Adobe MCP for macOS

Control Adobe Creative Cloud from AI agents via the Model Context Protocol

Quick Start • Features • Dashboard • Tools • Themes • Importers • Configuration

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An MCP server that lets Claude (or any MCP-compatible AI) drive InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator on macOS through ExtendScript via the native AppleScript bridge. Import content from Notion, Google Docs, Word, or PDF — then generate professionally typeset ebooks, documents, and creative assets in one shot.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Requirement	Version
macOS	12+ (Monterey or later)
Python	3.11+
Adobe Creative Cloud	InDesign, Photoshop, and/or Illustrator installed

Installation

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/adobe-mcp.git
cd adobe-mcp

# Install with all optional dependencies
pip install -e ".[all,dev]"

Or install only what you need:

pip install -e "."                # Core (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator)
pip install -e ".[notion]"        # + Notion imports
pip install -e ".[google]"        # + Google Docs imports
pip install -e ".[dev]"           # + pytest for running tests

Grant macOS Permissions

On first use, macOS will prompt for Automation permissions:

System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation

Grant your terminal app (Terminal, iTerm, VS Code, Claude Desktop, etc.) permission to control each Adobe app.

Connect to Claude

Claude Code CLI — add to your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adobe-mcp-macos": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "adobe_mcp_macos"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop — merge into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adobe-mcp-macos": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "adobe_mcp_macos"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Then restart Claude. The Adobe tools will appear automatically.

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Features

One-Shot Book Creation

Give Claude a simple instruction like "Import my Notion page and create a professionally typeset ebook" and it will:

1. Fetch content from Notion (or Google Docs, Word, PDF)
2. Apply a design theme (typography, colors, page layout)
3. Create an InDesign document with chapter openers, TOC, and flowing text
4. Export both a print-ready PDF (CMYK, crop marks, bleeds) and a digital PDF (RGB, optimized)

Web Dashboard

A standalone browser UI for creating ebooks without Claude:

adobe-mcp-dashboard
# → http://localhost:5050

The dashboard provides:

• Content import — paste a Notion URL or upload a DOCX/PDF
• Theme selection — pick from built-in themes or create custom ones
• Live progress — SSE streaming shows each step as the book is built
• Saved imports — re-use previously imported content

Multi-App Control

40+ MCP tools across three Adobe applications:

App	Capabilities
InDesign	Documents, paragraph styles, master pages, text flow, images, TOC, page numbers, PDF export
Photoshop	Documents, text layers, filters, image resize, PNG/JPEG export
Illustrator	Documents, rectangles, text frames, PNG/SVG export

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Tools Reference

Shared Tools

Tool	Description
adobe_list_running_apps	List which Adobe apps are currently open
adobe_open_file	Open a file in a specified Adobe app
adobe_get_active_document	Get name/path of active documents across all apps

InDesign Tools

Book Creation (high-level)

Tool	Description
id_create_book	Single-shot full book creation from a BookManifest JSON

Document Management

Tool	Description
id_create_document	Create a new themed InDesign document
id_open_document	Open an existing .indd file
id_save_document	Save the active document
id_close_document	Close the active document

Layout & Styling

Tool	Description
id_setup_master_pages	Create A-Body and B-Chapter master pages from theme
id_setup_paragraph_styles	Create all paragraph styles from theme
id_apply_theme	Apply a theme to the active document

Content

Tool	Description
id_add_chapter	Add a chapter (opener page + body text)
id_flow_text	Flow text with automatic page creation
id_add_text_frame	Add a text frame at exact mm coordinates
id_add_pull_quote	Add a styled pull quote
id_add_sidebar	Add a sidebar text box

Navigation

Tool	Description
id_add_table_of_contents	Generate a TOC page with dot leaders
id_add_page_numbers	Set page numbering (arabic or roman)

Images

Tool	Description
id_place_image	Place an image with fitting options
id_add_full_bleed_image	Place a full-bleed image to document edges
id_add_caption	Add a caption below an image

Themes

Tool	Description
id_list_themes	List all available themes
id_create_theme	Generate a new theme from a text description
id_get_theme	Get full JSON config for a theme

Export

Tool	Description
id_export_pdf_print	Export print-ready PDF (CMYK, bleeds, crop marks)
id_export_pdf_digital	Export screen-optimized digital PDF (RGB)

Advanced

Tool	Description
id_execute_jsx	Execute raw ExtendScript in InDesign

Photoshop Tools

Tool	Description
ps_create_document	Create a new document (RGB, CMYK, or Grayscale)
ps_add_text	Add a text layer
ps_export_png	Export as PNG
ps_export_jpg	Export as JPEG with quality setting
ps_resize_image	Resize the image
ps_apply_filter_blur	Apply Gaussian blur
ps_flatten	Flatten all layers
ps_list_layers	List all layers
ps_execute_jsx	Execute raw ExtendScript

Illustrator Tools

Tool	Description
ai_create_document	Create a new document
ai_add_rectangle	Draw a rectangle
ai_add_text	Add a text frame
ai_export_png	Export as PNG
ai_export_svg	Export as SVG
ai_list_layers	List all layers
ai_select_all	Select all objects
ai_execute_jsx	Execute raw ExtendScript

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Theme System

Themes control every aspect of document design — typography, colors, page dimensions, margins, master pages, and export settings.

