PixInsight Connector MCP server

PixInsight Connector

An MCP connector that lets any AI agent operate PixInsight: about 80 PixInsight operations as tools, for chat sessions and the skills that guide them.

Community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Pleiades Astrophoto. PixInsight® is a registered

trademark of Pleiades Astrophoto S.L.

The principle: a toolbox, not a pipeline

The connector knows how to operate PixInsight, never what makes a good picture. No pipeline, no ordering, no recommended values, no verdicts: every tool takes the values that shape the image as inputs, and every measurement returns numbers. The knowledge (which tools, in what order, with which values, what counts as good enough) lives in skills: markdown in your own repositories, public or private.

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flowchart TB
    classDef know fill:#0f766e,stroke:#115e59,color:#f0fdfa,stroke-width:1px,rx:12,ry:12
    classDef harness fill:#475569,stroke:#334155,color:#f8fafc,stroke-width:1px,rx:12,ry:12
    classDef tool fill:#1e293b,stroke:#64748b,color:#f8fafc,stroke-width:1px,rx:12,ry:12
    classDef app fill:#e2e8f0,stroke:#94a3b8,color:#0f172a,stroke-width:1px
    You(["You, in a chat session"]):::know
    Skills("<b>The knowledge · yours</b><br/>your skills: order, values, quality gates<br/>kept in your own repositories"):::know
    Harness("<b>Any MCP agent harness</b><br/>Claude Code · Codex · Cursor · Gemini CLI · …"):::harness
    Tools("<b>The toolbox · this connector</b><br/>~80 PixInsight operations as MCP tools<br/>measurements return numbers, never verdicts"):::tool
    Bridge("<b>File bridge + watcher script</b><br/>starts PixInsight on the first call"):::tool
    PI(["PixInsigh

Install

Needs Node 22+ and PixInsight 1.9.5+. The same three steps work whether you or your agent runs them.

1. Install the connector from npm:

npm install -g pixinsight-connector

2. Register it with your agent harness as the MCP server pixinsight. Claude Code:

claude mcp add -s user pixinsight -- pixinsight-connector

Any harness configured with an mcpServers JSON file (Cursor, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, Claude Desktop, Cline, Kiro):

{ "mcpServers": { "pixinsight": { "command": "pixinsight-connector" } } }

Codex, OpenCode, VS Code and Zed use other shapes; each one, and where its file lives: docs/setup.md.

3. Check the machine:

pixinsight-connector doctor

PixInsight and its watcher script start on the first tool call; there is nothing else to launch. Upgrade with npm install -g pixinsight-connector@latest. Without installing, register npx -y pixinsight-connector as the command instead (npx fetches it from npm, so the first start needs the network).

Where files go

The tools work in a target folder: the one setworkspace names, else PIXINSIGHTCONNECTOR_WORKSPACE, else the folder the harness started in. The connector writes only /agentic/ (scratch, the bridge, call logs) and /output/, never your home folder. Details and every environment variable: docs/setup.md.

Tools, packs and skills

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.