AI Vision MCP Server

A powerful Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides AI-powered image and video analysis using Google Gemini and Vertex AI models.

Features

• Dual Provider Support: Choose between Google Gemini API and Vertex AI
• Multimodal Analysis: Support for both image and video content analysis
• Flexible File Handling: Upload via multiple methods (URLs, local files, base64)
• Storage Integration: Built-in Google Cloud Storage support
• Comprehensive Validation: Zod-based data validation throughout
• Error Handling: Robust error handling with retry logic and circuit breakers
• TypeScript: Full TypeScript support with strict type checking

Quick Start

Pre-requisites

You could choose either to use google provider or vertex_ai provider. For simplicity, google provider is recommended.

Below are the environment variables you need to set based on your selected provider. (Note: It’s recommended to set the timeout configuration to more than 5 minutes for your MCP client).

(i) Using Google AI Studio Provider

export IMAGE_PROVIDER="google" # or vertex_ai
export VIDEO_PROVIDER="google" # or vertex_ai
export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-gemini-api-key"

Get your Google AI Studio's api key here

(ii) Using Vertex AI Provider

export IMAGE_PROVIDER="vertex_ai"
export VIDEO_PROVIDER="vertex_ai"
export VERTEX_CLIENT_EMAIL="[email protected]"
export VERTEX_PRIVATE_KEY="-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
"
export VERTEX_PROJECT_ID="your-gcp-project-id"
export GCS_BUCKET_NAME="your-gcs-bucket"

Refer to the guideline here on how to set this up.

Installation

Below are the installation guide for this MCP on different MCP clients, such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, etc.

<details> <summary>Claude Desktop</summary>

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration:

(i) Using Google AI Studio Provider

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-vision-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["ai-vision-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "IMAGE_PROVIDER": "google",
        "VIDEO_PROVIDER": "google",
        "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-gemini-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

(ii) Using Vertex AI Provider

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-vision-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["ai-vision-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "IMAGE_PROVIDER": "vertex_ai",
        "VIDEO_PROVIDER": "vertex_ai",
        "VERTEX_CLIENT_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
        "VERTEX_PRIVATE_KEY": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
",
        "VERTEX_PROJECT_ID": "your-gcp-project-id",
        "GCS_BUCKET_NAME": "ai-vision-mcp-{VERTEX_PROJECT_ID}"
      }
    }
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>Claude Code</summary>

(i) Using Google AI Studio Provider

claude mcp add ai-vision-mcp \
  -e IMAGE_PROVIDER=google \
  -e VIDEO_PROVIDER=google \
  -e GEMINI_API_KEY=your-gemini-api-key \
  -- npx ai-vision-mcp

(ii) Using Vertex AI Provider

claude mcp add ai-vision-mcp \
  -e IMAGE_PROVIDER=vertex_ai \
  -e VIDEO_PROVIDER=vertex_ai \
  -e VERTEX_CLIENT_EMAIL=your-service-account@project.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
  -e VERTEX_PRIVATE_KEY="-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
" \
  -e VERTEX_PROJECT_ID=your-gcp-project-id \
  -e GCS_BUCKET_NAME=ai-vision-mcp-{VERTEX_PROJECT_ID} \
  -- npx ai-vision-mcp

Note: Increase the MCP startup timeout to 1 minutes and MCP tool execution timeout to about 5 minutes by updating ~\.claude\settings.json as follows:

{
  "env": {
    "MCP_TIMEOUT": "60000",
    "MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT": "300000"
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>Cursor</summary>

Go to: Settings -> Cursor Settings -> MCP -> Add new global MCP server

Pasting the following configuration into your Cursor ~/.cursor/mcp.json file is the recommended approach. You may also install in a specific project by creating .cursor/mcp.json in your project folder. See Cursor MCP docs for more info.

