WiseTech Image MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes all three WiseTech AI image tools to any MCP-compatible client (Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, etc.):

All three accept a public image URL and return the processed image as base64 PNG.

Verified working — all three APIs tested end-to-end on 2026-06-20.

Quick start (local testing)

npm install
npm run dev

Server starts on http://localhost:3000/mcp. No .env needed for local testing — it auto-resolves the API URLs.

Related MCP server: Arcaelas MCP

Environment variables

All config lives in .env (never committed to git). Copy .env.example to .env and fill in:

DNS auto-refresh

The WiseTech API IPs rotate daily. This server replicates the WordPress plugin's DNS-resolution: on startup (and every 6 hours) it fetches the current URL from the DNS endpoints. No manual IP updates needed.

Deploy on Heroku

Step 1: Install Heroku CLI and login

npm install -g heroku
heroku login

Step 2: Create a Heroku app

cd wisetech-image-mcp
heroku create wisetech-image-mcp

Step 3: Set environment variables

# Generate a strong auth key
heroku config:set MCP_AUTH_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

# API URLs (auto-resolved from DNS, but set fallbacks)
heroku config:set WISETECH_MAIN_DNS=https://sd.rad-wi.com
heroku config:set WISETECH_BG_DNS=https://ibgc.rad-wi.com/
heroku config:set WISETECH_MAIN_FALLBACK=http://34.232.100.156:5454
heroku config:set WISETECH_BG_FALLBACK=http://35.190.164.209:5454

Step 4: Deploy

git add .
git commit -m "Initial deploy"
git push heroku main

Heroku automatically:

• Runs npm install

• Runs npm run build (via the build script in package.json)

• Starts the app using the Procfile: web: node dist/index.js

• Assigns a port via the PORT env var (handled automatically)

Step 5: Verify it's running

heroku open
# Or test the MCP endpoint:
curl -X POST https://wisetech-image-mcp.herokuapp.com/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_MCP_AUTH_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

You should see all three tools in the response.

Step 6: Connect to AI tools

Your MCP URL is: https://wisetech-image-mcp.herokuapp.com/mcp

Use this URL + your MCP_AUTH_KEY in Claude / ChatGPT / Grok (see below).

Heroku notes

• Free tier sleeps after 30 min of inactivity. First request after sleep takes ~10s to wake up. Use heroku ps:scale web=1 and consider upgrading to Eco/Hobby for always-on.

• Port: Heroku sets PORT automatically — don't set it yourself.

• Timeout: Heroku has a 30s request timeout on free tier. Image processing can take up to 180s. If you hit timeouts, upgrade to Hobby tier or use a VPS instead.

Deploy on a VPS (recommended for production)

VPS is better than Heroku for this because image processing can take up to 3 minutes (Heroku free tier times out at 30s).

This guide is written for your specific VPS (Ubuntu 24.04, IP 167.88.43.163).

Your VPS current state

Strategy: Use port 8443 with HTTPS directly from Node (no nginx needed). This avoids touching any existing services — no conflicts with n8n, OpenVPN, or nginx.

Step 1: Install pm2 (process manager)

pm2 is not installed on your VPS yet. SSH into your VPS and install it:

ssh root@167.88.43.163
npm install -g pm2

Step 2: Clone the repo

If the repo is public:

cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/Motasaith/MCP_Upscale_Face-Enhancer_Remove-BG.git wisetech-mcp
cd wisetech-mcp
npm install
npm run build

If the repo is private, generate a Personal Access Token first:

1. Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens → "Generate new token (classic)" → check repo → generate

2. Copy the token, then on the VPS:

cd /opt
git clone https://Motasaith:YOUR_TOKEN@github.com/Motasaith/MCP_Upscale_Face-Enhancer_Remove-BG.git wisetech-mcp
cd wisetech-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Note: The repo is safe to make public — all secrets are in .env (gitignored), SECURITY.md is gitignored, and the PHP reference folder is gitignored. The code on GitHub contains no API URLs or keys.

Step 3: Create the .env file

nano /opt/wisetech-mcp/.env

MCP_AUTH_KEY=GENERATE_A_STRONG_KEY_HERE
WISETECH_MAIN_DNS=https://sd.rad-wi.com
WISETECH_BG_DNS=https://ibgc.rad-wi.com/
WISETECH_MAIN_FALLBACK=http://34.232.100.156:5454
WISETECH_BG_FALLBACK=http://35.190.164.209:5454
WISETECH_API_KEY=
WISETECH_AUTH_HEADER=
PORT=8443
HTTPS_CERT_DIR=/etc/letsencrypt/live/mcp.yourdomain.com

Generate a strong auth key:

openssl rand -hex 32

Lock down the file:

chmod 600 /opt/wisetech-mcp/.env
chown root:root /opt/wisetech-mcp/.env

Step 4: Point a subdomain at this VPS

In your DNS dashboard (wherever you manage your domain — Cloudflare, Namecheap, etc.), add an A record:

A   mcp.yourdomain.com   →   167.88.43.163

Wait a few minutes for DNS to propagate. Verify:

dig mcp.yourdomain.com +short
# should return 167.88.43.163

Step 5: Get the SSL certificate (DNS challenge — no port 80 needed)

This method avoids touching port 80 (which OpenVPN uses). It uses a DNS TXT record instead.

apt install -y certbot
certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges dns -d mcp.yourdomain.com

Certbot will print something like:

Please deploy a DNS TXT record under:
_acme-challenge.mcp.yourdomain.com
with this value:
abc123def456...

