# Illustrator MCP Server

- type: mcp
- industry: design
- roles: ui-designer
- source: https://github.com/zachshallbetter/adobe-mcp
- license: MIT (link-and-summary-only)
- install: npx -y adobe-mcp-illustrator
- needs_credentials: true
- writes_external: false
- updated_at: 2026-10-15T10:15:30Z

Drive Adobe Illustrator from any MCP client: artwork, type, colour, effects, data and export.

---

Republished from https://github.com/zachshallbetter/adobe-mcp/blob/HEAD/README.md under MIT. The original is authoritative.

# adobe-mcp

MCP servers for Adobe applications. Install one application's server on its
own, or the suite: one server for every application, with tools that work
across them.

The InDesign server was published as `indesign-mcp-server` up to 2.3.0. It is
now `adobe-mcp-indesign`, with the same tools; replace the package name in your
client configuration.

| Package | What it drives | npm |
|---|---|---|
| [adobe-mcp-indesign](packages/indesign) | Adobe InDesign: documents, pages, text, styles, tables, books, PDF and EPUB export (423 tools) | [`adobe-mcp-indesign`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/adobe-mcp-indesign) |
| [adobe-mcp-illustrator](packages/illustrator) | Adobe Illustrator: documents, artboards, layers, shapes and paths, typography, colour and swatches, effects and 3D, symbols, patterns, Image Trace, images and links, variables and data sets, actions, export, prepress and printing (308 tools) | `adobe-mcp-illustrator` |
| [adobe-mcp-photoshop](packages/photoshop) | Adobe Photoshop: documents, image and canvas size, layers, selections, adjustments and filters, type, export and history (55 tools) | `adobe-mcp-photoshop` |
| [adobe-mcp-aftereffects](packages/aftereffects) | Adobe After Effects: projects, compositions, layers, keyframes and expressions, effects, text, masks and rendering (44 tools) | `adobe-mcp-aftereffects` |
| [adobe-mcp-premiere](packages/premiere) | Adobe Premiere Pro: projects and bins, sequences, timeline edits, markers, effects, keyframes and transitions, transcripts, metadata and export, through a UXP plugin (52 tools; not yet tested against Premiere Pro) | `adobe-mcp-premiere` |
| [adobe-mcp-suite](packages/suite) | InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro in one server, plus cross-application tools: Illustrator artwork into InDesign layouts, swatches with exact values | `adobe-mcp-suite` |
| [adobe-mcp-core](packages/core) | The shared foundation: script escaping, the script runner, the server shell and the static script audit | `adobe-mcp-core` |

Each server runs on the machine where the Adobe application is installed and
talks to it through ExtendScript, the scripting interface the applications ship
with. Premiere Pro has no outside scripting route, so its server talks to a
UXP plugin inside Premiere Pro instead. macOS and Windows are supported.

## Install one application

Claude Code:

```bash
claude mcp add indesign -- npx -y adobe-mcp-indesign
```

```bash
claude mcp add illustrator -- npx -y adobe-mcp-illustrator
```

Any client that reads an `mcpServers` block:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "indesign": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "adobe-mcp-indesign"] },
    "illustrator": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "adobe-mcp-illustrator"] }
  }
}
```

## Install everything

```bash
claude mcp add adobe -- npx -y adobe-mcp-suite
```

The suite offers every application's tools, prefixed with the application
(`indesign_…`, `illustrator_…`), and the cross-application tools. Load only some
applications with `--apps indesign` or `ADOBE_MCP_APPS`.

Each package's README covers its tools, conventions and configuration.

## How the repository is organised

```
packages/
  core/          adobe-mcp-core           shared by every server
  indesign/      adobe-mcp-indesign
  illustrator/   adobe-mcp-illustrator
  photoshop/     adobe-mcp-photoshop
  aftereffects/  adobe-mcp-aftereffects
  premiere/      adobe-mcp-premiere       with its UXP plugin in uxp/plugin
  suite/         adobe-mcp-suite          every application in one server
```

The servers share their infrastructure through `adobe-mcp-core`, so a fix to
escaping, path checks, result handling or the script runner reaches every
server. What differs between applications stays in each package: its tools,
its instructions, and how the application is told to run a script. Each
application package exports a module (its tools, handlers, instructions and
script runner); its own server and the suite are both built from it, so a tool
is written once.

## Development

```bash
npm install      # installs every package and links them together
npm run check    # syntax check, every package
npm test         # every package's tests, including each server's static script audit
```

Run one package's tests with `npm test -w packages/illustrator`. The static
audits run every tool against a stubbed application and check each generated
script against the application's scripting object model; they do not need
InDesign or Illustrator installed.

See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for releasing and for each package's guide.

## Licence

MIT. See each package's LICENSE.