How do I install Pixel?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does Pixel need an API key?

No required environment variable is listed on this record.

When was Pixel last checked?

Last checked 2026-10-28. MCP server for creating pixel art with Aseprite through AI assistants. Supports animation, retro palettes, dithering, shading, and spritesheet export.

Pixel MCP 서버

에이전트 강화

이 서버 추가

Install from the publisher. Not a PlugMCP endpoint.

PlugMCP에서 실행

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

No packaged release in the registry yet. Follow the repository README.

RepositoryPublisher installStep-by-step: add this in Claude

Remote URL or a command on your machine? How the two installs differ

PlugMCP에서 실행

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

A new server you create. It is not this listing's official endpoint. Use the publisher install when you want their URL and their credentials.

실행

Server facts

Local

Transport: stdio
License: MIT
Last checked: 2026-10-28

Tools

No tool list yet. Remote servers get one after the first health check.

FAQ

Questions

Aseprite MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes Aseprite's pixel art and animation capabilities to AI assistants, enabling you to create and edit sprites using natural language.

Example scene created using pixel-mcp: 64x64 indexed sprite with custom 16-color palette, demonstrating drawing primitives (rectangles, circles) and palette management.

Features

Canvas & Layer Management: RGB, Grayscale, and Indexed color modes with multi-layer support and layer deletion
Drawing Primitives: Pixels, lines, rectangles, circles, polylines, flood fill with batch operations and palette-aware drawing
Selection Tools: Rectangle, ellipse, select all, copy, cut, paste, move selections with multiple blend modes (replace/add/subtract/intersect)
Professional Pixel Art Tools:
- Reference Analysis: Extract palettes, brightness maps, edge detection, and composition guides from images
- Color Quantization: Reduce images to 2-256 colors using median_cut, k-means, or octree algorithms with optional Floyd-Steinberg dithering
- Automatic Shading: Apply geometry-based shading with 3 styles (cell/smooth/soft), 8 light directions, and adjustable intensity
- Dithering: 16 patterns including Bayer matrices (2x2, 4x4, 8x8), Floyd-Steinberg, checkerboard, and textures (grass, water, stone, cloud, brick, dots, diagonal, cross, noise, lines)
- Palette Management: Set custom palettes (1-256 colors), sort by hue/luminance, analyze color harmonies (complementary/triadic/analogous), and extract from reference images
- Shading Tools: Apply palette-constrained shading with smooth, hard, or pillow styles and 8 light directions
- Antialiasing: Detect jagged diagonal edges and suggest intermediate colors for smoother curves (manual or auto-apply)
- Transform Operations: Flip, rotate, scale, crop, resize canvas, apply outlines, and downsample for pixel art conversion
- Palette-Aware Drawing: All drawing tools support snapping to nearest palette color using LAB color space
Animation Tools: Frame durations, tags, frame duplication/deletion, linked cels
Inspection Tools: Read pixel data with pagination for verification and analysis
Export Formats: PNG, GIF, JPG, BMP, and spritesheet export (horizontal/vertical/grid layouts)
Cross-platform: Windows, macOS, Linux
MCP Integration: Works with Claude Desktop and other MCP clients

Requirements

Go 1.23+
Aseprite 1.3.0+ (1.3.10+ recommended)

Quick Start

1. Install

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/willibrandon/pixel-mcp.git
cd pixel-mcp

# Build the server
make build

2. Configure

Create ~/.config/pixel-mcp/config.json:

{
  "aseprite_path": "/path/to/aseprite",
  "temp_dir": "/tmp/pixel-mcp",
  "timeout": 30,
  "log_level": "info",
  "log_file": "",
  "enable_timing": false
}

Configuration options:

aseprite_path (required): Absolute path to Aseprite executable. No automatic discovery or environment variables.
temp_dir (optional): Directory for temporary files. Defaults to /tmp/pixel-mcp.
timeout (optional): Command timeout in seconds. Defaults to 30.
log_level (optional): Logging verbosity (debug, info, warn, error). Defaults to info.
log_file (optional): Path to log file for persistent logging. If empty, logs only to stderr.
enable_timing (optional): Enable request tracking and operation timing. Defaults to false.

3. Run

# Run the server (stdio transport)
./bin/pixel-mcp

# Check health
./bin/pixel-mcp --health

# Enable debug logging
./bin/pixel-mcp --debug

Usage with Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aseprite": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/pixel-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Then use natural language to create sprites:

"Create a 64x64 sprite and draw a red circle in the center"
"Add a new layer called 'Background' and fill it with blue"
"Export the sprite as a PNG"

Available Tools

Canvas & Layer Management

Tool	Description
`create_canvas`	Create new sprite with specified dimensions and color mode
`add_layer`	Add a new layer to the sprite
`delete_layer`	Delete a layer from the sprite (cannot delete last layer)
`flatten_layers`	Flatten all layers in a sprite into a single layer
`get_sprite_info`	Get sprite metadata (size, layers, frames)

Drawing & Painting

Tool	Description
`draw_pixels`	Draw individual pixels (supports batch operations, optional palette snapping)
`draw_line`	Draw a line between two points (optional palette snapping)
`draw_contour`	Draw a polyline or polygon by connecting multiple points (optional palette snapping)
`draw_rectangle`	Draw a rectangle (filled or outline, optional palette snapping)
`draw_circle`	Draw a circle/ellipse (filled or outline, optional palette snapping)
`fill_area`	Flood fill from a point (paint bucket, optional palette snapping)

