Photoshop MCP: driving Adobe Photoshop from Claude, Cursor or a browser chat

What Photoshop MCP actually removes from your day

Photoshop has no public REST API, so automation has historically meant Action recording, ExtendScript, or a UXP plugin written by hand. Photoshop MCP sits in that gap. It is an MCP server, meaning it speaks the Model Context Protocol, so any MCP-capable assistant can call it as a tool provider. The README describes the usage pattern as chatting with Photoshop: you write "remove this background" or "resize these for Instagram" and the assistant performs the clicking.

The audience is narrow but real. It is for people who already own and run Photoshop on Windows or macOS and who want an AI assistant to operate it, rather than for people who want a Photoshop replacement. The README is explicit that no code, scripts or IDE are required, and that the assistant can be Cursor, Claude, or the project's own chat window. It is also explicit that this is an unofficial, community-maintained project with no affiliation to Adobe Inc., which matters if your procurement process asks who is accountable for the integration.

118 tools, 16 recipes, and one undo step

The tool surface is split. The README counts 118 tools: 102 atomic tools plus 16 one-step recipes, with the full list in docs/available-tools.md. Atomic tools are the individual operations. Recipes are multi-step sequences packaged as a single call, and the README states that every multi-step recipe lands as a single undo step in Photoshop. That is the design decision worth noticing. If a recipe ran as a dozen separate tool calls, a bad result would leave a dozen entries in the history panel; collapsing it means the escape hatch is Ctrl+Z, the one Photoshop users already have.

The documented flow has three stages. You type the request in plain language. The AI plans the steps, checking the document state first, so it is not editing blind. Photoshop then executes through the bridge. When something fails, the README says the assistant reads a structured error and decides what to try next, and points to docs/troubleshooting.md for common fixes. That error contract is the part that determines whether an agent recovers or loops; the README does not enumerate the error shapes, so treat the troubleshooting document as the place to look before you build on it.

Capabilities listed include background removal with an editable mask, portrait retouching (skin smoothing, tone fixes, dodge and burn setup), sRGB web and social export, carousel splitting, bulk watermarking with originals untouched, colour grading, sky replacement, and generative fill. Generative fill requires an Adobe account, per the README. The repository also carries a uxp-plugin directory and a web directory, so the shipped package is more than a single TypeScript entry point.

Installing Photoshop MCP and running a first recipe

Two prerequisites come straight from the README: Photoshop must be running, on Windows or macOS, any version 2012 or later, and Node.js 18 or above must be installed. The quickest entry point is the standalone UI, which the README presents as option one and describes as the easiest. It launches a chat window in your browser.

npx -p @alisaitteke/photoshop-mcp photoshop-mcp-ui

After that command, a browser chat window should open. The README says you sign in with an AI provider API key, or reuse an existing Claude Code or Gemini CLI account without a key. Provider details, auth modes and security notes live in docs/standalone-ui.md. Note the package name in the command: the hyphenated -p flag takes the scoped package, and the executable is photoshop-mcp-ui.

If you would rather stay inside your existing assistant, the README gives a Claude Code one-liner and a JSON block for any MCP client. The Claude Code path is:

claude mcp add photoshop -- npx -y @alisaitteke/photoshop-mcp

The generic client configuration, which the README says applies to Cursor and Claude Desktop among others, is this block placed in the client's MCP config. The repository also ships ready-made files at examples/cursor-config.json, examples/claude-desktop-config.json and examples/claude-code-mcp.json if you prefer to copy rather than type.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "photoshop": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@alisaitteke/photoshop-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Once the server is registered, a first real request is the one the README uses as its opening example: ask the assistant to remove the background from an open portrait and keep it editable with a mask. The README's own sample phrasing is "Remove the background from this portrait, keep it editable with a mask." You should end up with the subject isolated on transparency and a mask layer rather than a destructive deletion. Two environment variables are worth knowing about before you start, both commented out in .env.example: ANALYTICS_DISABLED=1 and POSTHOG_DISABLED=1. The README states that anonymous, aggregated usage analytics are collected by default and can be disabled at any time, with details in docs/anonymous-usage-analytics.md. If you are running this on a work machine, set those before the first launch rather than after.

