io.github.MaxEllis/orcaslicer-mcp
Work a running OrcaSlicer with AI: slice, tune, and understand what each setting costs
Open source Open in the app JSON README (API)
About
Work a running OrcaSlicer with AI: slice, tune, and understand what each setting costs
Details
- Kind
- MCP servers
- Topic
- No topic detected
- Publisher
- maxellis
- Origin
- official
- Category
- ferramentas
- Transport
- local
- Version
- 0.1.10
- Stars
- 44
- Forks
- 6
- Last push
- 2026-09-06T21:19:01Z
- Repository state
- ativo
- Language
- Python
- License
- AGPL-3.0
- Added
- 2026-08-29 03:02:05
- Updated
- 2026-09-07 16:03:51
- Origin id
io.github.MaxEllis/orcaslicer-mcp
README
# OrcaSlicer MCP
[](https://pypi.org/project/orcaslicer-mcp/)
[](https://pypi.org/project/orcaslicer-mcp/)
[](LICENSE)
[](https://lobehub.com/mcp/maxellis-orcaslicer-mcp)
[](https://buymeacoffee.com/maxellis)
Let Claude work alongside you in a real, running OrcaSlicer. It loads models, arranges the plate, tunes settings, slices, and reads the result back as numbers you can question: which feature ate the print time, what a setting actually does, whether a profile breaks your printer's physics. Every change lands in the GUI while you watch, so the slicer stays yours and you get better at it as you go.
This package is an [MCP](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) server: it bundles no model and talks to nothing but OrcaSlicer, at an address you configure, localhost by default. The model comes from your MCP client. If that client uses a hosted one, your conversation goes there as any chat does; your models, profiles, and gcode stay on the machine running the slicer. Point the client at a local model and nothing leaves at all.
## What it can do
### Knowing what the settings mean
An offline settings reference ships with the package, carrying the authoritative label, tooltip, type, range, enum, and default for each key, so `describe_setting`, `search_settings`, and `compare_settings` answer from OrcaSlicer's own source instead of guessing. `consult` composes curated slicing knowledge and your saved notes by topic, symptom, or goal.
`check_profile_physics` is a deterministic gate. It overlays proposed changes on the live config, runs flow, temperature, geometry, and cooling math, then returns `ok`, `warnings`, or `blocked`. Accelerations your printer cannot reach and speeds past the flow ceiling get caught before they reach a print.
### Settings
Read and write any of roughly 800 OrcaSlicer settings on the live config, for the whole plate or scoped narrower: `get_config`, `set_config`, `find_config_keys`, `set_layer_height`, `set_height_range` for a band of layers, and `set_object_config` for one object's overrides.
### Presets
`list_presets`, `select_preset`, `get_preset_config`, `edit_preset`, `save_preset`, `rename_preset`, `delete_preset`.
### Slicing, and reading the result back
`slice`, `slice_and_wait`, `apply_and_slice`, `cancel_slice`, `get_slice_status`, `get_slice_warnings`, `get_gcode`.
`get_slice_breakdown` returns per-feature time, filament, and flow. OrcaSlicer shows the same information in the legend beside its preview, sized for a screen; this returns it as numbers an assistant can compare and act on:
```
role time share filament mean flow
inner_wall 5m 41s 30.8% 6.43 g 16.0 mm3/s
outer_wall 3m 19s 18.0% 3.20 g 13.6 mm3/s
sparse_infill 3m 07s 17.0% 3.57 g 17.0 mm3/s
internal_solid_infill 2m 01s 11.0% 1.72 g 11.8 mm3/s
bridge 52s 4.7% 0.26 g 4.4 mm3/s
support_interface 36s 3.2% 0.52 g 12.3 mm3/s
overhang_perimeter 28s 2.5% 0.13 g 3.7 mm3/s
internal_bridge 21s 1.9% 0.45 g 19.9 mm3/s
top_surface 19s 1.7% 0.29 g 12.5 mm3/s
brim 12s 1.1% 0.21 g 14.7 mm3/s
bottom_surface 7s 0.7% 0.10 g 11.8 mm3/s
18m 24s 16.89 g
```
It answers which feature is eating the time without slicing repeatedly to find out. A `prediction_check` rides along and flags any role where the profile's requested speed got throttled at the flow ceiling.
