Adobe Indesign MCP

Say "Create an A4 document with 5 pages, add a red circle on page 3" — and it happens.
The most comprehensive MCP server for Adobe InDesign. 199 tools. 35 handlers. Full DOM coverage.

_{⚡ Click for a quick demo · v1.1.0 release}

Published to npm as indesign-nutria-mcp. Your agent starts it with npx -y indesign-nutria-mcp — see Quick Start. InDesign still runs on your machine: the server reaches it over a local bridge, and nothing leaves the box.

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🚀 Why This Exists

InDesign automation has been broken for 20 years. ExtendScript is ancient. CEP panels are over-engineered. UXP scripting requires a CS degree. You just want AI to do the layout.

This MCP server fixes that. Clone it, point your agent at it, and InDesign is yours to drive like a puppeteer.

🆚 MCP vs The Old Ways

	MCP (this)	ExtendScript	CEP Panels	UXP Scripts	Manual
Learn in	30 seconds	3 weeks	2 months	1 month	0 (slow)
AI-native	✅ Any MCP agent	❌	❌	❌	❌
Tool count	199	Unlimited (you write them)	5-20 typical	5-20 typical	∞ (manual)
Error messages	Human-readable	Opaque crashes	Varies	Better	N/A
Setup time	5 minutes	10 minutes	2 hours	30 minutes	Instant
Undo support	✅ Built-in	❌	Varies	❌	✅
Search text	text_search("pattern")	Write 50 lines	Maybe	Maybe	Ctrl+F
Debug mode	✅ Stack traces	❌	Varies	Limited	N/A
Remote control	✅ Anywhere STDIO works	❌ InDesign-only	❌	❌	N/A
Maintenance	Zero (we handle 199 tools)	You write+test everything	Fragile	Fragile	N/A

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✨ What It Can Do

📝 Text & Typography (27 tools)

Create frames, set content, apply paragraph/character styles, control formatting, search with GREP, find/replace, apply fonts, set columns, insets, auto-size, vertical justification, drop caps, keep options, hyphenation, tabs, paragraph rules, text wrap, baseline, linking/unlinking.

🎨 Shapes & Objects (20 tools)

Rectangles, ellipses, polygons, lines, groups, anchored objects — create, modify, delete, list, arrange.

🖼️ Images (5 tools)

Place from disk, query metadata, fit/proportional, adjust brightness/contrast, relink.

🎭 Colors & Swatches (6 tools)

CMYK/RGB/LAB/spot swatches, ink list, gradients, apply to fill/stroke.

📄 Pages & Documents (15 tools)

Create, open, save, close, getInfo, listOpen — plus page add/delete/duplicate/move/getInfo/listAll/applyMaster, sections.

📊 Tables (20 tools)

Create, set cells, add/delete rows/columns, merge/split, alignment, fills, strokes, insets, header/footer, row/column sizing, table styles, cell styles.

🧬 Styles (10 tools)

Paragraph, character, object styles — create, list, duplicate, delete, apply.

🏗️ Masters & Books (10 tools)

Master spreads — create, duplicate, apply, delete, list, getPages. Books — list, open, getDocuments, synchronize.

📤 Export (9 tools)

PDF, EPUB, HTML, JPG, PNG, package — plus preflight, font/swatch/table lists, and script_run() for custom ExtendScript.

🔍 Find & Replace (5 tools)

GREP find/replace, format-aware find/replace.

🔄 Transform (5 tools)

Align, distribute, rotate, scale, flip.

🔗 Interactive (5 tools)

Hyperlinks, buttons, cross-reference anchors.

📚 References (10 tools)

Footnotes, endnotes, cross-references, index entries/topics/generation.

📋 Lists (6 tools)

Define, apply to paragraph/selection, remove, restart numbering.

🧩 XML & Data Merge (11 tools)

XML tags, import/export, data merge with CSV/TSV/XML sources.

🔧 Other

Layers, effects (drop shadow, feather, transparency), TOC, sections, undo/redo, undo groups.

