🎨 chatgpt-image-mcp

Let Claude generate and edit images with ChatGPT, using the ChatGPT app already on your computer. No API key and no extra billing: images are generated with your ChatGPT subscription.

✨ Features

• 🖼️ Generate images from a text prompt, optionally guided by reference images

• ✏️ Edit existing images (change backgrounds or colors, add or remove objects) without touching the original

• 🔑 No API key: uses the Codex CLI bundled with the ChatGPT desktop app, signed in with your ChatGPT account

• 👀 Previews: the client gets the image back inline, so Claude can look at the result and iterate

• 💾 Saved to disk wherever you want, with safe file names and no overwrites

• 🧩 Works with Claude Code, Claude Desktop and any other MCP client

New here? Jump to Getting started. You can even let your AI install it for you.

Related MCP server: Codex ImageGen MCP

⚙️ How it works

sequenceDiagram
    participant C as Claude (MCP client)
    participant S as chatgpt-image-mcp
    participant X as codex exec (ChatGPT app)
    C->>S: generate_image / edit_image
    S->>X: headless, read-only run with the built-in image_gen tool
    X-->>S: image saved in ~/.codex/generated_images/<thread>
    S->>S: copy to output_dir
    S-->>C: file path(s) + inline preview

The ChatGPT desktop app for Windows (Microsoft Store package OpenAI.Codex) ships the codex CLI. That CLI is already signed in with your ChatGPT account and can generate images with its built-in image_gen tool. For each request, this server runs codex exec in the background with a locked-down configuration:

• --sandbox read-only and --ignore-user-config, so it can't run commands and loads none of your personal plugins

• --ephemeral, so it leaves no chat history behind

The server then collects the resulting image from ~/.codex/generated_images/.

🚀 Getting started

Setup takes about 5 minutes. You can let your AI assistant do it for you (option A), or follow the steps yourself (option B).

Option A: let your AI set it up 🤖

Open Claude Code (or another AI coding agent that can run commands on your computer) and paste this prompt:

Install and configure the MCP server https://github.com/carellice/chatgpt-image-mcp for me.

1. Check that Node.js 18 or newer is installed (`node --version`). If it isn't, stop and tell me to install it from https://nodejs.org.
2. Find the Codex CLI. On Windows it ships with the ChatGPT desktop app:
   PowerShell: (Get-AppxPackage -Name OpenAI.Codex).InstallLocation + "\app\resources\codex.exe"
   On macOS/Linux, look for `codex` on the PATH.
   If you can't find it, stop and tell me to install the ChatGPT desktop app from https://chatgpt.com/download and sign in.
3. Run `<codex> login status`. It must say "Logged in using ChatGPT". If it doesn't, stop and tell me to open the ChatGPT app and sign in.
4. Clone the repository into a permanent folder (for example ~/Documents/GitHub/MCPs/chatgpt-image-mcp, not a temp folder) and run `npm install` there.
5. Register it for all my projects:
   claude mcp add chatgpt-image -s user -- node "<absolute path>/index.js"
   (For Claude Desktop, add the equivalent entry to claude_desktop_config.json instead.)
6. Verify it with `claude mcp get chatgpt-image`: the status must be "Connected".
7. Tell me where you installed it and remind me to start a new session to use it.

Then start a new session and ask for an image.

Option B: step by step 🧭

1. Install the ChatGPT desktop app and sign in

Download it from chatgpt.com/download (on Windows it is also on the Microsoft Store), open it and sign in with your ChatGPT account. Your plan needs to include image generation.

2. Check the sign-in (optional but recommended)

On Windows the app's codex CLI isn't on your PATH, so call it through its full path in PowerShell:

& "$((Get-AppxPackage -Name OpenAI.Codex).InstallLocation)\app\resources\codex.exe" login status

It should print Logged in using ChatGPT.

🍎🐧 macOS / Linux: install the standalone Codex CLI (npm i -g @openai/codex) and run codex login. This hasn't been tested yet, so feedback is welcome.

3. Install Node.js 18 or newer

Check with node --version. If it's missing, install the LTS version from nodejs.org.

4. Download the server into a permanent folder

git clone https://github.com/carellice/chatgpt-image-mcp.git
cd chatgpt-image-mcp
npm install

📌 Pick a folder you won't move or delete, such as Documents/GitHub/MCPs/chatgpt-image-mcp. Your AI client starts the server from this exact path every time.

5. Register it in your AI client

claude mcp add chatgpt-image -s user -- node "C:/full/path/to/chatgpt-image-mcp/index.js"

-s user makes it available in every project. Check it with claude mcp get chatgpt-image, which should report ✔ Connected.

Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config and add this to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chatgpt-image": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:/full/path/to/chatgpt-image-mcp/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Any client that supports stdio MCP servers works. The command is node and the only argument is the full path to index.js.

6. Try it

Start a new session and ask:

Generate an image of a red apple on a white background.

After about a minute you'll get the file path and a preview. 🎉

You never need to start the server by hand: your AI client launches it in the background when a session starts and stops it when the session ends.

💬 Usage

Just ask in plain language:

Generate a landscape hero image for the homepage: minimal, warm tones, a desk with a laptop and a plant.

Create a coffee cup icon with a transparent background and save it in public/icons.

Edit assets/logo.png so the background is navy blue, keep everything else identical.

Give me 3 variants of a blog cover about remote work.

Each image takes roughly 30–90 seconds.

🛠️ Tools

generate_image

edit_image

Accepts the same optional parameters, plus:

🔧 Configuration

Every setting is optional and is set through environment variables (in the env block of your MCP config).

🩺 Troubleshooting

⚠️ Notes and limitations

• This project relies on how the Codex CLI behaves today: codex exec --json, the built-in image_gen tool and the generated_images folder. A future Codex update could change any of these.

• Usage counts against your ChatGPT plan's limits, and each call also uses some Codex tokens (roughly 30k–100k input tokens).

• Only orientation can be controlled, not exact pixel sizes. Codex picks the resolution.

• The original files in ~/.codex/generated_images/ are kept. Delete them yourself if you need the space.

📄 License

MIT

This is an unofficial community project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by OpenAI or Anthropic. ChatGPT and Codex are trademarks of OpenAI.