abaqus-mcp

Natural-language driver for Abaqus/Standard FEA. Describe a problem, hand over an input deck, and the agent runs the simulation and autonomously diagnoses and fixes failures by reading the .sta / .msg / .dat files and retrying.

Exposed as an MCP server, so any MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or a future local-LLM client) can drive it.

Requires a working Abaqus installation and license. This project automates Abaqus; it does not replace or include it. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Dassault Systèmes.

Status

Architecture

Two Python interpreters, kept strictly separate:

• Engine + MCP server run on system Python 3.11.
• Anything handed to the Abaqus kernel (abaqus python, abaqus cae -noGUI) must be Python 2.7 (Abaqus 2022) and lives under abaqus_mcp/scripts_py27/, invoked as a subprocess — never imported.

Model authoring is hybrid: CAE Python builds/meshes geometry → exports a flat .inp → the solver runs the deck → error-correction happens on the transparent keyword deck (easy to parse and patch), not on Python tracebacks.

Model authoring (Phase 4)

Describe a job as a simulation spec (JSON) — geometry (STEP/IGES), mesh, materials, section, steps, BCs and loads. Loads/BCs attach to faces via coordinate-free selectors (xmin…zmax, or an explicit box) resolved against the part's bounding box. The Py2.7 CAE builder imports the CAD, meshes it, applies everything, and exports a flat .inp; the self-correcting loop runs it. Geometry can also be parametric (no CAD file): set geometry: {type: "parametric", shape: ..., params: {...}}. Shapes: block, beam, plate, cylinder, notched_bar, l_bracket. See abaqus_mcp/spec.py (schema + example_spec() / example_parametric_spec()) and abaqus_mcp/scripts_py27/build_from_spec.py (the CAE builder). Try them: python tests/demo_cad_pipeline.py and python tests/demo_parametric.py notched_bar.

The self-correcting loop

stage deck → run → parse .sta/.msg/.dat → classify failure
   → pick highest-priority applicable fix rule → patch deck → resubmit
   (bounded retries; every attempt's deck + report is kept for audit)

Results extraction (Phase 4c)

After a job COMPLETES, abaqus_mcp/results.py runs the Py2.7 extractor (abaqus_mcp/scripts_py27/extract_odb.py) under abaqus python (no CAE license needed) to pull per-step peak von Mises stress, peak displacement, equivalent plastic strain (PEEQ → yielded?), and net reaction force from the .odb. The run_* / build_and_simulate MCP tools append this automatically; get_results fetches it on demand.

Current fix rules (abaqus_mcp/fixes.py):

• deck_name_repair — fuzzy-corrects mistyped set/material references.
• rigid_body_stabilization — adds STABILIZE for zero-pivot / singular models.
• convergence_refinement — shrinks the initial/min time increment, raises the increment cap, and escalates to stabilization for non-converging steps.

Layout

abaqus_mcp/
    config.py        # locate Abaqus, manage run dirs (env-var overridable)
    runner.py        # stage + run jobs headless (Windows cmd /c abaqus.bat)
    report.py        # combined JobReport over the three parsers
    inp.py           # edit-friendly keyword-deck model
    fixes.py         # failure -> fix rules
    loop.py          # autonomous run/diagnose/fix/retry loop
    results.py       # .odb extraction (peak stress/disp/PEEQ, reaction force)
    authoring.py     # spec -> meshed model -> flat .inp, via the CAE builder
    spec.py          # simulation-spec schema + validation
    server.py        # MCP server (stdio)
    parsers/         # sta.py, msg.py, dat.py
    scripts_py27/    # Py2.7 CAE/ODB scripts -- data files, never imported,
                     # shipped inside the package so a wheel is self-contained
tests/
    models/          # validation + deliberately-broken decks
    fixtures/        # real solver output the parser tests read
    test_parsers_smoke.py
    test_fix_rules.py
    test_spec.py
    demo_autocorrect.py
runs/                # job output (gitignored)

Requirements

• Abaqus (developed against 2022) with a working license, on PATH or in C:\SIMULIA\Commands.
• Python 3.9+ for the server. This is separate from the Python 2.7 that Abaqus bundles — do not install anything into the Abaqus interpreter.

Install

git clone https://github.com/rutwikg/abaqus-mcp.git

cd abaqus-mcp && pip install .

That installs the abaqus-mcp console script, which is what the MCP client launches. To hack on the code instead, use pip install -e ., or skip installing entirely and run python -m abaqus_mcp.server from the repo root.

Verify it works

Check that the server can see your Abaqus installation — this prints the resolved launcher and exits, without consuming a license token:

python -c "from abaqus_mcp.config import CONFIG; print(CONFIG.command, CONFIG.available())"

If that prints False, set ABAQUS_AGENT_COMMAND to your launcher's full path.

Then run the unit tests, which need no Abaqus license:

python tests/test_fix_rules.py && python tests/test_parsers_smoke.py && python tests/test_spec.py

And a real self-correcting run against the solver — this one does need a license. It submits a deliberately broken deck and repairs it:

python tests/demo_autocorrect.py

Directly from Python:

from abaqus_mcp.loop import autocorrect_run
result = autocorrect_run("path/to/model.inp", max_iters=5)
print(result.narrative())

Use from an MCP client

Copy .mcp.json.example to .mcp.json (Claude Code) or merge it into claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop), then edit the paths:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "abaqus-mcp": {
      "command": "abaqus-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": { "ABAQUS_AGENT_RUNS_DIR": "/where/job/output/should/go" }
    }
  }
}

Then ask for check_environment first — it reports whether the Abaqus launcher was found — followed by run_simulation, autocorrect_simulation, or build_and_simulate.

Tools

check_environment, run_simulation, autocorrect_simulation, get_job_status, read_job_file, list_jobs, get_spec_template, get_parametric_spec_template, validate_simulation_spec, build_model, build_and_simulate, get_results, greeting.

Environment overrides

ABAQUS_AGENT_COMMAND (launcher path), ABAQUS_AGENT_RUNS_DIR (defaults to ./runs beside wherever the server was launched), ABAQUS_AGENT_CPUS, ABAQUS_AGENT_JOB_TIMEOUT.

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later — see LICENSE. You may use, modify, and redistribute this freely, but any distributed derivative — including one offered to users over a network — must also be released under the AGPL with source available. Attribution must be preserved.

If those terms don't work for you (for example, you want to build this into a closed-source product), a separate commercial license is available — open an issue to get in touch.

Academic use: please cite via CITATION.cff.