makehuman-core (mhcore)

A GUI-free (no Qt, no OpenGL) Python library for building MakeHuman characters programmatically: set body properties, apply modifiers, equip clothes/hair/eyes/skin, and save/export — from a script, a server, or CI, with no running MakeHuman app.

It works by vendoring the unmodified MakeHuman source (_vendor/) and driving it through a small headless shim (mhcore/) that stubs the GUI/GL modules and supplies a headless application object. The character/geometry pipeline in MakeHuman is pure numpy, so nothing here needs a display or a GPU.

Use with a coding agent

Needs uv. First launch downloads ~430 MB of character data to ~/.cache/mhcore (one time).

OpenCode / Cursor (opencode.json):

{
  "mcp": {
    "makehuman": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["uvx", "makehuman-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop / Claude Code (claude_desktop_config.json / .mcp.json):

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

Until the package is on PyPI, point uvx at this repo:

"command": ["uvx", "--from", "git+https://github.com/vidya-hub/makehuman-core", "makehuman-mcp"]

Library install

A git clone already contains the data. Editable install:

git clone https://github.com/vidya-hub/makehuman-core.git
cd makehuman-core
python3 -m venv .venv
./.venv/bin/pip install -e .

Or uvx makehuman-mcp / pip install makehuman-mcp — data is fetched on first import mhcore if data/ is not next to the package. Override with MHCORE_DATA=/path/to/data.

Usage

import mhcore

h = mhcore.new_human()

# body macros (0.0 - 1.0)
h.set_gender(1.0).set_age(0.5).set_weight(0.6).set_muscle(0.8).set_height(0.7)

# fine detail modifiers
print(len(h.list_modifiers()))          # ~269 available
h.apply_modifier("head/head-oval", 0.4)

# assets (discover, then equip by path)
h.set_skeleton(mhcore.data_path("rigs/default.mhskel"))
h.equip_clothes(h.list_available("clothes")[0])
h.equip_hair(h.list_available("hair")[0])
h.equip_eyes(h.list_available("eyes")[0])
h.set_skin(h.list_available("skins")[0])

# save the native format and export meshes
h.save_mhm("out/hero.mhm")
h.export("out/hero.obj")                 # also .fbx, .dae

See examples/build_character.py for a runnable end-to-end script.

The MCP server is the makehuman-mcp console script (same package). An optional socket-bridge for a running MakeHuman GUI is in mcp-server/socket-bridge/.

API (mhcore.MHHuman)

kind for list_available: clothes, hair, eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, teeth, tongue, skins, poses, expressions.

Status / limitations

• Blender-ready export by default. FBX/DAE bind a clean, skinned "deform" rig automatically (no separate set_skeleton call, no face-bone spikes), and all formats import at real human size (~1.7 m). Use rig="full" for the complete 163-bone rig, rig="none" for an unrigged mesh, or scale=/unit= to override (e.g. scale=0.01 for centimetre pipelines).
• Full .mhm round-trip: modifiers, skeleton, proxies (clothes/hair/eyes/…), skin + per-proxy materials all save and reload faithfully.
• Export: OBJ, FBX, DAE.
• set_pose applies a .bvh (or .mhp) to the base skeleton and skins the mesh. set_expression blends a .mhpose onto the face bones. Both are written into the .mhm and re-applied on load.
• Skin textures are referenced by path in exports; the library never loads pixel data (that path is the only Qt dependency and is intentionally avoided).

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later. This is a derivative of MakeHuman; see LICENSE and NOTICE.md for attribution and asset licensing.