dcc-mcp-illustrator

MCP adapter for Adobe Illustrator, built on the shared adobepy broker, CEP bridge, typed facade, and complete structured official DOM.

Workflow illustration generated with OpenAI image generation; no third-party source assets.

Use the canonical, receipt-backed installation guide:

python -m pip install --upgrade dcc-mcp-illustrator
dcc-mcp-illustrator install --json --dry-run --dcc-path "$ILLUSTRATOR_EXE" --python "$PYTHON_EXE"
dcc-mcp-illustrator install --json --yes --dcc-path "$ILLUSTRATOR_EXE" --python "$PYTHON_EXE"

For an Internal deployment with an approved prebuilt CEP bridge, the shared Core CLI can link the bridge directly into Illustrator's CEP extension root:

dcc-mcp-cli install --dcc-type illustrator `
  --plugin-source F:\studio\artifacts\illustrator-cep-bridge `
  --adobe-debug-root "$env:APPDATA\Adobe\CEP\extensions" `
  --execute

The bridge root must contain its manifest and be selected by an approved catalog or Internal descriptor. This path creates an idempotent directory link without copying files or using a Developer Tool. The adapter-owned lifecycle remains canonical for generated bridges, receipts, upgrades, and uninstall. Restart Illustrator if it has cached the extension, then verify with dcc-mcp-cli wait-ready --dcc-type illustrator and the adapter status command.

Set ADOBEPY_TOKEN in the environment shared by the broker, installer, and adapter, and set the two path variables as shown in the platform-specific guide. The lifecycle never accepts the token in process arguments. It reports ready only after the installed CEP bridge connects and a typed Illustrator RPC succeeds with exact process, profile, and CEP-module identity. The currently published adobepy runtime does not yet expose that complete attestation; the adapter therefore remains fail-closed rather than claiming live readiness. The adapter uses an OS-assigned port and registers with DCC-MCP discovery; DCC_MCP_ILLUSTRATOR_PORT is only needed for a fixed direct endpoint.

The adapter reports ready only after the target Illustrator bridge advertises the complete typed/official-DOM contract and a real host version RPC succeeds. A broker process is stopped only when it was started by this adapter.

Agent workflow

Use the typed DCC-MCP CLI path for discovery and calls:

dcc-mcp-cli dcc-types
dcc-mcp-cli list
dcc-mcp-cli load-skill illustrator-document --dcc-type illustrator
dcc-mcp-cli search --query "inspect selected paths" --dcc-type illustrator
dcc-mcp-cli call <tool-slug> --dcc-type illustrator --json '{"key":"value"}'

Related MCP server: InDesign UXP MCP Server

Skill groups

• illustrator-document: create RGB/CMYK documents; inspect documents, artboards, layers, selections, vector/placed/raster items, text frames, stories, and swatches.

• illustrator-artwork: create named RGB rectangles and point text; inspect named items, edit text, and update path points, translation, scale, and rotation.

• illustrator-export: save AI/PDF/EPS documents and export PNG/JPEG/SVG or other Illustrator-supported formats.

• illustrator-advanced: structured access to the complete official object model. Raw ExtendScript is an explicit destructive fallback, not the primary API.

Structured DOM references are opaque and session-scoped. Never persist or reuse them after a bridge restart or release operation.

Real-host acceptance

The production validation path starts from an empty 640×360 RGB document, creates named vector and text objects through typed tools, verifies the active document and item counts, saves the native AI document, and exports a rendered PNG. Readiness requires all six process, DCC, catalog, dispatcher, host bridge, and main-thread executor checks before mutations run.