Sidekick for InDesign

Let Claude (or any other AI assistant that speaks MCP) work in Adobe InDesign: lay out pages, restyle text, check documents, and look at the result.

This package is the MCP server. It connects your AI assistant to the Sidekick plugin running inside InDesign.

Requirements

• The Sidekick plugin for InDesign, from Adobe Exchange. Sidekick is a subscription product with a 30-day trial.
• InDesign 2024 or later, on macOS or Windows
• Node.js 20 or later

Setup

Add a stdio MCP server to your AI assistant that runs:

npx -y indesign-sidekick start

For example, in Codex (~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.indesign-sidekick]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "indesign-sidekick", "start"]

Or in Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "indesign-sidekick": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "indesign-sidekick", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Using Claude Desktop? Install the one-click extension from sidekick.eastpole.nl/install instead.

Updates

Sidekick keeps itself up to date. Each time your AI assistant starts it, npx checks npm for a newer version of this package, and the server fetches the latest implementation from releases.sidekick.eastpole.nl in the background. Use the plain package name as above; there is no need to add @latest.

Slow start on a company network?

Because npx checks npm on every start, Sidekick waits for registry.npmjs.org. When there's no network at all, it skips the check straight away. But some company networks refuse or silently block the connection instead, and then the start can take over a minute, long enough for your AI assistant to give up on it.

If that happens, add --offline so npx uses the copy it already has:

npx -y --offline indesign-sidekick start

This needs Sidekick to have started once with npm reachable. It also means npx no longer installs new versions of this package, so remove --offline now and then (or when you're on another network) to pick them up.

More

• Website and full installation guide: sidekick.eastpole.nl
• Support: sidekick.eastpole.nl/support