AI agents

TextureCraft is built so that AI assistants can use it as well as people. Any assistant that supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP) can create projects, add layers and masks, paint strokes, bake mesh maps, export textures and render previews.

Get the command-line tool

Assistants talk to TextureCraft through its command-line tool, texturecraft-cli:

• Windows: texturecraft-cli.exe is next to texturecraft.exe in the install folder or portable zip.
• macOS: download texturecraft-cli-<ver>-macos-universal.zip from the release page.
• Linux .deb, .rpm, tarball, and FreeBSD: it’s installed alongside the app.

Choose which folders it can use

The assistant can only read and write files inside the folders you give it:

• --read-root <folder>: where it may open projects, models and images.
• --write-root <folder>: where it may save projects and export textures.

Without these, it can work on a project in memory but can’t open or save any files.

Connect your assistant

Claude Code

claude mcp add texturecraft -- texturecraft-cli mcp --read-root . --write-root .

This lets it use the folder you start Claude Code in.

Claude Desktop

Choose Settings › Developer › Edit Config, add TextureCraft to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude. Use full paths:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "texturecraft": {
      "command": "C:\\Program Files\\TextureCraft\\texturecraft-cli.exe",
      "args": ["mcp", "--read-root", "C:\\Users\\you\\Texturing", "--write-root", "C:\\Users\\you\\Texturing"]
    }
  }
}

Other assistants

Any MCP client can start the same command: texturecraft-cli mcp with the folder options.

Watch it work in the app

By default the assistant works on its own copy of TextureCraft, with no window. To see its changes live in the app instead:

1. Start TextureCraft with a control port: texturecraft --control 7878.
2. Connect the assistant to it:

claude mcp add texturecraft-app -- texturecraft-cli mcp --bridge 7878

The assistant can then also take screenshots of the window and use the menus. The app opens and saves its own files in this mode.

The control port needs a token, so other programs on your computer can’t drive the app. TextureCraft writes one to a file in your temp folder, and --bridge reads it. To use your own token, set TEXTURECRAFT_CONTROL_TOKEN (16 to 1024 characters) before you start the app. If another program connects to the port, it must send the token first. You can also pass it to the bridge with --token.

What to ask for

For example:

• “Start a project from crate.glb, bake the mesh maps and give it rusty painted metal.”
• “Add edge wear to the paint layer and show me a render.”
• “Export the textures for Unreal Engine into the textures folder.”

Use it without an assistant

texturecraft-cli also works on its own, which is handy for scripts and batch jobs. Run texturecraft-cli --help to see what it can do. For example:

texturecraft-cli new model.glb model.tcraft --resolution 2048
texturecraft-cli bake model.tcraft --resolution 2048
texturecraft-cli export model.tcraft textures --preset "Unreal Engine (Packed)" --format png
texturecraft-cli render model.tcraft preview.png --samples 256

bake saves the project in place. render with --samples path traces the image, as Rendering mode does; add --cpu to trace it on the processor.

More commands

Command	What it does
info <input>	Lists the texture sets, layers and materials
commands	Lists every command an assistant can run. Narrow it with --filter
run <input> <command-id> [params]	Runs one command. Add -o out.tcraft to save the result
batch <script.json>	Runs a list of commands from a file
serve	Takes commands as JSON lines, on stdio or on a local port

The input can be a project, a model file, or one of the built-in meshes: builtin:material_ball, sphere, cube, rounded_cube, cylinder, torus, plane, crate or udim_plane.

A few options are worth knowing:

• new ... --sample bakes and applies a smart material to every texture set, so you have something to look at.
• bake ... --maps takes a list of the mesh maps to bake, separated by commas.
• render ... --view 2d renders the flat UV view. --camera looks through a camera saved in the project, and --yaw, --pitch and --bounces set the angle and the light bounces.

When a command takes a color, [r, g, b] is linear and "#rrggbb" is sRGB.