dcmview

dcmview is a fast, temporary DICOM viewer for research and development work. Point it at one or more DICOM files from the command line or Python, and it starts a local browser viewer for images, tags, cine playback, and rectangular ROI annotations. Stop the process and the server is gone.

The main problem it solves is remote-server inspection. Medical imaging research often happens where the data already live: an SSH session, a shared compute server, or a locked-down institutional network. Viewing those images usually means choosing between slow notebook plots, setting up a web viewer on the server, opening firewall ports, or uploading data and annotations into a third-party cloud tool. dcmview keeps the workflow local to the machine with the files: start the viewer, forward the loopback port over SSH when needed, and inspect the study in seconds.

dcmview is intended for developer and research inspection on secure networks, not clinical diagnosis. Avoid public-facing server binds; use the default loopback binding and SSH forwarding for remote workflows.

Viewer gallery

Cine playback and semantic context

Modality coverage

Source imagery attribution

Why use it?

• Inspect DICOM files where they already are, including remote servers.
• Avoid notebook-based frame rendering for multi-frame studies.
• Keep data off third-party viewers when all you need is quick review.
• Open a browser UI with familiar viewer tools: pan, zoom, scroll, window/level, flips, rotation, tags, and cine playback.
• Load, edit, and export rectangular ROI annotations without modifying source DICOM files.
• Use the same tool from a shell command, Python script, notebook, VS Code, or Cursor.
• Run as an ephemeral server with no database, config file, or persistent state.

Install

The current public install channels are the Python package, GitHub Releases, the VS Code Marketplace, and Open VSX for Cursor:

Install the Python package:

python -m pip install --user dcmview-py
dcmview --help

The package installs both dcmview and dcmview-py; dcmview is the primary command. If you are using an unsupported platform or a local debug binary, set DCMVIEW_BINARY to an absolute path to a compatible dcmview executable.

Tagged releases always include a generated Homebrew formula. Publishing that formula to a tap is conditional on the maintainers configuring a separate tap repository; this repository does not currently advertise a public tap command. Use PyPI, the VS Code or Cursor extension, GitHub Releases, or a source build unless a release announcement names a working tap.

Source builds are available for contributors and unsupported platforms:

cargo install --path .

Build prerequisites for source installs:

• Rust 1.88+
• Node.js 20.19+ and npm at build time
• ssh on PATH only when using SSH forwarding helpers

If install or binary discovery fails, see the troubleshooting guide. For all CLI, Python, VS Code, and environment settings, see the configuration reference. For the full documentation map, see the documentation index.

Quick Start

Open one file:

dcmview ./scan.dcm

Scan a study directory recursively:

dcmview ./study_dir

Keep only matching files; fields take their snake_case name or DICOM keyword (modality/Modality, patient_id/PatientID, ...):

dcmview --filter Modality=CT --filter patient_id=phantom ./study_dir

Run without opening a browser, useful on a remote server:

dcmview --no-browser ./study_dir

When ready, dcmview prints a URL:

dcmview: server running at http://127.0.0.1:<port>

Press Ctrl+C to stop the server.

If startup reports skipped files, no valid DICOM files, a port conflict, or a browser launch failure, see the troubleshooting guide.

Remote Server Workflow

The safest default is to keep dcmview bound to loopback on the remote machine and access it through SSH port forwarding. dcmview is intended for research and development use on secure networks; do not expose the server directly to a public network.

On the remote server:

dcmview --no-browser --port 8888 /path/to/dicom_or_study_dir

On your local machine:

ssh -L 8888:localhost:8888 user@remote-server

Then open:

http://localhost:8888

You can also let dcmview use an auto-assigned port by omitting --port; copy the printed port into your SSH command.

The viewer also works behind a reverse proxy that serves it under a path prefix, such as a Jupyter proxy route. The proxy must strip the prefix before forwarding and serve the page with a trailing slash (.../8888/).

The HTTP server is unauthenticated. It binds to 127.0.0.1 by default. If you bind to 0.0.0.0 or another public interface, use your own network access controls. Anyone who can reach the server may be able to access image pixels, DICOM tags, file paths, patient identifiers, study identifiers, and in-memory annotations.

Python Usage

dcmview-py is a small subprocess wrapper around the Rust binary. It is useful when a script or notebook has already selected the cases to inspect. For the full parameter reference, lifecycle details, VS Code bridge behavior, and notebook-oriented examples, see the Python reference.

from dcmview_py import view

# Blocking call; returns when dcmview exits.
view(["./scan.dcm"], browser=False, timeout=300)

# Non-blocking call.
handle = view(["./study_dir"], browser=False, block=False)
print(handle.url)
handle.stop()

Context manager:

from dcmview_py import view

with view(["./study_dir"], browser=False, block=False) as handle:
    print(handle.url)

The module CLI mirrors the Rust options:

python -m dcmview_py --no-browser --timeout 120 ./study_dir

VS Code and Cursor

The editor extension opens DICOM files or folders in a webview backed by the same local dcmview server in VS Code and Cursor. It can also intercept dcmview, dcmview-py, and python -m dcmview_py launches from new integrated terminals so terminal-based workflows appear inside the editor.

See the editor extension README for install channels, supported platforms, settings, terminal interception behavior, and local testing notes.