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🧠 Included AI Skills

Ten skills ship with the repo, auto-loaded by trigger keywords when you use any AI agent:

#	Skill	What it does for you
1	Aesthetic Preference	Asks 8 questions before any creative work — font, palette, style, margins. Builds a persistent JSON profile.
2	Layout Readability	Validates overlays, contrast, orphans/widows, hierarchy, spacing, overflow before delivery.
3	Export & Verify	Mandatory modify → export JPG → analyze pixels → fix → repeat cycle.
4	Import Word	Imports .docx, maps Word styles to InDesign paragraph styles.
5	Batch Operations	Applies the same modification across N pages.
6	Image Optimize	Place, resize, DPI check, relink. Profiles for print (300dpi CMYK) vs web (72dpi RGB).
7	Table Format	Creates and styles tables — columns, rows, borders, fills, merge cells.
8	Template Manager	Save/load reusable page templates.
9	Export Batch	Export same document to multiple formats at once with different profiles.
10	Style Extractor	Scans .indd files, extracts full style profile (fonts, colors, styles, masters, margins) as JSON, replicates on new layout.

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🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────┐       STDIO        ┌──────────────────────┐     WebSocket     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Any AI Agent       │ ◄────────────────► │  indesign-nutria-mcp │ ◄───────────────► │  Adobe InDesign   │
│  (Claude, OpenCode, │                    │  (Node.js MCP Server) │     port 8120     │  + UXP Plugin     │
│   Cursor, etc.)     │                    │  35 handlers         │                    │  + ExtendScript    │
└─────────────────────┘                    │  199 tools           │                    └──────────────────┘
                                           │  10 AI skills        │
                                           └──────────────────────┘

Two ways to reach InDesign

The MCP protocol always speaks stdio. Only the last hop differs, and you pick one per platform:

	macOS	Windows
With plugin	UXP panel in plugin/	UXP panel in plugin/
Without plugin	node bridge-proxy.mjs (JXA/osascript)	COM_BRIDGE_ENABLED=true (in-process COM)

Both are supported. The plugin is the richer path (it also emits change events); the proxy exists for setups where you cannot or do not want to load a UXP panel. See WINDOWS.md for the Windows bridge and start-bridge.sh for the macOS one.

Full breakdown: the four macOS processes, the request lifecycle, the error contract and the trust boundaries are in docs/architecture.md.

Full Handler Catalog

Handler	Tools	Key Features
AnchoredObject	5	create, getSettings, release, setPosition, setProperties
Book	4	list, open, getDocuments, synchronize
Changes	1	getStatus — what changed since T?, without touching InDesign
Color	6	swatch CRUD, inks, gradients, apply
DataMerge	5	selectDataSource, listFields, mergeRecords, export, removeDataSource
Document	9	create/open/save/close, getInfo, listOpen, getState, getPageStories, getStoryPages
Effect	4	drop shadow, feather, transparency, gradient feather
Export	11	multi-format export, print packaging, batch folder, preflight, fonts/swatches/tables/masters/XML, executeScript, script_run
Font	5	list, find, change, missing check, glyph insert
Grep	4	find, replace, findFormat, replaceFormat
Image	5	place, info, adjust, fit, relink
Index	4	addEntry, createTopic, generate, listTopics
Interactive	5	hyperlinks, buttons, anchors
Layer	5	create, delete, list, reorder, setProperties
List	6	define, apply, remove, restart numbering
Master	6	create, duplicate, apply, delete, list, getPages
Note	4	footnotes, endnotes
Object	6	shapes, groups, image links
Page	7	add, delete, duplicate, move, getInfo, listAll, applyMaster
Preview	1	document — render a page as an image the agent can see
Recipe	2	flow a placed text story across pages, export with a named PDF preset — each in one undo group
Resources	6	list/update/embed/unembed links, getLinkInfo
Section	4	create, list, setNumbering, delete
Shape	6	rectangle/ellipse/line/polygon create, delete, modify
Style	7	paragraph/character/object styles CRUD
Table	16	create, cells, rows/columns, merge/split, alignment, fills, strokes, header/footer
TableStyle	4	tableStyle, cellStyle CRUD
Text	7	frames, content, stories, findReplace, BOM filtering, timeout
TextAdvanced	20	columns, wrap, links, drop caps, rules, tabs, formatting read/write, search
Typography	1	read-only audit of fonts in use, size/leading pairs, style usage and overrides
Toc	4	createStyle, generate, update, listStyles
Transform	5	align, distribute, rotate, scale, flip
Undo	5	undo, redo, history, beginGroup, endGroup
Xml	6	tags CRUD, tag/untag items, import/export
Xref	3	create, list, updateFormat
	199	35 handlers, no duplicates

