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RenderEyeMCP

Let your AI coding agent look at the capture you already have open in RenderDoc.

RenderEyeMCP is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects AI coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex to the RenderDoc GUI. You keep capturing and replaying frames in RenderDoc exactly as you do today — from your engine, from Unity or Unreal Engine, or by opening an .rdc file. The agent then reads what RenderDoc is showing: the loaded capture, the event you selected, its pipeline state, shaders, bound resources, buffers, render targets and pixel values.

It is meant for graphics and engine programmers who already use RenderDoc and want an agent to help gather evidence while they debug rendering problems.

Game engine / Unity / Unreal / .rdc file
      |  capture a frame
      v
RenderDoc GUI  (you select the draw call you care about)
      |  loaded capture + selected event
      v
RenderEyeMCP   (RenderDoc extension + shared IPC service + MCP server)
      |  MCP tools
      v
AI coding agent  ->  evidence-based debugging assistance

RenderDoc stays the capture and replay application. RenderEyeMCP is a read-only bridge for inspection: the agent does not need to reopen the capture, and it never changes which event you have selected.

What it can do

Verified against a real D3D12 capture in RenderDoc 1.46 on Windows 11:

• Find your RenderDoc session — every running RenderDoc GUI with the extension loaded, the capture it has open, and whether it is connected.

• Capture and events — API, frame number, event counts, paged event lists, and the event currently selected in the GUI.

• Pipeline state — topology, vertex/index buffers, viewports and scissors, bound shaders, render targets, depth target and resource bindings.

• Shaders — reflection (inputs, outputs, constant buffers, resources, samplers), declared-vs-bound resource correlation, paged disassembly, embedded source.

• Resources and buffers — resource lists, texture/buffer metadata, bounded buffer reads with optional typed decoding (e.g. constant buffer values).

• Render targets and pixels — bound targets, PNG previews of textures, exact typed pixel values, per-channel min/max and histograms.

• Several agents at once — all MCP clients share one background service, so two agents can inspect the same RenderDoc session.

Limitations to know up front:

• Inspection always uses the event selected in the RenderDoc GUI. Select the draw or dispatch in RenderDoc first; the agent cannot move the selection.

• Depth/stencil state (compare function, depth write), rasterizer cull/fill mode and blend state are not exposed. Pixel History, shader debugging/stepping, mesh output inspection and GPU profiling are not implemented.

• Only RenderDoc 1.46 on Windows has been validated live, with D3D12. Other APIs and platforms are listed in Supported platforms.

RenderEyeMCP is not a replacement for RenderDoc, not a profiler, and it does not diagnose bugs on its own. It gives the agent accurate data; you and the agent interpret it.

Related MCP server: RenderDoc MCP Server

Supported platforms

Requirements

• RenderDoc 1.46 or later.

• An MCP-capable coding agent. Setup is verified for Claude Code and Codex; Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot) and Gemini CLI configurations are generated too but were not verified against the real clients.

• No Python or other runtime is required to run rendereye-mcp. The RenderDoc extension uses RenderDoc's own embedded Python interpreter.

Quick start (Windows)

1. Download the latest RenderEyeMCP-v<version>-windows-amd64.zip from the GitHub Releases page.

2. Extract the archive to a permanent directory, for example C:\Tools\RenderEyeMCP\.

3. Open PowerShell in that directory and run the installer:

   .\install.ps1

   The installer copies the RenderDoc extension to %APPDATA%\qrenderdoc\extensions\rendereye\ and prints the coding-agent configuration snippet.

4. In RenderDoc open Tools → Manage Extensions, select RenderEyeMCP, and enable Always Load.

Full instructions and Linux notes: Installation.

Coding agent configuration

Claude Code

Add to ~/.settings.json (user scope) or .mcp.json in your project (project scope). Replace the path with the actual location of rendereye-mcp.exe:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rendereye": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "C:\\Tools\\RenderEyeMCP\\rendereye-mcp.exe"
    }
  }
}

Codex

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.rendereye]
command = "C:\\Tools\\RenderEyeMCP\\rendereye-mcp.exe"

The installer (install.ps1 / install.sh) prints the correct snippet for your path. Full details: Configuration.

Basic usage

1. Open a capture in RenderDoc (from your engine or with File → Open Capture).

2. Select a draw call in the Event Browser.

3. Ask your agent:

   Inspect the capture currently open in RenderDoc. Identify the selected draw call and summarize its pipeline state.

The step-by-step walkthrough is in the Quick Start.

Documentation

Offline documentation

RenderEyeMCP release packages include English and Japanese documentation built with MkDocs Material. After extracting the archive, open manual/index.html in your browser to access the user guide, MCP Tool reference, and graphics debugging examples. No internet connection, Python, or web server is required.

Development and building

RenderEyeMCP is written in Go. To build from source:

git clone https://github.com/taqu/RenderEyeMCP.git
cd RenderEyeMCP
go build ./cmd/rendereye-mcp/
go test ./...
go vet ./...

The release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) builds binaries for Windows x64 and Linux x64, assembles the archives, and publishes a GitHub Release when a v* tag is pushed.

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Security reports: SECURITY.md.

License

MIT. RenderDoc is a separate project under its own license and is not bundled.