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

... [View full README on GitHub](https://github.com/grumpydevorg/inkscape-mcps#readme)