mc-asset

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A pixel-native 2D asset engine and deterministic CLI/MCP toolchain for Minecraft Java Edition resource packs, built for human creators and AI coding agents.

Language models can't place pixels by eye, so mc-asset turns texture work into text and commands. Draw a sprite as a character grid, pixelize reference art, generate tiling textures, pack animation sheets, and validate a whole resource pack, from a shell or over MCP. The same input and seed always produce the same bytes.

Six 16×16 items, each written as a text grid and rendered by mc-asset render (shown ×6), drawn to the vanilla style rules in the minecraft-pixel-art skill. The grids are in docs/assets/showcase/items/.

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Contents

• Highlights
• Showcase
• Installation
• For AI agents
• Quickstart
• Practical Recipes
• MCP Server
• Command Reference
• Batch Operations (--operations)
• Architecture & Reliability Guarantees
• Development
• License

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Highlights

• Text in, texture out. Sprites are character grids (.grid) or editable multi-layer sources (.mcpx) that build to PNG. See docs/mcpx-format.md.
• Reproducible bytes. No unseeded randomness and integer-only color blending, so PNG and .mcpx output is identical run to run and between Bun and Node.
• One engine, two front ends. The CLI and the stdio MCP server call the same core, so an agent gets exactly what a shell script gets.
• Output you can parse. --json returns one { success, result, error } envelope with a stable error code, and logs never mix into data on stdout.
• No surprise writes. Every output path is explicit, existing files need --force, and each file lands through a temp file and an atomic rename.

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Showcase

Every image below is produced by mc-asset itself, with fixed seeds for the procedural sources, so the whole set is reproducible. The commands live in docs/assets/showcase/README.md.

Pixelize	Quantize
→	→
A detailed reference image (128px, shown ×2) reduced to 16px (shown ×16): the grain coarsens and shapes snap to a tidy pixel grid.	A 64-color gradient reduced to 8 colors (both ×4): the color count drops and the result settles into clear steps.

Material variants — the sword from the top of this page fanned out into all seven built-in materials (copper, crystal, gold, iron, oxidized_copper, stone, wood, shown ×5). Its palette gives each color a role, so the blade and guard take the new ramp while the darkest outline, the white glint, the wooden grip, and the guard's gem keep their colors:

Procedural patterns — every generate pattern as a 16px swatch from a fixed seed (shown ×4):

noise	clustered-noise	stripes	checker	gradient
brick	spots	veins	cracks	grain

Seamless tiling — a 16px brick block face (left, ×8) and a 4×4 wall of it (right, ×4); the mortar lines continue across every edge:

Animation sheet — four frames of a glowing ore block packed into one vertical strip (×4), the layout Minecraft reads with an .mcmeta animation:

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Installation

Via npm (recommended)

Run the server straight from the registry — no local install needed:

npx -y mc-asset mcp

Install the CLI globally to get the mc-asset command on your PATH:

npm install -g mc-asset
mc-asset --version

Via Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew tap smile-minecraft/tap
brew install smile-minecraft/tap/mc-asset
mc-asset --version

Via Bun or Node.js (From Source)

git clone https://github.com/smile-minecraft/mc-asset.git
cd mc-asset
bun install --frozen-lockfile
bun run build
./bin/mc-asset.js --version

Prerequisites: tested with Node.js 22 and Bun 1.3. bun run build needs Bun and ./bin/mc-asset.js needs Node.js; with Bun alone, run bun ./bin/mc-asset.js.

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For AI agents

• llms.txt — a compact index of the repository for agents.
• llms-full.txt — the same material as a single file: install, the twenty-one MCP tools, batch operations, the error model, and the limits.
• docs/cli-surface.md — the frozen CLI commands, the batch operations specification, and the exit-code registry.
• docs/mcpx-format.md — the editable multi-layer .mcpx and .grid grammar and specification.
• docs/mcp-guide.md — registration, one verbatim capture per MCP tool, and the error model.
• docs/mcp-surface.md — the frozen MCP surface: tool names, inputs, and the read/write contract.
• AGENTS.md — the rules for changing this repository.

Agent skills

The repository ships two Agent Skills in skills/, installable with the skills CLI:

npx skills add smile-minecraft/mc-asset

• mc-asset — the draw → render → preview → measure → validate loop with this tool, the CLI/MCP command map, and how palette roles drive recoloring.
• minecraft-pixel-art — the vanilla style rules for items, blocks, GUI sprites, and animations: palettes and hue-shifted ramps, material outlines, top-left light, tiling, and an anti-pattern review checklist.

Add --skill mc-asset or --skill minecraft-pixel-art to install only one.

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Quickstart

From a Text Grid to a Validated Texture

Draw a 16×16 gem as a character grid, one character per pixel:

mkdir -p /tmp/mc-asset-demo
cat << 'EOF' > /tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.grid
[palette]
. = transparent
o = #0E1846FF
s = #1E3A8CFF
D = #2448A8FF
m = #3569D0FF
l = #5A92EEFF
t = #7FB2F6FF
T = #A9D2FFFF
W = #FFFFFFFF

[grid]
................
................
......sssss.....
.....sTTTTTo....
....sTTWWTTto...
...sTTWWTTttto..
..slllTTTtttmmo.
..slllllmmmmmDo.
..slllllmmmmmDo.
..slllllmmmmDDo.
...olllmmmmDDo..
....ollmmmDDo...
.....olmmmDo....
......ommDo.....
.......ooo......
................
EOF

Render the grid into a PNG texture and save the editable .mcpx source:

mc-asset render /tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.grid \
  --output /tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.png \
  --source /tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.mcpx
# ok render profile=generic applied=0 output=/tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.png source=/tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.mcpx

The rendered gem.png, shown ×8:

Check its colors and alpha:

mc-asset analyze /tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.png
# dimensions: 16x16
# colors: 9
# alpha: predicted cutout (opaque=119 transparent=137 partial=0)
# dominant: #00000000 x137 (0.5352), #3569D0FF x28 (0.1094), #5A92EEFF x24 (0.0938), #0E1846FF x18 (0.0703), #A9D2FFFF x16 (0.0625), #1E3A8CFF x12 (0.0469), #2448A8FF x10 (0.0391), #7FB2F6FF x7 (0.0273)
# profile: predicted profile generic has no Minecraft-specific restrictions.
# palette: colorCount=9 alphaLevels=2 transparent=137 partial=0
# pixel-art: 16x16 aspect=1:1 isolated=0 semiTransparent=0 tileFriendly=true
# recommended: quantize.colors=16 cleanup=none resize=nearest

Validate it as a Minecraft item texture:

mc-asset validate /tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.png --profile minecraft:item
# verdict: pass
# dimensions: 16x16
# colors: 9
# alpha: predicted cutout (opaque=119 transparent=137 partial=0)
# profile: predicted profile minecraft:item prefers the items atlas without mipmaps.

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Practical Recipes

Recipe 1: Downsampling Reference Art (pixelize)

Turn a high-resolution reference image into a 16×16 item texture. The same image and preset always give the same pixels:

mc-asset pixelize reference.png \
  --size 16 \
  --preset item \
  --profile minecraft:item \
  --output item_texture.png

• --preset item sets a 16-color budget and turns on the crop, background, subject, edge, and cluster stages.
• The other presets are block, gui, particle, and generic.

