One MCP server for Adobe InDesign and Illustrator together, with tools that work across them. Use it when you work in both applications; to drive only one, install that application's server instead (adobe-mcp-indesign, adobe-mcp-illustrator).

Requires Node.js 18 or later, and InDesign and/or Illustrator 2023 or later on macOS or Windows.

Install

Claude Code:

claude mcp add adobe -- npx -y adobe-mcp-suite

Any client that reads an mcpServers block:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adobe": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "adobe-mcp-suite"] }
  }
}

Load only some applications with --apps (or ADOBE_MCP_APPS):

{ "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "adobe-mcp-suite", "--apps", "illustrator"] }

Tools

Every tool of each application is included, unchanged, with the application's name in front: indesign_create_text_frame, illustrator_create_rectangle, indesign_export_pdf. A tool that already names its application keeps it once: indesign_status, illustrator_execute_code. Each application keeps its own units and conventions (InDesign: millimetres from the page's top-left; Illustrator: points from the artboard's top-left), and the server's instructions describe both.

Tools across applications, offered when both are loaded:

Tool	What it does
`place_illustrator_artwork_in_indesign`	Places an artboard of the active Illustrator document on an InDesign page, linked to the `.ai` file, so later edits in Illustrator reach the layout when the link is updated. Saves the Illustrator document first unless you say not to.
`copy_swatches_illustrator_to_indesign`	Copies colour swatches with their exact values: CMYK and RGB process colours, spot colours as spot inks, grays as CMYK black. Gradients and patterns are listed, not copied; InDesign's built-in swatches are never changed.

Configuration

Each application's variables apply as they do in its own server: INDESIGN_ALLOWED_DIRS, ILLUSTRATOR_ALLOWED_DIRS, INDESIGN_APP_NAME, ILLUSTRATOR_APP_NAME, INDESIGN_SCRIPT_TIMEOUT_MS, ILLUSTRATOR_SCRIPT_TIMEOUT_MS, INDESIGN_BACKEND and the UXP bridge settings. ADOBE_MCP_APPS chooses the applications.

Development

npm test -w packages/suite

The tests check tool naming, that each application's argument aliases stay with its own tools, that each application's help accepts the suite's names, and that the cross-application tools generate valid scripts for both applications' object models, with both applications stubbed. Nothing here has been run against InDesign or Illustrator.