MCP server setup

The hosted server lives at https://mcp.imagemcpserver.com/mcp. Most clients reach it through mcp-remote, which bridges a stdio client to a remote MCP endpoint — so this config works anywhere a mcpServers block is accepted.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "imagemcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.imagemcpserver.com/mcp",
        "--header",
        "x-api-key:sk-img-gen-your_key_here"
      ]
    }
  }
}

1. 1

   Paste the block into your client config

   Merge it with any mcpServers entries you already have — the key name imagemcp is what the agent will see.

2. 2

   Swap in your API key

   Replace sk-img-gen-your_key_here with a key from the dashboard. See authentication for the alternatives to the x-api-key header.

3. 3

   Restart the client

   Tool lists are read at startup, so a running client will not see the server until it restarts.

Prefer the server on your own machine — to point it at a self-hosted backend, or to keep the key off a bridge process? Run it over stdio and hand the key in through the environment.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "imagemcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/imagemcp-mcp-server/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "IMAGEMCP_API_KEY": "sk-img-gen-your_key_here",
        "IMAGEMCP_API_URL": "https://api.imagemcpserver.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

The same package also serves streamable HTTP, which is what browser-based clients and Custom GPT actions need. Start it on a port and it exposes three paths:

cd imagemcp-mcp-server
npm install
PORT=3001 npm start

• POST /mcp — the MCP endpoint itself (streamable HTTP).
• GET /openapi.json — an OpenAPI spec, for ChatGPT Actions and other spec-driven clients.
• GET /health — liveness check.

Over HTTP the key can arrive four ways: an x-api-key header, an Authorization header, an ?apikey= query parameter, or the IMAGEMCP_API_KEY environment variable on the process.

curl "http://localhost:3001/health"

# Point a browser-based MCP client at:
# http://localhost:3001/mcp?apikey=sk-img-gen-your_key_here

The cheapest way to confirm everything is wired up is to ask the agent for your credit balance — get_user_info costs nothing and fails loudly if the key is wrong.

Use the imagemcp tools to check my credit balance,
then generate a 16:9 image of a paper-craft fox in tall grass.

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "get_user_info",
    "arguments": {}
  }
}

Once connected, the agent sees all eleven tools. Each links through to its parameters and response fields:

• get_user_infoFree
• list_modelsFree
• generate_imageModel cost
• generate_transparent_imageModel cost + 8
• edit_imageModel cost
• remove_background8 credits
• upscale_image15 credits
• text_to_svg5 credits
• compress_image1 credit
• convert_format1 credit
• multicallSum of the batch

• Tools do not appear — the client did not restart, or the JSON has a trailing comma. Most clients silently ignore a config file they cannot parse.
• 401 Unauthorized on every call — the key never reached the server. Check the header is x-api-key:<key> with no space after the colon.
• Tools appear but every call fails — the account is out of credits. Ask the agent to run get_user_info; it is free and returns the balance.
• npx cannot find mcp-remote — run it once by hand to warm the cache, then restart the client.