Recipe 2: Procedural Textures & Seam Tiling (generate & tile)

Generate a stone texture from a fixed seed, then check whether it tiles:

mc-asset generate noise \
  --size 16 \
  --palette stone \
  --seed 42 \
  --output stone.png

# Seam scores: horizontal, vertical, corner (lower is smoother)
mc-asset tile stone.png
# ok tile profile=generic seam=h:0.065196 v:0.096051 c:0.003604 repeat=0.908038

# Match the opposite edges and preview a 4x4 repeat
mc-asset tile stone.png \
  --edge-match both \
  --preview 4x4 \
  --output stone_preview.png

Recipe 3: Palette Quantization & Artifact Cleanup (quantize & cleanup)

Cut a sprite down to 8 colors, then remove the stray pixels left behind:

mc-asset quantize sprite.png --colors 8 --output quantized.png

mc-asset cleanup quantized.png \
  --fix isolated,noise \
  --allow-render-pass-change \
  --output clean.png

These fix classes can change alpha, and with it the render pass the texture needs, so cleanup refuses them without --allow-render-pass-change.

Recipe 4: Material Variants (variant & recolor)

Fan one source out into several material tiers, or recolor it to a single material:

mc-asset variant sword.mcpx \
  --materials iron,copper,gold \
  --output-dir ./dist_variants \
  --mkdir
# Writes sword_iron.png, sword_iron.mcpx, sword_copper.png, etc.

mc-asset recolor sword.mcpx --material gold --output sword_gold.png

Recipe 5: Animated Sprite Sheets (animate)

Pack a folder of frames into a vertical sheet, then check it against its .mcmeta:

mc-asset animate pack \
  --frames-dir ./textures/fire_frames \
  --layout vertical \
  --output ./textures/fire.png

mc-asset validate ./textures/fire.png --mcmeta ./textures/fire.png.mcmeta

Recipe 6: Full Resource Pack Validation (validate-pack)

Scan a whole resource pack for missing textures, bad namespaces, orphaned textures, broken model references, and reference cycles. --minecraft-version picks the pack format to check against:

mc-asset validate-pack ./MyResourcePack \
  --minecraft-version 26.3 \
  --json

Recipe 7: Batch Edits with Visual Feedback (build & apply_asset_operations)

Edit the Quickstart gem in one batch: a 4×4 gold square framed by a 6×6 black outline. The CLI applies the batch and writes a PNG:

cat << 'EOF' > /tmp/mc-asset-demo/ops.json
[
  { "type": "fillRect", "rect": { "x": 6, "y": 6, "width": 4, "height": 4 }, "color": "#FFD700FF" },
  { "type": "drawRect", "rect": { "x": 5, "y": 5, "width": 6, "height": 6 }, "color": "#000000FF" }
]
EOF

mc-asset build /tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.mcpx \
  --operations /tmp/mc-asset-demo/ops.json \
  --output /tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem_modified.png
# ok build profile=generic applied=2 output=/tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem_modified.png

Before and after the batch (both ×8):

→

Over MCP, apply_asset_operations runs the same batch and can send back a picture of what changed:

{
  "sourcePath": "/tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem.mcpx",
  "operations": [
    { "type": "fillRect", "rect": { "x": 6, "y": 6, "width": 4, "height": 4 }, "color": "#FFD700FF" },
    { "type": "drawRect", "rect": { "x": 5, "y": 5, "width": 6, "height": 6 }, "color": "#000000FF" }
  ],
  "outputPngPath": "/tmp/mc-asset-demo/gem_feedback.png",
  "feedback": { "image": "changed", "scale": 8, "diff": "summary" }
}

With feedback, the result keeps its usual fields and adds a PNG image block cropped to the changed area and upscaled by scale (1–16), plus a diff summary (raw, composited, structural, outsideSelectionUnchanged). An edit with no visible change returns noVisibleChange instead of an image. The agent sees its edit without pulling the whole canvas. The output path differs from the CLI run because MCP tools never overwrite an existing file.

