configure Claude Desktop to use the server by creating or editing the configuration file:

On MacOS:

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

On Windows:

%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

4. Add the following configuration to the file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "command": "image-generator",
    "env": {
      "OPENAI_API_KEY": "<your-openai-api-key>"
    }
  }
}

Be sure to replace <your-openai-api-key> with your actual OpenAI API key.

Usage

Generating Images

The server provides a tool called generate_image that can be used to create images from text prompts. This tool requires two parameters:

• prompt: The text description of the image you want to generate
• imageName: A name for the image file (the image will be saved in a directory called generated-images on your desktop)

Example Usage

When using Claude Desktop, you can request an image generation by describing what you want:

Please generate an image of a sunset over mountains using the image generation tool.

Claude will then use the generate_image tool with your prompt and save the resulting image to your desktop.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues with the image generation:

• Verify your OpenAI API key is valid and has access to DALL-E 3
• Check that the configuration file is properly formatted and in the correct location
• Ensure the server is built correctly using npm run build

You can also run the server in watch mode during testing:

npm run watch

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 "image-generator" '{"command":"image-generator","env":{"OPENAI_API_KEY":"<your-openai-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": {
        "image-generator": {
            "command": "image-generator",
            "env": {
                "OPENAI_API_KEY": "<your-openai-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": {
        "image-generator": {
            "command": "image-generator",
            "env": {
                "OPENAI_API_KEY": "<your-openai-api-key>"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect