mcp-pine

An MCP server for emulators that speak PINE (Protocol for Instrumentation of Network Emulators) — first-class support for PCSX2 (PS2) and RPCS3 (PS3), with target-aware tool descriptions so the agent sees the right memory map for whichever emulator it's pointed at. Exposes memory read/write and savestate control. Driven from MCP-compatible clients (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, etc.).

What you can do with it

• Read & write emulated memory — 8/16/32/64-bit, anywhere in the emulator's address space (PS2 EE for PCSX2, PPU main memory for RPCS3)
• Trigger save / load state to numbered slots
• Query game metadata — title, serial, disc CRC, version
• Inspect emulator state — running / paused / shutdown

Tool descriptions, memory-map context, and setup help are rendered per-target at startup — set PINE_TARGET=rpcs3 and every memory-tool description shows PS3 PPU addresses instead of PS2 EE addresses.

What you can't do (because PINE itself doesn't expose these):

• Send controller input
• Take screenshots
• Step / pause / reset the emulator

This makes mcp-pine well-suited for memory inspection, cheat / RAM hunting, savestate automation, and reverse engineering, but not for "play games via Claude." For input + screenshot capability on Game Boy Advance, see the sister project mcp-mgba.

How it works

+----------------+    stdio     +----------------+   PINE socket    +-----------------+
|   MCP client   |   JSON-RPC   |    mcp-pine    |  (TCP or Unix)   |    Emulator     |
|  (Claude etc.) | -----------> |   (Node.js)    | ---------------> |  (PINE server)  |
+----------------+              +----------------+                  +-----------------+

mcp-pine opens a loopback connection to the emulator's PINE server (TCP on Windows, Unix domain socket on Linux/macOS) and translates each MCP tool call into a binary PINE message.

Compatible emulators

| Emulator | Platform | PINE built in? | Default slot | PINE_TARGET | |------------------|---------------|-------------------------------------------|--------------|---------------| | PCSX2 ≥ 1.7 (setup) | PlayStation 2 | ✅ Yes (toggle in settings) | 28011 | pcsx2 (default) | | RPCS3 (setup) | PlayStation 3 | ⚠️ Has IPC with PINE-compatible opcodes — verify before relying on it | 28012 | rpcs3 |

Other emulators implementing the PINE spec should work out of the box once you point mcp-pine at the right slot — open an issue if you've tested one and it works.

Note on DuckStation (PS1): DuckStation had PINE support from May–September 2024 but dropped it in commit 19698559. Current builds have no PINE server. If upstream brings it back, PINE_TARGET=duckstation is reserved.

Setting PINE_TARGET does two things: (1) selects the right Unix socket filename on Linux/macOS, and (2) renders all tool descriptions, memory maps, and setup help for that emulator's address space. Default is pcsx2 for back-compat.

Requirements

• An emulator with PINE enabled (see setup below)
• Node.js 18+

Install

Option A — install from npm (recommended)

npm install -g mcp-pine

Verify with mcp-pine (it prints a startup line and waits for stdio — Ctrl+C to exit).

Option B — npx (no install)

npx -y mcp-pine

Option C — clone and develop

git clone https://github.com/dmang-dev/mcp-pine
cd mcp-pine
npm install        # also runs the build via the `prepare` hook

Emulator setup

PCSX2

1. Launch PCSX2 (1.7.x Qt or newer).
2. Settings → Advanced → Enable PINE Server (the option may live under a different submenu in some builds — search the settings for "PINE").
3. Default slot is 28011. If you change it, set PINE_SLOT for mcp-pine.
4. Load any game.

That's it — no scripts, no console commands. PINE is always-on once the toggle is set.

RPCS3

RPCS3 has its own IPC implementation that mirrors PINE's opcode set, but the wire-level compatibility hasn't been thoroughly tested with this client. To try it:

1. Configuration → Advanced → Enable IPC server (or similar — check current RPCS3 docs).
2. Note the configured port.
3. Run with PINE_TARGET=rpcs3 PINE_SLOT=<port> mcp-pine.

If something doesn't work, please file an issue with details.