Go to your DNS dashboard, add that TXT record, wait ~2 minutes, then press Enter in the terminal.

Certbot saves the cert to /etc/letsencrypt/live/mcp.yourdomain.com/.

Note: This cert expires in 90 days. Since it's a manual DNS challenge, you'll need to repeat this step before it expires. If your domain is on Cloudflare, you can automate it later with certbot-dns-cloudflare.

Step 6: Start the server with pm2

cd /opt/wisetech-mcp
pm2 start dist/index.js --name wisetech-mcp
pm2 save
pm2 startup    # follow the instructions it prints to make it survive reboots

Check it's running:

pm2 status
pm2 logs wisetech-mcp --lines 10

You should see:

WiseTech Image MCP server listening on :8443 (HTTPS, POST /mcp)
Tools: upscale_image, enhance_face, remove_background
[DNS] APIs resolved successfully.

Step 7: Open the port (if firewall is active)

ufw status

If it says "active":

ufw allow 8443/tcp

If it says "inactive", skip this step.

Step 8: Test from outside

curl -i -X POST https://mcp.yourdomain.com:8443/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_MCP_AUTH_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

You should see all three tools in the response.

Step 9: Connect to AI tools

Your MCP URL is: https://mcp.yourdomain.com:8443/mcp

Use this in Claude / ChatGPT / Grok (see the "Connecting to AI tools" section above).

Useful pm2 commands

pm2 status                    # see if it's running
pm2 logs wisetech-mcp         # live logs (Ctrl+C to exit)
pm2 restart wisetech-mcp      # restart after code changes
pm2 stop wisetech-mcp         # stop
pm2 delete wisetech-mcp       # remove from pm2

Certificate renewal (every 90 days)

Since we used a manual DNS challenge, auto-renewal won't work unattended. Before the cert expires:

certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges dns -d mcp.yourdomain.com
pm2 restart wisetech-mcp

If your domain is on Cloudflare, you can automate this:

apt install -y python3-certbot-dns-cloudflare
# Configure with your Cloudflare API token, then:
certbot certonly --dns-cloudflare --dns-cloudflare-credentials /root/.cloudflare.ini -d mcp.yourdomain.com
# Then add a cron job for auto-renewal

Connecting to AI tools

Claude Desktop

Edit this file:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wisetech-image": {
      "url": "https://your-domain.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_MCP_AUTH_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You'll see three tools available:

• upscale_image

• enhance_face

• remove_background

ChatGPT / Grok / other MCP clients

Go to their custom tools / MCP settings and add:

• URL: https://your-domain.com/mcp

• Header: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_MCP_AUTH_KEY

Local testing (no deployment needed)

npm run dev

Point your AI client at http://localhost:3000/mcp (no auth key needed for local).

How it works

Upscale & Face Enhance (synchronous)

User → AI tool → MCP server → downloads image from URL → base64-encodes →
  POST {main_api}/upscale_web_v2   (or /faceenhance_web)
  body: {"image": "<base64>"}
  → response: {"image": "<base64 result>"}
→ returns base64 PNG to the AI tool → AI tool shows it to the user

Background Remover (asynchronous, handled automatically)

User → AI tool → MCP server → downloads image →
  1. POST  {bg_api}/uploadImageV2            (multipart "file")
  2. GET   {bg_api}/processImageBackgroundRemove?imageName=...
  3. Poll  {bg_api}/getStatus?imageName=...   (every 3s until status=1)
  4. GET   {bg_api}/downloadImage?imageName=...png
→ returns base64 PNG to the AI tool

The entire async flow is hidden from the AI tool — it just gets the final image back.

Supported formats

Max file size: 10 MB (enforced server-side, matching the WP plugin).

Project structure

wisetech-image-mcp/
├── index.ts          # MCP server — all 3 tools (supports HTTP + HTTPS)
├── package.json      # Dependencies + scripts
├── tsconfig.json     # TypeScript config
├── Procfile          # Heroku deployment config
├── .env              # Your secrets (NEVER commit to git)
├── .env.example      # Template for .env
├── .gitignore        # Blocks .env, SECURITY.md, node_modules from git
├── SECURITY.md       # Security & deployment details (kept private)
├── README.md         # This file
└── Extra_Just_For_API_Info/   # Original PHP plugin reference (gitignored)

Notes

• The server uses Streamable HTTP transport (not stdio), so it works with remote/web-based MCP clients like ChatGPT and Grok, not just Claude Desktop.

• Background removal output is always PNG (the API converts the input filename to .png).

• All API URLs are in .env, not in the code — someone reading the source sees nothing.

• See SECURITY.md for detailed security information and hardening steps.