ASCII Art MCP Server

MCP server for generating ASCII art from images. Convert any image to beautiful ASCII art in text or PNG format with customizable character sets and color modes.

Features

• 🎨 Generate ASCII Text: Convert images to text-based ASCII art
• 🖼️ Generate ASCII Image: Create PNG images of ASCII art with VS Code dark theme styling
• 🔤 5 Character Sets: simple, detailed, blocks, minimal, matrix
• 🎭 Color Modes: Grayscale or full color
• 🔒 Path Security: Strict absolute path validation, output in same directory as input
• ⚡ Fast & Efficient: Built with TypeScript and Sharp for high performance

Quick Start

Using npx (Recommended for 百宝箱)

npx -y @your-username/ascii-art-mcp-server

Local Installation

npm install -g @your-username/ascii-art-mcp-server
ascii-art-mcp-server

Installation for Development

git clone https://github.com/your-username/ascii-art-mcp-server.git
cd ascii-art-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build

Usage with Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

Windows

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ascii-art": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:\\ABSOLUTE\\PATH\\TO\\ascii-art-nodejs\\build\\index.js"]
    }
  }
}

macOS/Linux

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ascii-art": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/ascii-art-nodejs/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

generate_ascii_art

Generate ASCII art text from an image and save to file.

Parameters:

• image_path (string, required): Absolute path to input image
• output_path (string, optional): Output filename (not path)
• width (number, optional): Width in characters (default: 80)
• charset (string, optional): Character set - simple/detailed/blocks/minimal/matrix

generate_ascii_image

Generate ASCII art as a PNG image.

Parameters:

• image_path (string, required): Absolute path to input image
• output_path (string, optional): Output filename (not path)
• width (number, optional): Width in characters (default: 100)
• charset (string, optional): Character set - simple/detailed/blocks/minimal/matrix
• color_mode (string, optional): gray or color (default: gray)

Path Restrictions

• ✅ Input must be absolute path
• ✅ Output must be filename only (no directory separators)
• ✅ Output files saved in same directory as input image

Dependencies

• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk: MCP SDK for Node.js
• sharp: High-performance image processing
• zod: Schema validation