Adobe MCP

A local-first MCP server for controlling Adobe creative applications through one compact, state-aware interface.

The current v0.1 runtime covers Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Media Encoder, Audition, InDesign, Animate, Lightroom Classic, Acrobat Pro, Bridge and Substance 3D Painter through the best local automation surface each host exposes.

Why this architecture

Most MCP integrations expose hundreds of tiny tools. That wastes context and forces the model to spend tokens rediscovering obvious workflows.

Adobe MCP exposes a small stable surface:

• adobe_status

• search_capabilities

• get_capability

• inspect_context

• execute

• batch_execute

The AI searches compact capability IDs such as premiere.timeline.edit, then sends one semantic instruction to the connected host adapter. The adapter expands it into the native Adobe calls required to perform the edit.

Related MCP server: After Effects MCP Server

No-refresh design

The MCP process owns a localhost bridge at ws://127.0.0.1:38470. Adobe host adapters connect to it and automatically reconnect. You can start MCP first, open Photoshop later, close Premiere, reopen After Effects, etc. The MCP server does not need to be restarted just because an Adobe application changed.

The bridge port is intentionally fixed instead of silently hopping ports, because installed host adapters need a stable localhost endpoint.

Health endpoint:

http://127.0.0.1:38470/health

Current state

v0.1 includes:

• universal MCP facade

• compact capability search instead of hundreds of advertised tools

• localhost WebSocket broker with automatic adapter reconnect

• persistent hashed host context cache

• local Adobe install discovery

• Photoshop UXP adapter

• universal CEP adapter for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Animate, Audition and Bridge

• Media Encoder UXP, Lightroom Classic Lua, Acrobat trusted-JavaScript and Substance 3D Painter Python adapters

• Windows and macOS install/uninstall scripts for local host adapters

• persistent EditSpec jobs with checkpoint/rollback, artifact manifests and crash-safe resume

• cached bulk source fingerprinting/duplicate detection plus reference-video scene/pacing/silence/loudness analysis

• reusable professional edit/motion/compositing recipes

• typed Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator semantic operations

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md, docs/CAPABILITIES.md, and docs/AGENT-PLAYBOOK.md.

Manual development

There are deliberately no CI workflows in this repository.

npm install
npm run typecheck
npm run build
npm run doctor
npm run dev

Windows CEP install

From PowerShell in the repository:

npm run install:windows

This copies the universal CEP bridge into the current user's Adobe CEP extensions directory and enables CEP local-development mode. Restart an already-running supported Adobe host once so it discovers the newly installed extension.

For Photoshop development, enable UXP Developer Mode and load adapters/photoshop-uxp/manifest.json with Adobe UXP Developer Tool:

npm run photoshop:dev:windows

On macOS:

npm run photoshop:dev:macos

Adobe's UXP packaging flow produces a .ccx through UXP Developer Tool. This repository does not fake a hand-built CCX; see docs/INSTALL.md.

MCP client configuration after a local/global package install:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adobe": {
      "command": "adobe-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Local application discovery

Adobe MCP scans common local application folders and supports extra paths through ADOBE_MCP_APP_DIRS.

It does not depend on Creative Cloud being the install source. It also does not crack, patch, activate or bypass Adobe licensing.

Coverage philosophy

"Control every feature" is treated as an engineering target, not a fake promise. Adobe exposes different automation surfaces across products and versions. Native APIs come first, then host scripting/command IDs, with an optional UI/operator fallback reserved for features that Adobe does not expose programmatically.

License

MIT

Configure Codex or Claude Code

After installing/linking the package so adobe-mcp is on PATH:

adobe-mcp-setup --client codex
adobe-mcp-setup --client claude

Claude defaults to user scope; use --scope local or --scope project when you intentionally want narrower configuration. Use --force only when you intentionally want to replace an existing MCP server named adobe in the selected scope.

Reality check

The core creative workflow is implemented and testable without exposing hundreds of model-facing tools. Real-host acceptance still depends on the Adobe versions installed on the target machine. Run npm run doctor, then follow docs/ACCEPTANCE.md before treating a particular host/version combination as production-verified.

One-prompt creative jobs

Codex/Claude should treat Adobe MCP as an execution, state, and verification runtime rather than a bag of low-level tools. For a large video job it should analyze sources, build one EditSpec, checkpoint the working project, run semantic operations, export, validate, generate review artifacts, visually inspect them, and repair failures before delivery.

See docs/AGENT-PLAYBOOK.md for the operating contract.

For a real Premiere workstation acceptance pass:

npm run accept:premiere -- --scenario D:/path/to/acceptance.json

Start from docs/acceptance-premiere.example.json and use an expendable project copy.