(i) Using Google AI Studio Provider

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-vision-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["ai-vision-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "IMAGE_PROVIDER": "google",
        "VIDEO_PROVIDER": "google",
        "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-gemini-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

(ii) Using Vertex AI Provider

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-vision-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["ai-vision-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "IMAGE_PROVIDER": "vertex_ai",
        "VIDEO_PROVIDER": "vertex_ai",
        "VERTEX_CLIENT_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
        "VERTEX_PRIVATE_KEY": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
",
        "VERTEX_PROJECT_ID": "your-gcp-project-id",
        "GCS_BUCKET_NAME": "ai-vision-mcp-{VERTEX_PROJECT_ID}"
      }
    }
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>Cline</summary>

Cline uses a JSON configuration file to manage MCP servers. To integrate the provided MCP server configuration:

1. Open Cline and click on the MCP Servers icon in the top navigation bar.
2. Select the Installed tab, then click Advanced MCP Settings.
3. In the cline_mcp_settings.json file, add the following configuration:

(i) Using Google AI Studio Provider

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "timeout": 300, 
    "type": "stdio",
    "ai-vision-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["ai-vision-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "IMAGE_PROVIDER": "google",
        "VIDEO_PROVIDER": "google",
        "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-gemini-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

(ii) Using Vertex AI Provider

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ai-vision-mcp": {
      "timeout": 300,
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["ai-vision-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "IMAGE_PROVIDER": "vertex_ai",
        "VIDEO_PROVIDER": "vertex_ai",
        "VERTEX_CLIENT_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
        "VERTEX_PRIVATE_KEY": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
",
        "VERTEX_PROJECT_ID": "your-gcp-project-id",
        "GCS_BUCKET_NAME": "ai-vision-mcp-{VERTEX_PROJECT_ID}"
      }
    }
  }
}

</details> <details> <summary>Other MCP clients</summary>

The server uses stdio transport and follows the standard MCP protocol. It can be integrated with any MCP-compatible client by running:

npx ai-vision-mcp

</details>

MCP Tools

The server provides four main MCP tools:

1) analyze_image

Analyzes an image using AI and returns a detailed description.

Parameters:

• imageSource (string): URL, base64 data, or file path to the image
• prompt (string): Question or instruction for the AI
• options (object, optional): Analysis options including temperature and max tokens

Examples:

1. Analyze image from URL:

{
  "imageSource": "https://plus.unsplash.com/premium_photo-1710965560034-778eedc929ff",
  "prompt": "What is this image about? Describe what you see in detail."
}

1. Analyze local image file:

{
  "imageSource": "C:\Users\username\Downloads\image.jpg",
  "prompt": "What is this image about? Describe what you see in detail."
}

2) compare_images

Compares multiple images using AI and returns a detailed comparison analysis.

Parameters:

• imageSources (array): Array of image sources (URLs, base64 data, or file paths) - minimum 2, maximum 4 images
• prompt (string): Question or instruction for comparing the images
• options (object, optional): Analysis options including temperature and max tokens

Examples:

1. Compare images from URLs:

{
  "imageSources": [
    "https://example.com/image1.jpg",
    "https://example.com/image2.jpg"
  ],
  "prompt": "Compare these two images and tell me the differences"
}

1. Compare mixed sources:

{
  "imageSources": [
    "https://example.com/image1.jpg",
    "C:\\Users\\username\\Downloads\\image2.jpg",
    "data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgAB..."
  ],
  "prompt": "Which image has the best lighting quality?"
}

3) detect_objects_in_image

Detects objects in an image using AI vision models and generates annotated images with bounding boxes. Returns detected objects with coordinates and either saves the annotated image to a file or temporary directory.

Parameters:

• imageSource (string): URL, base64 data, or file path to the image
• prompt (string): Custom detection prompt describing what to detect or recognize in the image
• outputFilePath (string, optional): Explicit output path for the annotated image

Configuration: This function uses optimized default parameters for object detection and does not accept runtime options parameter. To customize the AI parameters (temperature, topP, topK, maxTokens), use environment variables:

# Recommended environment variable settings for object detection (these are now the defaults)
TEMPERATURE_FOR_DETECT_OBJECTS_IN_IMAGE=0.0     # Deterministic responses
TOP_P_FOR_DETECT_OBJECTS_IN_IMAGE=0.95          # Nucleus sampling
TOP_K_FOR_DETECT_OBJECTS_IN_IMAGE=30            # Vocabulary selection
MAX_TOKENS_FOR_DETECT_OBJECTS_IN_IMAGE=8192     # High token limit for JSON

File Handling Logic:

1. Explicit outputFilePath provided → Saves to the exact path specified
2. If not explicit outputFilePath → Automatically saves to temporary directory

Response Types:

• Returns file object when explicit outputFilePath is provided
• Returns tempFile object when explicit outputFilePath is not provided so the image file output is auto-saved to temporary folder
• A

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