Genius Automation — Community Edition

MCP server for Siemens TIA Portal — open-core, MIT-licensed Community Edition.

🎯 What is Genius Automation?

Genius Automation is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI agents (Claude Code, OpenClaw, Cursor, etc.) control Siemens TIA Portal V17+ — the leading industrial automation software used in factories worldwide.

This Community Edition ships with 5 essential read-only tools under the MIT License — free to use in commercial and non-commercial projects.

For the full Pro / Enterprise Edition (39 tools including write operations, multi-vendor, SLA), see: genius-automation-pro (private).

Related MCP server: tiacommander-mcp

✨ Available Tools (Community Edition)

This Community Edition exposes 5 tools, all read-only and safe for production use:

For write operations (create/edit blocks, write tags, HMI screens, library management, advanced diagnostics, batch operations), upgrade to Pro (below).

🚀 Quick Start (3 steps)

Step 1 — Install

# Windows (with TIA Portal installed)
git clone https://github.com/your-org/genius-automation-community.git
cd genius-automation-community
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .

# Linux/macOS (mock server only, no TIA Portal)
git clone https://github.com/your-org/genius-automation-community.git
cd genius-automation-community
python3.11 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Step 2 — Run the Mock Server (Linux/macOS)

For testing without TIA Portal:

python -m mock.server --port 8001

Output:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  Genius Automation Mock Server                   ║
║  Listening: http://0.0.0.0:8001                  ║
║  Mode: MOCK (no TIA Portal connection)            ║
║  Tools: 5/5 fixtures loaded                       ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Step 3 — Connect from Your AI Agent

Configure your MCP-compatible agent (Claude Code, OpenClaw, Cursor) to point at the server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "genius-automation": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "mock.server"],
      "env": {"PORT": "8001"}
    }
  }
}

Then in the agent:

"List all blocks in PLC_1" → calls list_blocks "Read the motor speed tag" → calls read_tags "Compile the project and show errors" → calls compile

🏗 Architecture

┌─────────────────┐
│  AI Agent       │  (Claude Code, OpenClaw, Cursor, …)
│  (Linux/Mac)    │
└────────┬────────┘
         │ MCP protocol (HTTP/SSE)
         │
┌────────▼────────┐
│  W11 VM         │
│  (Windows)      │
│                 │
│  ┌───────────┐  │
│  │ MCP Server│  │  ← this repo
│  │ (Python)  │  │
│  └─────┬─────┘  │
│        │        │
│  ┌─────▼─────┐  │
│  │ pythonnet │  │
│  └─────┬─────┘  │
│        │        │
│  ┌─────▼─────┐  │
│  │ TIA Portal│  │  (Siemens software, V17+)
│  │  V17+     │  │
│  └───────────┘  │
└─────────────────┘

The MCP server runs on the same Windows machine as TIA Portal (because TIA Portal Openness requires Windows + .NET Framework 4.8). AI agents on Linux/macOS connect over the network via MCP.

🛠 Tools (Community Edition)

1. connect

Establish a session with a running TIA Portal instance. Required as the first call in any session.

Input:

{"mode": "without_user_interface"}

Output:

{
  "status": "connected",
  "tia_version": "V21",
  "mode": "without_user_interface",
  "openness_version": "V21.0.2",
  "session_id": "mock-session-12345"
}

2. read_tags

Read the current value of one or more tags from a PLC. Read-only.

Input:

{
  "plc": "PLC_1",
  "tag_names": ["Motor_Start", "Motor_Speed"]
}

Output:

{
  "plc": "PLC_1",
  "tags": [
    {"name": "Motor_Start", "address": "%I0.0", "data_type": "Bool", "value": false},
    {"name": "Motor_Speed", "address": "%MW10", "data_type": "Int", "value": 1450}
  ],
  "count": 2
}

3. list_blocks

List all blocks in a given PLC inside the project. Returns block names, types, languages, and metadata. Read-only.

Input:

{"plc": "PLC_1"}

Output:

{
  "plc": "PLC_1",
  "blocks": [
    {"name": "OB1", "type": "OB", "number": 1, "language": "FBD"},
    {"name": "FB10_Steckel_Control", "type": "FB", "number": 10, "language": "SCL"},
    ...
  ],
  "count": 8
}

4. get_project_tree

Get the hierarchical project tree: devices, software containers, block groups, tag tables. Read-only.

Input:

{"max_depth": 5}

Output: hierarchical JSON tree of the project structure.

5. compile

Compile the current project (or a specific PLC) and return errors/warnings. Does NOT modify the PLC runtime — only validates the offline project.

Input:

{"plc": "PLC_1"}  // optional

Output:

{
  "overall_state": "success",
  "devices": [
    {"plc_name": "PLC_1", "state": "success", "errors": 0, "warnings": 2}
  ],
  "errors": [],
  "warnings": [
    {"plc_name": "PLC_1", "block": "FB20", "code": "W001", "message": "Unused variable"}
  ]
}

💎 Upgrade to Pro / Enterprise

For write operations, HMI, library management, advanced diagnostics, and multi-vendor support, upgrade to the Pro Edition.

Pro tools include everything in Community, plus:

• Block CRUD: create_plc, import_blocks, export_blocks

• Tag write: write_tags

• Hardware: add_module, remove_module, configure_plc, configure_profinet, set_ip_address, list_devices, get_hardware_info

• Diagnostics: get_compile_errors, get_online_status, read_diagnostic_buffer, compare_online_offline, upload_from_device, get_plc_info, read_force_table, get_module_diagnostics, get_profinet_topology, get_security_info

• Library: list_libraries, create_library, get_library_info, add_to_library, publish_library_version

• HMI / SCADA: create_hmi_screen, add_screen_element, link_tag_to_screen, configure_alarm, export_hmi_xml

• Capture: capture_project_tree, capture_tag_table, capture_hardware_config, capture_watch_table, capture_screen

• Batch: batch_capture_all_blocks, batch_import_from_excel, generate_project_summary, project_audit_report, batch_export_format

• Multi-vendor (Enterprise): Rockwell Studio 5000, CODESYS, Beckhoff TwinCAT

👉 See genius-automation-pro (private, $29/mo).

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for:

• How to file bug reports

• How to suggest features

• How to submit pull requests

• Code style and testing requirements

• Translation guidelines

Quick links:

• 🐛 Issues

• 💬 Discussions

• 📧 contato@plccursos.com.br

📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE.

The Community Edition is open-core: the 5 basic tools are MIT-licensed, while advanced functionality (39 tools) lives in the proprietary Pro / Enterprise Editions.

🌟 Acknowledgments

• Siemens AG — For TIA Portal and the Openness API

• Repsay — tia-openness-api-client (MIT, the basis for the Openness wrapper)

• Anthropic — For MCP (Model Context Protocol) and the Python MCP SDK

• OpenClaw Team — For the AI agent framework

📞 Contact

• Website: https://plccursos.com.br/genius-automation (PT-BR)

• Email: contato@plccursos.com.br

• Issues: https://github.com/your-org/genius-automation-community/issues

• Pro Edition: https://plccursos.com.br/genius-automation/pricing ($29/mo)