`compare_slices` slices the current plate under several named variants and returns one comparison, so "what does layer height actually cost me?" is a single question rather than four manual slices. It applies each variant over your original config, restores it when done, and hands back a verdict plus a table with every delta already worked out:
```
Recommended: 0.4mm - fastest with no warnings.
variant time filament vs 0.4mm (baseline)
0.3mm 8h 10m 41.0 g +1h 30m (+22%), -7.0 g (-15%)
0.4mm * 6h 40m 48.0 g baseline
0.5mm 5h 20m 53.4 g -1h 20m (-20%), +5.4 g (+11%)
0.6mm 4h 35m 57.1 g -2h 05m (-31%), +9.1 g (+19%) thin-wall warning
```
It only crowns a winner when one variant genuinely beats the rest on time, filament, and warnings; when they trade off, it names the fastest, the lightest, and where the warnings landed, and leaves the choice in front of you. Pass `detail=True` for the per-feature split of each variant.
### Models and the plate
`load_model` (`.stl`, `.obj`, `.3mf`, plus `.step` and `.stp` on fork v2.3.2-mcp.3 and later), `list_objects` with each object's world-space bounding box and an `on_plate` flag, `transform_object`, `duplicate_object`, `delete_object`, `arrange_plate`, `auto_orient`, `check_placement`, `diagnose_plate`, `get_job_status`.
### Plate renders
`render_plate` hands back a PNG, so the assistant can look instead of inferring from coordinates. A rotation reads instantly as a picture and barely at all as three Euler angles. Seven camera angles cover `iso`, `top`, `front`, `left`, `right`, `rear`, and `bottom`. Use `frame="plate"` to stand back for the whole bed, or `frame="object"` to lean in on the part. Requires fork v2.3.2-mcp.4 or later.
| `view="editor"` | `view="preview"` |
|---|---|
|  |  |
| Your models on the bed. Answers orientation, plate contact, and first-layer footprint. | Sliced toolpaths coloured by feature role, so support placement is plain to see. |
### Live state and memory
`get_status` and `watch_events` report what the slicer is doing now. `remember` persists machine, user, and project facts for later sessions, as plain local files in `~/.orcaslicer-mcp/notes/`, relocatable with `ORCA_MCP_NOTES_DIR`.
### Learning from real prints
`save_gcode` saves the last successful slice's G-code and records the model, geometry, and full settings snapshot that produced it. Set `PRINT_OUTCOMES_DIR` to say exactly where; otherwise it writes into the shared print-outcomes folder (`~/projects/_shared/print-outcomes/`) if that folder already exists on this machine, and into `~/.orcaslicer-mcp/` (the same folder `remember` uses) if it does not. `recall_prints` reads the shared folder before you slice, so the assistant can say how past prints of this model actually went: success, cancelled, or the verdict you gave it, and the settings used.
Recording and recall both depend on a companion service, the [klipper-mcp](https://github.com/MaxEllis/klipper-mcp) server, whose `klipper-mcp-capture` process writes the real print result into the same store once your printer finishes the job, and whose `start_print` tool uploads the file `save_gcode` saved under the same filename. Without that companion, `save_gcode` still writes the G-code file (its folder is created on first use even so) but records nothing, and `recall_prints` returns `available: false` and does nothing else. Neither tool makes the server contact you on its own; the assistant only sees new outcomes when it calls `recall_prints` again in a later session.
## What you need
Stock OrcaSlicer ships without a control API, so a matching build does that half of the job.
1. **The OrcaSlicer MCP build.** OrcaSlicer 2.3.2 with an embedded local API, token-authenticated and bound to localhost until you say otherwise. Get it from the [releases page](https://github.com/MaxEllis/OrcaSlicer/releases). If no binary is up for your platform yet, build the `remote-api` branch from source.
2. **This package (`orcaslicer-mcp`).** The MCP server that connects your AI client to that build.
> **Updating:** take new builds from the [releases page](https://github.com/MaxEllis/OrcaSlicer/releases), never from inside the app. The in-app updater offers *stock* OrcaSlicer, which drops the control API. Builds mcp.2 and later turn that updater off for you. On an older build, click **Skip this Version** if a "new version available" prompt appears.
## Quickstart
Install [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/) first, because it provides the `uvx` command that runs the server. One line does it: `curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh` on macOS and Linux, or `irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex` in PowerShell on Windows.
1. Install the OrcaSlicer MCP build, launch it, and finish the one-time setup by picking your printer. A fresh install may show a **“Bambu Network Plug-in Required”** dialog. Click **Skip for Now**, since that plug-in only serves Bambu cloud printing. The control API starts once setup is finished.