tests/contract/toolInventory.test.ts pins this number, so the table cannot drift from the code without failing CI.

Verified end-to-end against InDesign 2026 (21.3) on the plugin-free macOS path: MCP stdio → WebSocket bridge → JXA proxy → InDesign, creating a document, adding a text frame, reading it back, and closing.

Closing documents from an agent? document_close defaults to saveOptions: "no" — the only value that cannot raise a modal dialog. "ask" opens a save prompt, and "yes" opens a Save As dialog for a document that was never saved; both block the script until the bridge times out. Save first with document_save { filePath }, then close.

MCP Resources

URI	What it gives you
mcp://session/status	Active document session state
mcp://bridge/status	WebSocket bridge health + queue depth
mcp://tools/inventory	Full 199-tool catalog for agent self-discovery
mcp://document/active	Currently active document info

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🎯 Use Cases

🏢 Agency Production

"Create a 200-page catalog from this CSV. Product name in 14pt Arial Bold, price in 12pt Arial Regular, description in 10pt. Add a red 'SALE' badge on page 1, 50, 100, 150. Export as PDF."

📚 Book Publishing

"Import this Word document. Map Heading 1 to 'Chapter Title' style, Normal to 'Body Text'. Add running headers with page numbers. Generate a TOC. Export to PDF with crop marks."

🎨 Creative Automation

"Take this InDesign template and generate 50 variations with different colors and text from this spreadsheet. Export each as a separate PDF."

🏭 Print Production

"Check all 200 files for missing fonts and broken links. Fix them. Export as PDF/X-1a."

🔄 Continuous Publishing

"Every morning at 8am, update the daily newspaper template with fresh content from our CMS, preflight, and upload to the web server."

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⚡ Quick Start (30 seconds)

Two halves: the server your agent runs — one line from npm, no clone and no build — and the bridge that reaches InDesign on this machine.

1️⃣ Connect InDesign

The server listens on 127.0.0.1:8120; something still has to drive InDesign. Pick by platform:

macOS — with the UXP panel (also emits change events)

1. Open UXP Developer Tool
2. Load the plugin/ directory — it ships in this repository, so clone it once: git clone https://github.com/nutriandrea/adobe-indesign-mcp (no build step)
3. Open the MCP Bridge panel — it connects on its own

macOS — without the panel

git clone https://github.com/nutriandrea/adobe-indesign-mcp
cd adobe-indesign-mcp
npm install            # gives the proxy its `ws` dependency; nothing to build
./start-bridge.sh      # launches InDesign, then the JXA proxy

Windows — no bridge process. The COM bridge drives InDesign in-process, so Windows needs neither the clone nor a second process; it is enabled by the env var in the config you use in step 2 (see examples/claude-desktop.windows.json). See WINDOWS.md for the details and caveats.

2️⃣ Connect your AI agent

Both hosts start the same published package — nothing to clone, nothing to build.

Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "indesign": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "indesign-nutria-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

OpenCode (project opencode.json, or the same block in ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json):

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "indesign": {
        "type": "local",
        "command": ["npx", "-y", "indesign-nutria-mcp"]
      }
    }
  }
}

On OpenCode the servers live under mcp.servers, not mcpServers, and the command is an array — that is the documented V2 shape.

Ready-made files for Claude Desktop, Cursor and Claude Code — including the Windows COM variant — are in examples/. Each one is copy-paste.