Register with your MCP client

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add pine --scope user mcp-pine

Verify:

claude mcp list
# pine: mcp-pine - ✓ Connected

Claude Desktop

Edit claude_desktop_config.json:

| Platform | Path | |---|---| | macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json | | Windows | %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json | | Linux | ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json |

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pine": {
      "command": "mcp-pine"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after editing.

Other MCP clients

mcp-pine speaks standard MCP over stdio. Run it and connect any compatible client.

Configuration

| Env var | Default | Purpose | |---------------------|---------------|---------| | PINE_TARGET | pcsx2 | Emulator name. Known values: pcsx2, rpcs3. Selects (1) the Unix socket file prefix on Linux/macOS (<target>.sock.<slot>), and (2) the memory map and setup help shown in tool descriptions. Unknown values pass through with a generic memory map. | | PINE_SLOT | target default | PINE slot — also the TCP port on Windows. Defaults: pcsx2=28011, rpcs3=28012. Set explicitly to override. | | PINE_HOST | 127.0.0.1 | Override the host (TCP only) | | PINE_SOCKET_PATH | (auto) | Override the full Unix socket path on Linux/macOS, bypassing automatic resolution |

Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | pine_ping | Verify the connection by querying the emulator version | | pine_get_info | Title, serial (e.g. SLUS-21274), disc CRC, game version, status | | pine_get_status | Just the running/paused/shutdown state | | pine_read8 / pine_read16 / pine_read32 / pine_read64 | Read memory | | pine_read_range | Bulk read up to 4096 bytes (client-side pipelined PINE calls) | | pine_write8 / pine_write16 / pine_write32 / pine_write64 | Write memory (RAM only — ROM writes are silently dropped) | | pine_save_state | Trigger save state to a numbered slot (0-255) | | pine_load_state | Trigger load state from a numbered slot (0-255) |

See docs/RECIPES.md for end-to-end examples (RAM hunting, struct decoding, snapshot-experiment-restore).

PlayStation 2 address space (PCSX2, default target)

| Range | Region | |-------|--------| | 0x00100000-0x01FFFFFF | EE main RAM (32 MiB) — start here for game data | | 0x10000000 | Hardware registers (DMA, GIF, VIF) | | 0x11000000 | VU0 / VU1 memory | | 0x12000000 | GS privileged registers | | 0x1C000000-0x1C1FFFFF | IOP RAM (2 MiB) | | 0x1F800000 | IOP scratchpad | | 0x70000000 | EE scratchpad (16 KiB) |

Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Cause / Fix | |---|---| | Cannot reach PINE server | Emulator isn't running, PINE isn't enabled in its settings, or the slot/port doesn't match. Check PINE_SLOT. | | PINE FAIL response (0xFF) | The emulator rejected the request — most often because no game is loaded, or the address is unmapped. | | Reads return zeros | Address is in an unallocated region. Try 0x00100000 first (almost always inside loaded EE RAM). | | Tool calls work but values look corrupted | Check endianness expectations — PINE returns little-endian; if you're interpreting strings, use read_range-style byte reads. | | PINE call timed out (10s) from pine_ping after some heavy use | PCSX2's PINE server can wedge. Its request queue is fragile — if a third-party tool pipelines too aggressively (more than ~6 in-flight requests) it silently drops requests, and from then on every reply is mis-aligned with the wrong waiting client. Symptom: even a fresh pine_ping times out. Fix: fully restart PCSX2. Reconnecting alone won't help — the corruption is on the emulator side. | | pine_read_range slower than mGBA's read_range | Expected. PINE has no native bulk read, so we issue calls serially (pipelining can wedge PCSX2 — see above). Loopback TCP is fast enough that this isn't usually a problem: measured ~52 ms for a full 4096-byte read on PCSX2 v2.6.3. For workloads that need lower latency and can tolerate occasional emulator restarts, set PINE_PIPELINE_BATCH=2. |

Development

npm install
npm run dev      # tsc --watch

Quick smoke test against a running PCSX2:

node .scratch/smoke.cjs

License

MIT

Related

• mcp-mgba — sister MCP server for the mGBA Game Boy Advance emulator (also includes button input + screenshot, which PINE doesn't expose)
• PINE protocol spec — the underlying IPC standard