glyphs-info-mcp 1.1.0

Unified MCP server for Glyphs handbook and API queries

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Glyphs info MCP

A unified MCP server integrating Glyphs handbook queries and API reference lookups for Glyphs font design software.

🚀 Quick Start

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• uv package manager - MCP officially recommended
• Claude Desktop - For running the MCP server
• macOS

Installation

Method 1: Using uvx (Recommended)

Step 1: Install uv

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Step 2: Configure Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glyphs-info": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["glyphs-info-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop and you're ready to go!

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Method 2: Install from Source (Developers)

Prerequisites: uv installed (see Method 1 Step 1)

# Clone with submodules
git clone --recursive https://github.com/yintzuyuan/glyphs-info-mcp.git
cd glyphs-info-mcp

# Install dependencies
uv sync

Configure Claude Desktop (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glyphs-info-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/Users/username/glyphs-info-mcp",
        "run",
        "glyphs-info-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

[!IMPORTANT] Replace /Users/username/glyphs-info-mcp with your actual absolute path.

---

Verify Installation

uv run glyphs-info-mcp

You should see:

✅ Glyphs info MCP Server initialized with 8 modules and 53 tools

✨ Features

• 🔍 Unified Search - Smart query routing with automatic content type detection
• 🌏 Multilingual UI Terms - Support for Glyphs UI terminology in 14 languages
• 📚 Complete Handbook - All Glyphs official handbook content
• 🔌 Full API Reference - Python and Objective-C API documentation
• 🧠 Smart Cross-referencing - Automatic linking of related content
• 🛠️ MCP Protocol Compatible - Standardized tool interface

📋 Feature Overview

Operating Requirements

Module	Out-of-box	Network	Glyphs Required
Handbook	✅	First cache build	-
API (Python)	✅	-	-
API (Obj-C Headers)	-	-	✅
SDK Documentation	✅	-	-
mekkablue Scripts	✅	-	-
Light Table API	✅	-	-
Vocabulary	-	-	✅
Plugins (Local)	-	-	✅
Plugins (Official)	-	✅	-
News/Tutorials	-	✅	-

[!TIP] Out-of-box: Uses bundled GlyphsSDK submodule data, no extra setup needed. Network: Handbook only needs network for initial cache, then works offline. Glyphs Required: Reads from local Glyphs app (Headers from GlyphsCore.framework).

MCP Tools (53 total)

The server provides 8 modules:

• Handbook - Search and query handbook content
• Vocabulary - UI terminology translation in 14 languages
• API (Python) - Python API classes and methods
• API (Obj-C) - Objective-C headers and protocols
• SDK - SDK documentation and Xcode templates
• Plugins - Local and official plugin search
• Scripts - mekkablue script collection (358+)
• News - Forum and tutorial search

Expand full tool list

Handbook Module

Tool	Description
handbook_search_content	Search handbook content
handbook_get_content	Get specific chapter content
handbook_get_custom_parameter	Get Custom Parameter details
handbook_list_parameters	List all parameters

Vocabulary Module

Tool	Description
vocab_search_ui_term	Search UI terms
vocab_get_translation	Get term translation
vocab_translate_term	Translate UI term
vocab_list_ui_categories	List UI term categories

API Module - Python

Tool	Description
api_search_python	Search Python API
api_get_python_class	Get Python class info
api_get_python_member	Get Python member info

API Module - Objective-C

Tool	Description
api_search_objc_headers	Search Obj-C headers
api_get_objc_header	Get Obj-C header content
api_list_plugin_protocols	List plugin protocols
api_get_protocol_methods	Get protocol methods

SDK Module

Tool	Description
sdk_search_content	Search SDK content
sdk_get_content	Get SDK content
sdk_list_xcode_templates	List Xcode templates
sdk_get_xcode_template	Get Xcode template

Plugins Module

Tool	Description
plugins_search_local	Search local plugins
plugins_search_official	Search official plugins
plugins_get_info	Get plugin info

Scripts Module (mekkablue)

Tool	Description
scripts_search	Search scripts
scripts_get	Get script content
scripts_list_categories	List script categories

News Module

Tool	Description
news_search_forum	Search forum
news_search_tutorials	Search tutorials
news_fetch_tutorial	Fetch tutorial content

📖 Usage Guide

Usage Examples

# Handbook queries
handbook_search_content("kerning")
handbook_get_content("anchors")

# API queries
api_search_python("GSFont")
api_get_python_class("GSGlyph")

# UI terminology
vocab_translate_term("Cancel", "zh-Hant")

Search Best Practices

• Use core English terminology words
• Prefer single concept keywords
• Utilize automatic query type detection
• Refer to the terminology reference for translations

🛠️ Development

Setup

# Install development dependencies
uv sync --extra dev

# Install test dependencies
uv sync --extra test

Code Quality

uv run black src/ tests/      # Formatting
uv run ruff check src/ --fix  # Linting
uv run mypy src/              # Type checking

Testing

uv run pytest                              # All tests
uv run pytest tests/test_specific.py       # Specific tests
uv run pytest --cov=src/glyphs_info_mcp    # Coverage

📚 Background

Development Approach

This project was largely built using Vibe Coding iterative development, focusing on rapid feature implementation and practicality.

Data Sources

• API Reference: Converted from Glyphs official GitHub SDK code
• Handbook Content: Scraped from Glyphs official handbook using an internal parser
• Terminology Translation: Extracted from Glyphs app localization string files (.strings)

Recommended Model

After testing, this project works best with Claude models. We recommend using it in the Claude Desktop environment for the best experience.

❓ FAQ

Cannot find uv command

Restart your terminal, or run source ~/.zshrc

Claude Desktop cannot load the MCP server

1. Ensure the path is an absolute path (not relative or using ~)
2. Check for JSON syntax errors
3. Restart Claude Desktop

Server fails to start

uv sync --reinstall
python --version  # Requires 3.10+

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

All paths are auto-detected. Only set these if using non-standard locations:

# export GLYPHS_APP_PATH=/Applications/Glyphs 3.app
# export GLYPHS_APP_HEADERS_PATH=/Applications/Glyphs\ 3.app/Contents/Frameworks/GlyphsCore.framework/Versions/A/Headers
# export GLYPHS_REPOSITORIES_PATH=~/Library/Application\ Support/Glyphs\ 3/Repositories

🔗 Resources

• Glyphs Official Website
• Glyphs Handbook
• Glyphs Forum
• GlyphsSDK
• MCP Protocol
• Report Issues

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file.

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Glyphs info MCP - Making Glyphs knowledge queries simple and powerful

Last updated: 2025-12-29