2. Open **Preferences** (Ctrl+P), go to **Remote API**, and tick **Enable Remote API**. Copy the token shown on that page. Access stays localhost-only unless you also switch on "Allow LAN access".
3. Connect your MCP client.
**Claude Desktop:** download `orcaslicer-mcp-<version>.mcpb` from the [releases page](https://github.com/MaxEllis/orcaslicer-mcp/releases/latest) and open the file. Claude Desktop offers to install it. Open the extension's settings afterwards, paste the token from step 2, and enable it.
> Ignore any guide that tells you to hand-edit `claude_desktop_config.json`. Current Claude Desktop builds rewrite that file themselves and drop added `mcpServers` entries, so the edit will not stick. The extension leaves the file alone and finds `uvx` by itself.
**Claude Code and other MCP clients:** add the server to your client's MCP config. For Claude Code that means a project `.mcp.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"orcaslicer": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["orcaslicer-mcp"],
"env": {
"ORCA_API_TOKEN": "<token from Preferences>"
}
}
}
}
```
`ORCA_API_URL` defaults to `http://127.0.0.1:13130`. Set it only if you changed the port, or if OrcaSlicer runs on another machine with LAN access enabled there.
> **macOS note for GUI clients other than Claude Desktop:** apps launched from the Dock do not inherit your terminal's PATH, so `"command": "uvx"` can fail silently. Run `which uvx` in Terminal, then paste the full path it prints into `"command"`. It is usually `~/.local/bin/uvx`.
4. Restart your client and ask: *"Load benchy.stl, slice it with the current profile, and tell me the print time."*
## Security
- The control API binds **127.0.0.1 only** by default. LAN access is an explicit opt-in in Preferences.
- Every request must carry the API token. OrcaSlicer generates it on first run and can regenerate it at any time.
- The MCP server runs as a local stdio process and opens no connection except to OrcaSlicer. No telemetry.
## Development
```bash
uv venv && uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
uv run pytest # unit tests against a mock API, plus a guarded live smoke test
```
The live smoke test skips itself unless `ORCA_API_URL` and `ORCA_API_TOKEN` point at a running OrcaSlicer MCP build.
Protocol notes, design specs, and verification results live in [`docs/`](docs/).
## Privacy policy
The server talks to OrcaSlicer's local API at the address you configure, localhost by default, and to nothing else. It has no backend, so there is no service of ours for anything to reach. What leaves your machine is whatever your MCP client sends its model: the conversation, plus any settings or file contents you or the assistant put into it. Their terms govern that traffic, and it is the same traffic any other use of that client produces. A local model removes it entirely.
- **Data collection:** none. The server collects nothing about you or your usage.
- **Usage and storage:** models, settings, and gcode stay on the computer running OrcaSlicer, held in memory only for the duration of each request. The API token authenticates the server to OrcaSlicer, and your MCP client stores it. Claude Desktop keeps extension settings in the operating system's credential store.
- **Third-party sharing:** none by this server, which has no analytics and no backend. Traffic between your client and its model provider sits outside this project and falls under their policies.
- **Data retention:** the only data written to disk is notes you save yourself with `remember`, stored as plain files under `~/.orcaslicer-mcp/notes/`, and the G-code plus slice records that `save_gcode` writes: under `~/projects/_shared/print-outcomes/` when that shared folder already exists, otherwise under `~/.orcaslicer-mcp/` (either relocatable with `PRINT_OUTCOMES_DIR`), read back by `recall_prints` and joined with real print results by the separate klipper-mcp project. Read or delete either folder whenever you like. Delete them and nothing remains.
- **Contact:** questions and concerns go in [an issue](https://github.com/MaxEllis/orcaslicer-mcp/issues).
## Status
Early public release, soft launch. The server carries 183 unit tests and gets exercised on real print jobs. Prebuilt OrcaSlicer MCP builds cover Windows, macOS, and Linux on the [releases page](https://github.com/MaxEllis/OrcaSlicer/releases). Issues and reports are welcome.
## Support
The project is free and stays that way. If it saves you time and you feel like saying thanks, you can buy me a coffee.
<a href="https://buymeacoffee.com/maxellis"><img src="https://cdn.buymeacoffee.com/buttons/v2/default-yellow.png" alt="Buy Me a Coffee" height="50"></a>
## License
AGPL-3.0, matching OrcaSlicer, from whose source the bundled settings schema derives. See [LICENSE](LICENSE).
<!-- mcp-name: io.github.MaxEllis/orcaslicer-mcp -->