Where the abstraction breaks down

The first limitation is environmental. This is not a headless tool. Photoshop must be running, on a desktop OS, and the README lists only Windows and macOS as supported platforms. There is no documented Linux path, no container image, and no server-side rendering story. If your pipeline is a CI runner or a Linux box, this project does not apply, and no amount of MCP tooling changes that.

The second is the generative features. Generative fill is listed among the capabilities, with the qualifier that an Adobe account is required. That means part of the advertised surface depends on credentials and entitlements outside the project's control, and the README does not describe what happens when that account is missing or the call is rejected.

The third is documentation depth versus tool count. The README advertises 118 tools and points to docs/available-tools.md for parameters, but the README itself does not document rollback behaviour beyond the single-undo-step claim for recipes, and it does not describe how a partially applied recipe behaves if it fails midway. The README does not document rollback. For a tool that edits files in place, that is the gap to close before trusting it with client work: test a failing recipe on a throwaway document and watch the history panel.

Finally, the interface is moving. The README describes 118 tools, the repository description says 102 tools, and package.json's description also says 118. Releases v1.7.3, v1.7.4 and v1.7.5 all landed in August and September 2026, and package.json is at 1.7.6. Frequent releases are a signal of activity here, not of stability. If you script against a specific tool name, pin the version.

Photoshop MCP against scripting it yourself

The obvious alternative is not another MCP server. It is the path Photoshop users already have: record an Action, or write ExtendScript or a UXP plugin, and trigger it from a script or a keyboard shortcut. The difference is in who decides the steps. A recorded Action executes the same sequence every time, on whatever document is open, and it fails silently if the document is not what the Action expected. Photoshop MCP inverts that: the model plans the steps at request time after checking document state, which is what lets "resize these for Instagram" work on a document the author never anticipated. The cost is variability. A recipe is deterministic; a plan is not, and the same sentence can produce different tool sequences on two runs.

If your need is a fixed, repeatable operation on a known document shape, Actions and ExtendScript remain the cheaper answer, with no model in the loop and no API key. Photoshop MCP earns its place when the request is described in words and the document is not known in advance. On the MCP side, the closest comparison is other MCP servers, but the README does not name any, so the honest framing is that this project's differentiator is Photoshop-specific breadth rather than protocol behaviour.

Maintenance, upgrades and the MIT licence

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-09. Releases are frequent: v1.7.3 on 2026-08-25, v1.7.4 on 2026-08-29, v1.7.5 on 2026-09-07, with package.json at 1.7.6. The practical consequence is that an unpinned npx invocation fetches whatever is current, and the tool surface has changed between minor versions. The README shows npx -y @alisaitteke/photoshop-mcp without a version, which is convenient for trying it and risky for a production workflow. Pin the version in your MCP config once you settle on one.

Upgrade cost is mostly the tool contract. If your prompts or saved templates reference specific tool names or parameters, a release that renames or removes one breaks them, and the project publishes a CHANGELOG.md plus an AGENTS.md at the repository root that are the places to check before bumping. The npm package ships dist, web/dist, uxp-plugin, examples, README.md, LICENSE, llms.txt and AGENTS.md, so the UXP plugin travels with the npm install rather than being a separate download.

The licence is MIT. That permits commercial use, modification and redistribution provided the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved. It also means there is no warranty, which is the standard MIT position and worth stating plainly for a tool that modifies image files. This is not legal advice; if your organisation has rules about third-party licences in creative pipelines, route the LICENSE file through whoever handles that. Separately, the analytics default is a policy question, not a licence question: the README says collection is on by default and can be disabled, and .env.example gives ANALYTICS_DISABLED=1 and POSTHOG_DISABLED=1 as the switches.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt Photoshop MCP if you already run Photoshop 2012 or later on Windows or macOS, you want background removal, portrait retouching or social exports triggered from Claude, Cursor or the built-in chat window, and you are comfortable that it is an unofficial project with no Adobe endorsement. Skip it if your editing happens in Lightroom, Figma or Affinity, if you need a documented rollback path, or if you want a stable tool count rather than a moving one. Before committing, open docs/available-tools.md and confirm the specific tools your workflow needs are present, read docs/standalone-ui.md for the provider and consent behaviour, and check that your Photoshop version exposes the scripting interfaces the bridge relies on.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. alisaitteke/photoshop-mcp on GitHub
2. License: MIT
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases