palette-remap

Remap pixel-art / sprite image colors to a constrained palette — library, CLI, and MCP server.

Examples

Original	Vanilla Milkshake by Space Sandwich · 16 colors	Galaxy Flame by Rhoq · 16 colors

Images produced with:

palette-remap original.png vanilla-milkshake.png \
  --palette "#28282e #6c5671 #d9c8bf #f98284 #b0a9e4 #accce4 #b3e3da #feaae4 \
             #87a889 #b0eb93 #e9f59d #ffe6c6 #dea38b #ffc384 #fff7a0 #fff7e4" \
  --keep-transparency

palette-remap original.png galaxy-flame.png \
  --palette "#699fad #3a708e #2b454f #111215 #151d1a #1d3230 #314e3f #4f5d42 \
             #9a9f87 #ede6cb #f5d893 #e8b26f #b6834c #704d2b #40231e #151015" \
  --keep-transparency

Library

from palette_remap import remap_image, parse_palette

palette = parse_palette("#000 #fff #f00")
remap_image("input.png", "out.png", palette)

CLI

palette-remap input.png output.png --palette "#000 #fff #f00"
palette-remap sprite.png result.png --palette-file retro.hex --keep-transparency

MCP server

Exposes three tools so LLMs can remap images, inspect palettes, and analyze image colors. All tools operate on file paths.

Available tools

Recommended: pair with mcp/filesystem

Because the tools work with file paths, pair this server with mcp/filesystem so the LLM can list directories, check what files exist, and pass correct absolute paths.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/path/to/your/images"]
    },
    "palette-remap": {
      "command": "palette-remap-mcp"
    }
  }
}

The LLM can then use list_directory from filesystem to discover image paths and feed them directly into remap_image_tool or list_image_colors.

Run options

1 · Direct — after pip install

pip install "palette-remap[mcp]"

claude_desktop_config.json (or equivalent MCP client config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/path/to/your/images"]
    },
    "palette-remap": {
      "command": "palette-remap-mcp"
    }
  }
}

2 · uvx — no install needed

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/path/to/your/images"]
    },
    "palette-remap": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "palette-remap[mcp]", "palette-remap-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

3 · Docker

Build once:

docker build -t palette-remap-mcp .

Then in your MCP client config (bind-mount your images folder to /images in both containers):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "--rm", "-i",
        "--mount", "type=bind,src=/path/to/your/images,dst=/images",
        "mcp/filesystem", "/images"
      ]
    },
    "palette-remap": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "--rm", "-i",
        "--mount", "type=bind,src=/path/to/your/images,dst=/images",
        "palette-remap-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note: Both containers must mount the same host directory so paths like /images/sprite.png resolve identically in both servers.

Dev setup

pip install -e ".[dev,mcp]"
pytest -q
ruff check palette_remap
mypy palette_remap