3️⃣ Start creating

🤖 "Create a landscape A3 document with 3 pages."
🤖 "Add a blue rectangle covering the top half of page 1."
🤖 "In the rectangle, add text 'Hello World' in white, Arial Bold 72pt."
🤖 "Export page 1 as JPG."

📝 Notes for MCP client developers

Building a custom client (script, harness, test runner) against this server? Two lessons from real-world integration:

Pitfall	Fix
Large responses arrive split across stdout chunks. preview_document at 150ppi returns ~100+ KB of base64 — more than one pipe chunk. Parsing each data event with JSON.parse(chunk) silently drops the pieces and the call appears to hang forever.	Accumulate stdin into a buffer and only JSON.parse complete newline-delimited lines: buf += chunk; while ((i = buf.indexOf('\n')) >= 0) { parse(buf.slice(0, i)); buf = buf.slice(i + 1); }
Image tools return image content, not text. preview_document responds with { type: 'image', mimeType: 'image/png', data: '<base64>' } — reading .text yields undefined.	Read the base64 payload from content[0].data (check content[0].type).

Every message is a single-line JSON-RPC object terminated by \n; there is no framing beyond the newline.

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🆕 What's New in v1.6.0

Fixed

⚠️	Read this before you script
The layout skill named tools that do not exist	skills/indesign/indesign-mcp-layout/SKILL.md advertised an mcp_indesign_* prefix the registry never used, and pointed connectivity checks at health_check and list_ai_skills — neither is registered by any handler. A skill is instruction, so naming a tool that does not resolve sends a model into a second failure on top of the one it was recovering from.

Change	What it means for you
The skill names real tools now	It points at the bare tool names the registry actually exposes, and documents the read-only resources (mcp://bridge/status and friends), which never touch InDesign and cost no round-trip.
Skills are guarded like the instructions are	tests/unit/skillGuidance.test.ts walks every SKILL.md under skills/ and marketplace/ and fails on a tool name the registry does not know — and on a skill whose frontmatter name disagrees with its folder. Regression-proven against the bug above.
Marketplace counts are checked too	verify:tool-counts now reads the markdown under marketplace/, so the number quoted to a buyer is checked alongside the README, llms.txt and the package description.

Added

Change	What it means for you
Client configs	examples/ holds copy-paste configs for Claude Desktop (macOS, and the Windows COM variant), Cursor and Claude Code, plus examples/README.md.
Registry and bundle metadata	server.json — generated from package.json and gated by verify:server-json — and mcpb/manifest.json, so the MCP Registry and an MCP Bundle can be published from the same release.
Release automation	release.yml takes a tag through verify and verify:pack, publishes to npm with provenance, builds the .mcpb and attaches it to the GitHub Release with the CHANGELOG notes. publish-mcp-registry.yml chains off the release, so the registry never advertises a version npm does not have. validate-release-tag.sh refuses a tag that disagrees with package.json or has no CHANGELOG section.
A packaged companion skill	marketplace/agensi/ prepares the skill for a third-party marketplace, with npm run build:agensi asserting the archive shape the reviewer requires — one top-level folder, SKILL.md at its root, text files only. Like mcpb/, it does not ship to npm.

v1.5.0

For AI agents

⚠️	Read this before you script
Pass document_id — don't trust the front tab	Every tool takes an optional document_id: a document name (as document_listOpen reports it) or a 0-based index. With more than one document open the front tab is not reliably the intended target, and a call that lands on the wrong document edits the wrong file. Call document_getState, then pass document_id on everything that follows.

Change	What it means for you
document_id on every tool	199 tools, one extra optional parameter. Omit it and a tool acts on the front document — exactly the previous behaviour, so nothing you already send changes.
A target that is not open fails loudly	document_id 'Gone.indd' is not open. Open documents: A.indd, B.indd, classified document_not_found and suggesting document_listOpen. Previously the script silently edited whichever document happened to be frontmost.
One shared resolver	app.activeDocument was written inline in 197 places across 32 handlers; __resolveDocument() is now injected with every script and every document-scoped handler resolves through it, so the target holds for the whole call — even if the front tab changes mid-script.
Safe by construction	document_id reaches InDesign as a JSON string literal and is matched by name, so it is never executable. It is bound per call in AsyncLocalStorage, so a call that awaits before dispatching cannot be hijacked by a concurrent one.