Viewer Features

The embedded browser viewer includes:

• File tabs labeled from PatientID, Modality, and StudyDate when present.
• Canvas-based image viewing with pan, zoom, scroll, window/level, reset, horizontal/vertical flips, and 90-degree rotation.
• Window presets including DICOM defaults, full dynamic range, and common CT presets.
• Multi-frame controls with previous/next, cine playback, FPS selection, loop, and sweep.
• Study and directory navigation with typed links between locally resolved referenced objects and frames.
• A pixel readout under the cursor: row, column, and frame, the stored sample (or color components), the Modality value (such as HU), and the real-world value with its unit (such as a Parametric Map's mapped value or an RT Dose in Gy), naming the mapping it used, plus the value of a dose or map overlay shown on the image.
• Window/level in real-world units, with a legend, for frames that carry a Real World Value Mapping (linear or LUT) or Dose Grid Scaling.
• RT Dose and Parametric Map colorwash overlays on the images they cover, with an opacity control and a color bar in Gy or the map's unit. Slices the volume does not reach say so instead of showing a layer.
• Graphic and text annotations of Grayscale and Color Softcopy Presentation States drawn on the images they reference: ellipses, circles, polylines, interpolated curves, points, and text in image pixel units. Choose a state from the Annotations bar and step through its annotation items; the current item is highlighted and the others dimmed. The state's window, shutter, displayed area, and rotation or flip are not applied, and objects in DISPLAY units are counted but not drawn.
• Default pixel preview plus opt-in declared semantic context for SEG, Parametric Map, and RT Dose. Validated SEG mappings can compose binary or fractional masks over referenced source images even when compatible patient geometry uses different matrix dimensions. Semantic panels identify missing, ambiguous, or incompatible geometry and do not claim clinical interpretation.
• Positioned single-tile WSI inspection with matrix, row/column, optical-path, focal-plane, and minimap context. Tiles are not stitched and the Total Pixel Matrix is not reconstructed.
• Lazy DICOM tag browsing with filtering, sequence expansion, binary length display, resizable columns, and click-to-copy values.
• Rectangular ROI annotation display and editing, including draw, select, move, resize, delete, frame scoping, and CSV export.

DICOMDIR inputs are recognized and skipped with a stable unsupported-media reason while recursive discovery continues for ordinary DICOM objects. The viewer does not parse the DICOM file-set hierarchy or advertise DICOM media support. Unsupported transfer syntaxes and out-of-scope object classes remain request- or object-scoped so a failure does not poison later viewing.

Common shortcuts:

Right-drag always zooms, middle-drag always pans, the wheel scrolls frames, and Ctrl/Cmd+wheel zooms.

Annotations

--annotations loads an EMBED-style rectangular ROI CSV into memory:

dcmview --annotations ./embed_annotations.csv ./study_dir

dcmview never modifies the input CSV or DICOM files. Viewer edits stay in memory and can be downloaded with Export ROIs. For the required columns, coordinate format, frame scoping rules, validation behavior, and examples, see the annotation reference.

CLI Reference

dcmview [OPTIONS] <PATH> [PATH ...]
python -m dcmview_py [OPTIONS] <PATH> [PATH ...]

The Python module CLI forwards the same options to the underlying dcmview binary. Run dcmview --help or python -m dcmview_py --help for command-line help. For Python wrapper parameters, VS Code settings, environment variables, filter fields, hidden integration flags, and binary resolution order, see the configuration reference and Python reference.

HTTP API

The browser UI uses a small local HTTP API. This API is internal to the viewer and is not a stable public integration surface; use it only for dcmview debugging, smoke tests, and local automation.

See the internal API reference for endpoint summaries, progressive scan fields, polling guidance, cache headers, transfer syntax behavior, raw-frame metadata headers, annotation endpoints, and error semantics.

Production builds do not enable cross-origin browser API access for external debugging tools. To debug the viewer API from another browser origin, build with cargo build --features debug-api; this enables permissive CORS and prints a build warning. Do not enable debug-api outside dcmview debugging contexts.

Development

For local development, install frontend dependencies, run the Rust backend, and optionally start the standalone Vite frontend:

npm --prefix frontend ci
dcmview --no-browser --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8888 tests/fixtures
npm --prefix frontend run dev

The repository check driver mirrors CI profiles. For a fast development pass and the full local core suite:

python scripts/check.py quick --install
python scripts/check.py core --install

quick checks version parity, generated frontend contracts, frontend types and behavior, the production frontend build, strict Rust formatting/lints, and Python unit tests; it does not run the Rust test suite. core additionally regenerates and verifies DICOM fixtures, runs the locked Rust suite, and compiles the VS Code extension.

See the development reference for source builds, frontend proxy behavior, fixture policy, test commands, architecture notes, and cache budget guidance.

Reporting Issues

Use GitHub issues for DICOM compatibility problems, install failures, and feature requests. Do not attach DICOM files, screenshots, logs, paths, patient identifiers, or other sensitive information unless you have fully de-identified them and have approval to share them publicly.

Before filing an issue, check the troubleshooting guide for common install, startup, decode, remote access, VS Code, and annotation CSV problems.

Report suspected security vulnerabilities privately to the maintainers before public disclosure; see SECURITY.md.

dcmview is not for clinical use, clinical diagnosis, or clinical decision-making.

License

MIT