dcc-mcp-substance3d-painter

Substance 3D Painter adapter for the DCC Model Context Protocol (MCP).

It embeds a Streamable HTTP MCP server in Painter and routes host API calls through Painter's Qt main thread. The default endpoint is http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp.

Install and load

Install into the Python environment Painter uses:

python -m pip install dcc-mcp-substance3d-painter

Point SUBSTANCE_PAINTER_PLUGINS_PATH at the installed package's dcc_mcp_substance3d_painter/painter folder. Painter discovers the packaged plugins/dcc_mcp_substance3d_painter_plugin.py entry point. For unattended launches, set SUBSTANCE_PAINTER_STARTUP_PLUGINS=dcc_mcp_substance3d_painter_plugin so Painter starts the adapter without an interactive Python-menu action.

Set DCC_MCP_SUBSTANCE3D_PAINTER_PORT before launching Painter to choose a different port. Standard DCC_MCP_GATEWAY_PORT and DCC_MCP_REGISTRY_DIR settings are also honoured.

Related MCP server: Maya MCP Server

Bundled skills

painter-project provides typed tools for a complete material-authoring pass:

• inspect the project and texture sets;

• create PBR fill layers;

• search Painter resources and apply smart materials;

• list export presets, save the .spp, and export textures.

The tools use Painter resource and preset URLs supplied by Painter itself. They do not expose raw JavaScript or arbitrary script execution.

Development

python -m pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest
ruff check src tests tools
python -m build

Releases use release-please. The release.yml workflow publishes through the pypi environment using PyPI Trusted Publishing.