Changed

Change	What it means for you
The "pin the document" advice is now executable	The connect-time contract used to tell the host to ask which document was meant. It now names document_id and how to pass it, and the shipped indesign-mcp-layout skill points at it too.

v1.4.3

For AI agents

⚠️	Read this before you script
Failures now tell you how to recover	A failing call returns a JSON envelope { ok: false, code, message, suggested_next_tool?, suggested_args? } instead of prose. Branch on code, and call suggested_next_tool when it is present rather than guessing.
State before action	document_getState returns the front document's geometry, its index, every open document, the active layer and the selection count in one round-trip. Call it before mutating instead of assembling that state from four separate calls.
A recipe is one call, not a chain	recipe_flowTextStory places a text file and flows it across pages; recipe_exportPreset applies a named PDF preset and exports. Measured live, the flow cost 1 call / 215 bytes against 6 calls / 786 bytes for the nearest atomic chain — which cannot place the text at all.

Change	What it means for you
Structured error envelopes	Sixteen failure classes, each with a suggested_next_tool checked against the live registry (a bad frame index suggests document_getInfo; a timeout suggests document_listOpen). ExtendScript errors carry line, file and stack.
A workflow contract on connect	The server advertises roughly 680 tokens of instructions — bridge bootstrap, state-before-action, the document_close save trap, the error-envelope shape and undo grouping.
document_getState	One round-trip replaces the document_getInfo + document_listOpen + layer + selection sequence.
preview_document takes documentIndex	Render any open document, not only the front one. Exports are capped at 4 MB and re-rendered once at a fitting resolution before failing with output_too_large.
Two new recipes	recipe_flowTextStory and recipe_exportPreset, bringing the catalog to 197.
Opt-in success envelope	RESPONSE_ENVELOPE_SUCCESS (or responseEnvelope.success) wraps successful results as { ok: true, ... }, so a single key covers success and failure. Off by default, because it changes the response shape.
A smaller, correct package	A files allowlist replaces the .npmignore denylist: 1.6 MB unpacked, down from 4.4 MB — and the bridge-proxy.mjs that the macOS launcher execs is now actually shipped.

Changed

Change	What it means for you
Error responses are JSON text	The failure message is preserved verbatim inside the envelope; isError: true is unchanged.
document_close defaults saveOptions to "no"	"ask" raised a modal save dialog that blocked until the bridge timed out and could leave InDesign wedged; "no" cannot prompt. Call document_save first when you want the work kept.

Fixed

Fix	What it means
Every call after undo_beginGroup failed	wrapExtendScript set app.scriptPreferences.undoMode, a property InDesign does not have. Undo groups now run through app.doScript(..., UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT).
undo, redo and undo_history threw on every call	They read document.undoable / document.redoable, which are not part of the DOM.
The server reported itself as v1.0.0	Four releases after v1.0.0 it advertised the old literal on initialize. SERVER_VERSION is now the single source of truth, and two gates keep it honest.

v1.4.2

For AI agents

⚠️	Read this before you script
Prefer the typed tools	export_executeScript and script_run have no cancellation. A hung script leaves the bridge busy and every later call queues behind it until the host restarts. Loops, font enumeration and multi-mutation probes belong in the typed tools, which validate arguments and time out. See skills/indesign/indesign-mcp-layout.

