Install CoDesign MCP in your agent

Get Node 22.15 or newer in place

Check the version first. If Node is missing or older than v22.15, install or upgrade it yourself rather than handing that back to the user. Use whatever the machine already has: nvm, fnm, mise, Homebrew, or the system package manager. Prefer a version manager over sudo. Ask only if the install needs a permission you do not have. On Windows, CoDesign needs WSL for now, so run every step inside it: hosts that start npx directly on Windows fail with spawn npx ENOENT.

node --version

nvm install 22 && nvm use 22

Download the server once, and let it finish

The first start of the CoDesign MCP server downloads a large package. It can take several minutes, longer than most clients wait before they give up on a server, and a client that gives up mid-download can leave a broken cache behind. So start it once yourself, before your client does: run the command below and wait until the process stays running and waits for input, then stop it. Allow up to 10 minutes and do not stop it early. If it fails with ENOTEMPTY, delete the folder named in the error (under ~/.npm/_npx/) and run it again.

npx -y @imgly/codesign-mcp@latest stdio

Plugin route: install the CoDesign plugin

Run your agent’s list command from “Done when” first. If CoDesign is already there, skip to step 05; if CoDesign is already usable in this session, skip the restart too and give the user only the onboarding message. Otherwise run the commands for your agent, in order, in the terminal. The plugin includes the server, so there is no separate server to register. If a command fails because the marketplace or plugin is already installed, that is fine: move on. On a personal Google account, Gemini CLI may not be available; use the Antigravity commands instead. Then run the list command again to confirm. The plugin may pin a server version other than the one step 02 downloaded: if your agent shows the CoDesign server as failed or timed out, run the server command it shows for CoDesign (claude mcp list, codex mcp list or agy mcp list prints it) once the same way as in step 02, then check again. If the plugin install fails and you cannot fix it, use step 04 instead.

claude plugin install codesign@anthropic-plugin-directory

codex plugin marketplace add imgly/codesign

codex plugin add codesign@imgly-codesign

git clone https://github.com/imgly/codesign

agy plugin install ./codesign/plugins/codesign

gemini extensions install https://github.com/imgly/codesign

MCP server route: add the CoDesign MCP server

Skip this step if you installed the plugin in step 03. Here you add the CoDesign MCP server directly. The server is the same everywhere: the command npx with the arguments -y @imgly/codesign-mcp@latest stdio, a local stdio server with no environment variables. Keep @latest so npx re-resolves the package instead of reusing a stale cached copy, and keep stdio, which selects the transport.

Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity or Gemini CLI. Use the command for your agent below, then its list command from “Done when”.

claude mcp add --scope user codesign -- npx -y @imgly/codesign-mcp@latest stdio

codex mcp add codesign -- npx -y @imgly/codesign-mcp@latest stdio

agy mcp add codesign -- npx -y @imgly/codesign-mcp@latest stdio

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codesign": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@imgly/codesign-mcp@latest", "stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Any other CLI agent. Most have an mcp subcommand; --help on your CLI names it. Pass it the name codesign and the command above.

A config file. If your client reads a JSON config, merge the block below into it, keeping any servers already listed. Match the shape of the file you find: the wrapper key is mcpServers in most clients, but a few name it differently, and the command and args pair is the part that matters.

An agent framework or SDK. If you run inside an app built on an agent framework, register a stdio MCP server in its MCP client configuration with the same command and arguments, under the name codesign. If the framework connects MCP servers at runtime, connect it now and check that the codesign server connects and offers tools.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codesign": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@imgly/codesign-mcp@latest", "stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Then confirm it registered: run your client’s list command, the counterpart of whatever you registered with, and check that codesign appears. If it has no list command, read the config file back and check that the entry is valid JSON and sits in the file the client actually loads. A wrong Node version and a typo in the command cover most failures; fix them yourself and show the user the output only if you cannot.

Hand back to the user, the only manual step

A new install is not available in this session yet, so do not try to use CoDesign now (unless your framework connected it at runtime in step 04). This last part is the one thing you cannot do for the user. After a plugin install in Claude Code, tell them to type /reload-plugins, which loads the plugin without leaving the session (if CoDesign still does not appear, they restart Claude Code). After an MCP server install, and in any other client, tell them to restart the agent. Then they send the message below. It starts a short guided flow that explains what CoDesign does and produces one finished design. No account is needed. Signing in to a free IMG.LY account is optional and only adds AI image generation.

start the CoDesign onboarding