Selection & Clipboard

Tool	Description
`select_rectangle`	Create a rectangular selection with mode (replace/add/subtract/intersect)
`select_ellipse`	Create an elliptical selection with mode (replace/add/subtract/intersect)
`select_all`	Select the entire canvas
`deselect`	Clear the current selection
`move_selection`	Move selection bounds by offset (does not move pixels)
`cut_selection`	Cut selected pixels to clipboard
`copy_selection`	Copy selected pixels to clipboard
`paste_clipboard`	Paste clipboard content at specified position

Note: Selection and clipboard operations persist across MCP tool calls using sprite custom properties (sprite.data) and a hidden clipboard layer. This allows you to create a selection in one tool call, then copy/cut/paste in subsequent calls. Selection bounds are automatically saved and restored, and clipboard content is stored in a hidden __mcp_clipboard__ layer.

Professional Pixel Art

Tool	Description
`analyze_reference`	Extract palette, brightness map, edges, and composition from reference images
`draw_with_dither`	Fill region with dithering patterns (15 patterns: Bayer, checkerboard, grass, water, stone, cloud, brick, etc.)
`downsample_image`	Downsample high-res images to pixel art dimensions using box filter
`get_palette`	Retrieve current sprite palette as array of hex colors with size
`set_palette`	Set sprite's color palette to specified colors (supports 1-256 colors)
`set_palette_color`	Set a specific palette index to a color (0-255)
`add_palette_color`	Add a new color to the palette (max 256 colors)
`sort_palette`	Sort palette by hue, saturation, brightness, or luminance (ascending/descending)
`apply_shading`	Apply palette-constrained shading based on light direction (smooth, hard, or pillow styles)
`analyze_palette_harmonies`	Analyze palette for complementary, triadic, analogous relationships and color temperature
`suggest_antialiasing`	Detect jagged diagonal edges and suggest intermediate colors for smooth curves (with optional auto-apply)

Transform & Filter

Tool	Description
`flip_sprite`	Flip sprite, layer, or cel horizontally or vertically
`rotate_sprite`	Rotate sprite, layer, or cel by 90, 180, or 270 degrees
`scale_sprite`	Scale sprite with algorithm selection (nearest, bilinear, rotsprite)
`crop_sprite`	Crop sprite to rectangular region
`resize_canvas`	Resize canvas without scaling content (with anchor positioning)
`apply_outline`	Apply outline effect to layer with configurable color and thickness

Animation

Tool	Description
`add_frame`	Add a new animation frame
`delete_frame`	Delete a frame from the sprite (cannot delete last frame)
`set_frame_duration`	Set the duration of an animation frame in milliseconds
`create_tag`	Create an animation tag with playback direction
`delete_tag`	Delete an animation tag by name
`duplicate_frame`	Duplicate an existing frame with all cels
`link_cel`	Create a linked cel that shares image data

Inspection & Export

Tool	Description
`get_pixels`	Read pixel data from a rectangular region (paginated, for verification)
`export_sprite`	Export sprite to PNG/GIF/JPG/BMP
`export_spritesheet`	Export animation frames as spritesheet (horizontal/vertical/rows/columns/packed layout, optional JSON metadata)
`import_image`	Import external image file as a layer in the sprite
`save_as`	Save sprite to a new .aseprite file path

Examples

See examples/ for a complete working example client that demonstrates all features including canvas creation, animation, dithering, palette management, shading, and antialiasing.

Development

Using Make

# Build (development - fast, no version info)
make build

# Build release (with version and timestamp)
make release

# Run unit tests
make test

# Run unit tests (no cache)
make test-nocache

# Run integration tests (requires configured Aseprite)
make test-integration

# Run integration tests (no cache)
make test-integration-nocache

# Run benchmarks
make bench

# Run linters
make lint

# Generate coverage report
make test-coverage

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

Using Go CLI

# Build (development)
go build -o bin/pixel-mcp ./cmd/pixel-mcp

# Build release (with version info)
go build -ldflags "-X main.Version=$(git describe --tags --always --dirty) -X main.BuildTime=$(date -u '+%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S')" -o bin/pixel-mcp ./cmd/pixel-mcp

# Run unit tests
go test -v -race -cover ./...

# Run unit tests (no cache)
go test -v -race -cover -count=1 ./...

# Run integration tests
go test -tags=integration -v ./...

# Run integration tests (no cache)
go test -tags=integration -v -count=1 ./...

# Run benchmarks
go test -tags=integration -bench=. -benchmem ./pkg/aseprite ./pkg/tools

# Run linters
go vet ./...
go fmt ./...

# Generate coverage report
go test -v -race -coverprofile=coverage.txt -covermode=atomic ./...
go tool cover -html=coverage.txt -o coverage.html

Performance

All operations complete in under 100ms on typical hardware, with complete workflows finishing in 280-840ms. See docs/BENCHMARKS.md for detailed benchmark results.

License

MIT

Pixel

이 서버 추가

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Server facts

Tools

Questions

How do I install Pixel?

Does Pixel need an API key?

What transport does Pixel use?

When was Pixel last checked?

Documentation

Aseprite MCP Server

Features

Requirements

Quick Start

1. Install

2. Configure

3. Run

Usage with Claude Desktop

Available Tools

Canvas & Layer Management

Drawing & Painting

Selection & Clipboard

Professional Pixel Art

Transform & Filter

Animation

Inspection & Export

Examples

Development

Using Make

Using Go CLI

Performance

License