Built-in Themes

Theme	Description	Page Size	Body Font	Heading Font
Zen	Clean, minimal book layout	6" × 9"	Palatino 12pt	Optima
Business	Professional document	Letter	Garamond 13pt	Helvetica Neue
Modern	Balanced contemporary design	6" × 9"	Palatino 12pt	Helvetica Neue

Creating Custom Themes

Via Claude:

"Create a theme called 'Memoir' with Georgia body text,
large chapter numbers, and warm earth-tone colors"

Via the dashboard: Select "Custom" from the theme dropdown and describe your style.

Manually: Create a JSON file in ~/.adobe-mcp/themes/:

{
  "name": "My Theme",
  "page": {
    "width_mm": 152.4,
    "height_mm": 228.6,
    "margins": { "top": 25.4, "bottom": 25.4, "inside": 19.05, "outside": 15.875 },
    "columns": 1
  },
  "typography": {
    "body": { "family": "Palatino", "font_style": "Regular", "size": 12, "leading": 18 },
    "h1": { "family": "Optima", "font_style": "Bold", "size": 28, "leading": 34 },
    "h2": { "family": "Optima", "font_style": "Regular", "size": 18, "leading": 24 }
  },
  "colors": {
    "body_text": "#1a1a1a",
    "heading": "#000000",
    "accent": "#4a7c59"
  }
}

Themes are validated with Pydantic — missing fields fall back to sensible defaults.

InDesign Templates

Themes can reference .indt InDesign template files for advanced layouts that go beyond what JSON can express. Place templates in src/adobe_mcp_macos/themes/templates/.

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Content Importers

Import content from multiple sources into a structured format ready for book creation.

Source	How	Requirements
Notion	Page URL or ID	NOTION_API_TOKEN env var
Google Docs	Document ID	GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON env var
Microsoft Word	.docx file path	None
PDF	.pdf file path	None

Rich Text Support

The Notion importer preserves formatting from the source document:

• Bold, italic, and other inline styles
• Color annotations
• These styles carry through to the InDesign output as character-level overrides

Universal Import

The id_import_to_book tool is the simplest path — provide any one source and get back a ready-to-use BookManifest:

"Import my Notion page https://notion.so/My-Book-abc123
and create an ebook using the Zen theme"

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Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Purpose
NOTION_API_TOKEN	For Notion imports	Internal integration token from notion.so/my-integrations
GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON	For Google Docs imports	Path to service account key JSON file

Set these in a .env file in the project root, or pass them in your MCP server config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adobe-mcp-macos": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "adobe_mcp_macos"],
      "env": {
        "NOTION_API_TOKEN": "ntn_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Notion Setup

1. Go to notion.so/my-integrations
2. Create a new internal integration
3. Copy the token (starts with ntn_)
4. In Notion, open the page you want to import → ⋯ → Connections → add your integration

Google Docs Setup

1. Create a service account in Google Cloud Console
2. Enable the Google Docs API
3. Download the JSON key file
4. Share your Google Doc with the service account email address
5. Set GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON to the path of the key file

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Running Tests

# All unit tests (no Adobe apps needed)
pytest tests/ --ignore=tests/integration -v

# Integration tests (requires running Adobe apps)
pytest tests/integration/ -v

# Quick check
pytest tests/ -q

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Architecture

adobe-mcp-macos/
├── src/adobe_mcp_macos/
│   ├── server.py              # MCP server entry point (FastMCP)
│   ├── executor.py            # AppleScript bridge → ExtendScript execution
│   ├── tools/
│   │   ├── indesign.py        # InDesign MCP tools (high-level)
│   │   ├── indesign_jsx.py    # JSX code generators (low-level)
│   │   ├── photoshop.py       # Photoshop MCP tools
│   │   ├── illustrator.py     # Illustrator MCP tools
│   │   ├── shared.py          # Cross-app utilities
│   │   └── importers.py       # Content import tools
│   ├── importers/
│   │   ├── notion.py          # Notion API client
│   │   ├── google_docs.py     # Google Docs API client
│   │   ├── docx_parser.py     # Word document parser
│   │   ├── pdf_parser.py      # PDF parser (font-size heuristics)
│   │   └── rich_text.py       # Rich text markup handling
│   ├── themes/
│   │   ├── manager.py         # Theme loading, saving, listing
│   │   ├── validator.py       # Pydantic models for theme validation
│   │   ├── builtin/           # Built-in theme JSON files
│   │   └── templates/         # InDesign .indt template files
│   ├── models/                # Pydantic input models for all tools
│   └── dashboard/
│       ├── app.py             # Starlette web server
│       └── index.html         # Single-page dashboard UI
├── tests/                     # 250+ unit tests
├── docs/plans/                # Design documents
└── pyproject.toml

How It Works

Claude / Dashboard
        │
        ▼
   MCP Server (FastMCP)
        │
        ▼
   Tool Functions (Python)
        │
        ▼
   JSX Code Generators
        │
        ▼
   executor.py → osascript → AppleScript
        │
        ▼
   Adobe App (ExtendScript engine)

1. Claude calls an MCP tool (e.g., id_create_book)
2. Python generates ExtendScript (JSX) code
3. The executor writes JSX to a temp file and invokes it via osascript
4. Adobe's ExtendScript engine runs the code inside the application
5. Results return to Python via stdout

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Known Limitations

• ExtendScript runs synchronously — very long operations may time out (60s default)
• The execute_jsx tools run arbitrary code in Adobe apps; use with caution
• Custom theme generation uses an existing theme as a base; edit the JSON for full control
• Premiere Pro and After Effects are not yet supported
• Requires macOS (Windows/Linux not supported due to AppleScript dependency)

License

MIT