Change	What it means for you
The bridge protocol is now canonical	Responses are { type: 'result', id, result } or { type: 'error', id, error }. Legacy success/response types are still accepted on input, but an unknown type with a valid id is now an explicit error instead of a silently resolved promise.
Plugin-free macOS setup	start-bridge.sh launches InDesign and the JXA proxy — no UXP panel to load.
The JXA proxy no longer blocks or corrupts	Scripts reach osascript through a temp file instead of shell-quoted -e strings, and execution is asynchronous with a FIFO queue. A script containing a quote, backslash or newline can no longer be mangled, and the MCP server keeps answering while InDesign works.
Configurable InDesign version	INDESIGN_APP replaces the hardcoded "Adobe InDesign 2024" process name.
The panel connects itself	The MCP Bridge panel connects on open, so there is no Connect click to miss.
InDesign 2026 anchoring	Creating an anchored object no longer depends on move(), which 2026 rejects for insertion-point targets.
The shipped config starts everywhere	It declared the wrong MCP transport and would have aborted startup on macOS and Linux had it enabled the Windows COM bridge. Both are now covered by a test.

v1.4.0

Change	What it means for you
Agent vision: preview_document	Render any page as an image the agent can actually see — layout mistakes get caught in the loop, not after export.
Batch PDF: export_batchFolder	Export every .indd in a folder to PDF in one call, with per-file results.
Windows COM bridge	Run with zero plugins via COM_BRIDGE_ENABLED=true. See WINDOWS.md.
Hardened file paths	Every file-touching tool validates paths up front — traversal attempts (..) and system directories are rejected before InDesign ever sees them (now 11 guarded call sites).

v1.3.0

Change	What it means for you
InDesign 2026 ready	Color and anchored-object tools work on 2026's renamed enums — no more silent failures after upgrading.
Real env var config	Every setting in .env.example is now honored: BRIDGE_PORT, HTTP_BRIDGE_ENABLED, LOG_LEVEL, … Invalid values never block startup.
No more 30s hangs	If the plugin isn't connected, tool calls fail instantly with "Bridge is not connected" instead of timing out.
One escaping path	All handlers share a single battle-tested ExtendScript string escaper.
Hardened path validation	File-path checks now use true containment (no prefix-collision escapes).
Honest status	getStatus().connected reflects actual plugin connectivity, and CI enforces coverage gates.

What's New in v1.1.0

Feature	Tools	What it solves
Text formatting read	text_getFormatting	Get font/size/style per text range. No more custom scripts.
Character style apply	text_applyCharStyle	Apply to a range in one call.
Font apply	text_applyFont	Apply font family/style/size to a range.
Text search	text_search, text_searchFormatting	GREP + format-aware search with paragraph-relative positions.
Story→Page map	document_getPageStories, document_getStoryPages	Which stories are on which pages.
Undo groups	undo_beginGroup, undo_endGroup	Group operations into one undo step.
Debug mode	script_run(code, debug=true)	Full ExtendScript stack traces.
BOM filtering	Text reads	\ufeff and \u0004 filtered by default.
Timeout/maxResults	text_getStories, etc.	Custom limits for large documents.
MCP resources	mcp://tools/inventory	Agent auto-discovers all tools.

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⚙️ Configuration

All settings have defaults — zero config required. To customize, copy .env.example to .env or pass a JSON file; environment variables win over the file:

BRIDGE_PORT=8120            # WebSocket port the UXP plugin connects to
HTTP_BRIDGE_ENABLED=false   # optional REST fallback bridge
HTTP_BRIDGE_PORT=3000
SERVER_TRANSPORT=stdio      # stdio | websocket
LOG_LEVEL=info              # debug | info | warn | error
COM_BRIDGE_ENABLED=false    # Windows only: drive InDesign over COM, no plugin
RESPONSE_ENVELOPE_SUCCESS=false  # wrap successful results as { ok: true, ... }

The plugin-free macOS proxy takes its own variables:

INDESIGN_APP="Adobe InDesign 2026"     # matches your installed version
BRIDGE_WS_URL=ws://127.0.0.1:8120
BRIDGE_TIMEOUT_MS=120000               # a long export is not a hang
BRIDGE_RECONNECT_DELAY_MS=3000

Precedence: environment variables > JSON config file > defaults. Invalid values are ignored, never fatal.

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🪟 Windows

Two ways to run on Windows: the standard UXP plugin flow (identical to macOS) or the new opt-in COM bridge that needs no plugin at all. See WINDOWS.md.

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📦 Project Structure

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