HOOPS AI MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that bridges Claude Desktop to the HOOPS AI WebAPI.
With this server registered in Claude Desktop, users can perform 3D CAD analysis through natural language — no code required.
See the root README for an overview of the full platform.

Prerequisites

• uv installed on the Claude Desktop machine (Claude Desktop uses uv to launch the MCP server process)

• The WebAPI server running and accessible (default: http://127.0.0.1:8000)
  → See webapi/README.md for setup instructions

Related MCP server: Cinema4D MCP Server

Setup

Register the MCP server in Claude Desktop

1. Open Claude Desktop

2. Go to Settings → Developer → Edit Config

3. This opens claude_desktop_config.json. Add the following entry under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hoops-ai": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--directory",
        "C:\\path\\to\\HOOPS_AI-MCP\\mcp_server",
        "server.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "HOOPS_WEBAPI_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:8000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace C:\\path\\to\\HOOPS_AI-MCP with the actual path where you cloned this repository.

HOOPS_WEBAPI_URL tells the MCP server where the WebAPI server is running:

• Same machine (default): leave it as http://127.0.0.1:8000 (or omit the whole env block — this is the built-in default). Use this when the WebAPI server runs on the same PC as Claude Desktop.

• Different machine (client-server setup): change it to the WebAPI machine's actual address, e.g. "http://192.168.0.6:8000". No system environment variable is needed — Claude Desktop passes this value to the MCP server process automatically. This is the only configuration change needed on the client machine.

Troubleshooting — uv not found: Claude Desktop launches with a limited PATH and may fail to find uv even if it works in your terminal.
If the MCP server does not appear in Claude Desktop, use the full path to uv.exe instead of "uv":

where.exe uv   # find the full path, e.g. C:\Users\<you>\.local\bin\uv.exe

Then update "command" in the config:

"command": "C:\\Users\\<you>\\.local\\bin\\uv.exe"

4. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop.

Available MCP Tools

Claude Desktop can call these 17 tools using natural language.

Note: Tools that mutate server state (named similarity indexes, embedding-model switching) or run long-running jobs (Shape Space Map) live in a separate, private HOOPS_AI-MCPServer-demo companion repository and are not included here. See that repo's README if you have access, or register it alongside this one in Claude Desktop for the full tool set.

File Management

B-Rep Analysis

Manufacturing Feature Recognition (MFR)

Shape Similarity Search

Part Classification

Example Usage in Claude Desktop

Once the MCP server is registered and the WebAPI server is running, you can chat with Claude:

What HOOPS AI tools are available?

"C:\temp\helloworld.stp" — please display this 3D CAD file.

"C:\temp\Flange287.stp" — show this model and give me its B-Rep information.

"C:\temp\nist_ftc_06_asme1_rd_sw1802.SLDPRT" — run manufacturing feature recognition and colorize by feature type.

"C:\temp\idler_sprocket.step" — search for similar parts to this component.

How similar are these two STEP files? C:\temp\partA.stp and C:\temp\partB.stp

Compare these three parts and tell me which two are most similar:
C:\temp\bracket_v1.step, C:\temp\bracket_v2.step, C:\temp\bracket_v3.step

Show me the similarity matrix for the CAD files in this ZIP: C:\temp\parts.zip

Compute the shape embedding for C:\temp\flange.stp and tell me the embedding dimension and model name.

Note — ZIP file processing: When a ZIP path is passed to compare_cad_shapes, the WebAPI server reads the file directly from the given path. This requires the MCP client and the WebAPI server to be on the same machine (the default local setup). For remote setups (WebAPI on a separate host), use upload_cad_model to upload individual files first, then pass their file_ids.

License

This MCP server's source code is released under the MIT License.

Using it requires a working HOOPS AI WebAPI server, which depends on the HOOPS AI SDK and a valid HOOPS_AI_LICENSE key — those are licensed separately by Tech Soft 3D and are not covered by this repository's MIT License.