Recipe 8: Nine-Slice GUI Scaling (gui-scale)

Resize a GUI frame without smearing its border. With nine_slice, the corners copy 1:1 and the edges and center tile (or stretch, with stretch_inner: true). The 16×16 dialog.png declares a 4px border in dialog.png.mcmeta:

{ "gui": { "scaling": { "type": "nine_slice", "width": 16, "height": 16, "border": 4 } } }

mc-asset gui-scale ./textures/gui/dialog.png \
  --mcmeta ./textures/gui/dialog.png.mcmeta \
  --size 48x32 \
  --output ./textures/gui/dialog_large.png
# ok gui-scale profile=generic size=48x32 scaling=nine_slice output=./textures/gui/dialog_large.png

gui-scale never picks up a sibling .mcmeta on its own; without --mcmeta it stretches the whole sprite.

Source, 16×16	nine_slice, 48×32	No --mcmeta (stretch), 48×32

All three are shown ×4. With the mcmeta the cut corners and the 2px bevels copy 1:1 and keep their width; the plain stretch thickens the bevels unevenly and smears the corners.

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MCP Server

mc-asset mcp starts a stdio MCP server on the same core as the CLI, so a tool call and the matching command return the same result. It exposes 21 tools.

Exposed MCP Tools

Tool	Capability
analyze_asset	Read-only inspection: dimensions, palette distribution, alpha classification, pixel-art heuristics.
pixelize_asset	Converts raster inputs (PNG, JPEG, WebP) into pixel art; returns PNG bytes or .mcpx source.
render_pixel_asset	Compiles inline ASCII grid strings or .grid files with optional batch operations.
apply_asset_operations	Applies atomic batch pixel/layer/region mutations to .mcpx text.
recolor_asset	Remaps texture palettes to built-in material ramps (iron, gold, stone, etc.).
create_variants	Fans out a source asset into per-material variants in an output directory.
validate_asset	Checks single texture and .mcmeta conformance against Minecraft requirements.
import_asset	Decodes raster inputs (PNG, JPEG, WebP) into the pixel canvas with an optional batch.
build_asset	Builds .mcpx sources into PNG bytes or re-serialized source with an optional batch.
transform_asset	Applies one geometry operation (flip, rotate, crop, pad, resize, translate) to a raster or .mcpx input.
scale_gui_asset	Scales a GUI sprite with the mcmeta stretch/tile/nine_slice mapping; PNG only.
quantize_asset	Reduces distinct colors to a target count.
cleanup_asset	Detects or fixes pixel defects (isolated, noise, cluster, fringe, outlier, hole, aa).
palette_asset	Read-only palette extract / inspect reports (unique colors, distribution, roles, contrast).
material_asset	Read-only list / show reports over the built-in material set.
tile_asset	Seam, edge-repetition, and brightness analysis with an optional tiled preview PNG.
generate_asset	Deterministic procedural texture generation (pattern, size, palette, seed).
preview_asset	ascii / palette-map reports, scale and nine-slice guide PNGs.
animate_asset	Animation pack / unpack / reorder / resize / validate / preview over frame sets.
validate_pack_asset	Read-only whole-pack scan: namespaces, models, textures, atlases, version targeting.
inspect_asset	Read-only structure (layers, regions, color usage, overlaps) or view (composited PNG image block plus metadata); takes inputPath.

inspect_asset has two modes: structure reports layers, regions, color usage, and overlaps; view returns the composited canvas as a PNG image block, with optional crop and scale (1–16). A view wider than 1024px is refused with a crop hint instead of being downscaled. apply_asset_operations takes an optional feedback object (Recipe 7); without it the result is unchanged. docs/mcp-guide.md has one captured call per tool.

Configuration

Every client runs the same stdio command, npx -y mc-asset mcp. Config file locations change between client versions, so check the client's own docs if one below has moved.

Claude Code

claude mcp add mc-asset -- npx -y mc-asset mcp

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mc-asset": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mc-asset", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mc-asset": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mc-asset", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

OpenCode

Add to opencode.json or opencode.jsonc:

{
  "mcp": {
    "mc-asset": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["npx", "-y", "mc-asset", "mcp"],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

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Command Reference