Editmamei is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for driving desktop Adobe Photoshop for natural-language photo editing. Users describe editing needs in natural language, the AI assistant plans the steps, and Photoshop executes using its standard adjustment layers, masks, selections, and filters. The AI handles direction, Photoshop handles pixel editing. No generative model touches the pixels, and no images are uploaded when performing edits. The project is independent and has not been associated with or endorsed by Adobe.
Main capabilities
- Natural-language editing: describe edits in everyday language, and the AI assistant combines tool calls and iterates.
- Non-destructive by default: adjustments are made as adjustment layers, destructive pixel operations run on automatically created copies, and edits are structurally reversible.
- Structured results: each tool declares an outputSchema and returns typed JSON, reporting the current document and layer state.
- Measure instead of eyeballing: validation tools such as histograms, region comparisons, layer boundary differences, and selection previews are provided for numerical checks.
- On-device perception: uses local ONNX computer vision to detect faces, objects, and scene regions, returning real document coordinates, and images never leave the local machine.
- Supports Photoshop 2026 (v27.x) and GIMP (beta).
How to use
Editmamei is a pure MCP stdio server written in Node. AI clients launch it as a child process and call tools via stdio. Each tool builds a small Photoshop script and executes it locally in Photoshop through the platform's native automation channel: Windows via COM (the Photoshop.Application object), macOS via AppleScript / OSA.
After installation, restart the AI client and ask "Is Photoshop connected?". Claude Desktop users can install the one-click .mcpb extension (no system Node required).
A typical session: first ps_ping (liveness check), then ps_overview (working method and capability map), then tools/list (complete schema type list). After that, you can talk directly, for example "open my vacation photo", "make the sky more dramatic but keep the foreground natural", "sharpen the eyes, soften the skinskin, leave the rest untouched" "isolate the subject onto a layer with a clean mask" "export a 2048px web JPEG".
Settings live in ~/.editmamei/settings.json and are managed by the editmamei config CLI. The PHOTOSHOP_PATH environment variable can override Photoshop auto-detection.
Use cases
Suitable for photographers and retouchers to edit through conversation, and for developers to connect Photoshop into AI pipelines. Can be used for real scenarios such as batch travel photo color grading.
Toolset
111 tools in total. The Photoshop surface has 83 tools, divided into 16 capability groups (62 Community, 21 Pro). Community tools are available in both versions; Pro tools require a license to unlock. All tools use the ps_* namespace and are discovered at runtime via tools/list. In addition, a separate editor surface drives headless GIMP: 28 gimp_* tools, Community, currently in beta. Pro additions are limited to Photoshop only; GIMP has no Pro tier.
- Community: free, covering documents, layers, selections (including AI select subject and select sky), non-destructive adjustments, filters, masks, text, retouching, on-device perception, and inspection/verification primitives.
- Pro: adds Camera Raw as a re-editable filter, developing raw files before opening, folder batch processing, a reproducible template system, ground-based precision tools (transform, named object masks, precise placement), subject instances and face grid positioning, plus Photoshop Actions and script escape hatches.
GIMP (beta)
When GIMP 3.2+ is detected on the machine, the gimp_* toolset is registered alongside ps_*; use it when GIMP is requested or Photoshop is unavailable. No visible window: edits happen in a background gimp-console process, followed up with rendered previews in the conversation. The beta covers documents (open, create, save .xcf, export), layers and groups, placing one photo into another, 13 non-destructive adjustment types and six effects (vignette, black and white, motion blur and lens blur, noise, drop shadow), selections (shapes, color range, magic wand, gradient) that can be attached as layer masksadd, real-time text layers, move/scale/rotate layers, crop/resize/rotate/flip, canvas extension, color/grayscale conversion, recoverable checkpoints, and the same preview/histogram/comparison verification primitives as the Photoshop side. Does not yet cover healing/cloning or AI subject and sky selection.
Build and Test
Requires Node.js 22+ and Go 1.21+ (the build compiles the editmamei-core binary to generate Photoshop scripts; it requires Go 1.27, and Go will automatically fetch it starting from 1.21). When Go is missing, the build will warn rather than fail, and the test suite can still be run; you can set EDITMAMEI_CORE_BIN to point to a prebuilt binary. The test suite can run without Photoshop and verifies the generated ExtendScript, rather than whether Photoshop accepts it.
Limitations and Requirements
- Requires Adobe Photoshop 2026 (v27.x), Windows 10/11 or macOS 13+, Node.js 22+ (npm path), and a compatible MCP AI client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code).
- Editmamei itself contains no models and runs on the connected client, so each edit consumes that client's tokens.
- Each tool is released only after being verified in a live Photoshop session; new tools remain disabled until they pass live verification.
Privacy and License
Editmamei runs on your computer and edits in desktop Photoshop. Image content, document data, or file paths are not sent to Editmamei's servers. It reports content-free usage telemetry (enabled by default, can be turned off with editmamei config set telemetry.usage false). When the AI assistant needs to view results, Editmamei sends a downscaled preview.
Editmamei CE is Fair Source software, using the Functional Source License, v1.1, MIT Future License (FSL-1.1-MIT). You may read, run, modify, and redistribute the code for almost any purpose, including commercial photo editing, internal tools, education,research, and security review. The only restriction is that for two years after each release, the code may not be offered to others as a commercial product or service competing with Editmamei CE or Pro. Retain the license and copyright notices when redistributing. Two years after each version is released, it automatically becomes pure MIT.
Editmamei is not OSI-defined open source software, but source-available. Editmamei Pro is a separately commercially licensed module, and its source code is not public. Third-party dependencies retain their own licenses.
Documentation and Support
Features and pricing: editmamei.com Installation: docs/installation.md Getting started: docs/getting-started.md FAQ: docs/faq.md AI clients: docs/clients.md Troubleshooting: docs/troubleshooting.md GIMP (beta): docs/gimp.md Pro features: docs/pro-features.md Roadmap: docs/roadmap.md Bugs and feature requests: issue tracker. Security: see SECURITY.md (do not publicly submit security issues).
