Claude Code Photoshop Skill

A Claude Code skill that lets you control Adobe Photoshop directly from your terminal using natural language.

Built on top of adb-mcp by Mike Chambers.

What it does

This skill gives Claude Code the ability to:

• Create, open, and save Photoshop documents
• Manage layers (create, delete, duplicate, group, transform, blend modes)
• Add and edit text layers
• Make selections (rectangle, ellipse, polygon, AI subject/sky detection)
• Apply filters (blur, sharpen, unsharp mask)
• Add adjustment layers (curves, levels, hue/saturation, color balance, etc.)
• Use AI generation (Generate Image, Generative Fill)
• Work with masks (layer masks, clipping masks, background removal)
• Apply layer styles (drop shadow, stroke, gradient)
• Execute raw batchPlay commands for anything Photoshop supports

90 tools total, covering the full Photoshop workflow.

Architecture

Claude Code Skill (CLI) --> ps-mcp.py --> Proxy Server (port 3001) --> UXP Plugin --> Photoshop

The skill sends commands via uv run mcp run ps-mcp.py:mcp using stdin file redirect (not pipe), which communicates through the proxy server to the UXP plugin running inside Photoshop.

Prerequisites

1. Adobe Photoshop (26.0+) with Developer Mode enabled
2. adb-mcp cloned and set up
3. UXP Developer Tools (from Creative Cloud)
4. Python 3.12+ and uv
5. Node.js (for the proxy server)

Installation

1. Set up adb-mcp

Follow the adb-mcp installation guide to:

• Clone the adb-mcp repo
• Install dependencies
• Set up the proxy server
• Load the UXP plugin in Photoshop

2. Install the skill

Copy the skill file to your Claude Code skills directory:

# Create the skills directory if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills

# Copy the skill
cp skills/photoshop.md ~/.claude/skills/photoshop.md

Optionally, install the slash command too:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/commands
cp commands/photoshop.md ~/.claude/commands/photoshop.md

3. Configure paths

Edit skills/photoshop.md and update these paths to match your setup:

• Working directory: Change /home/YOUR_USER/adb-mcp/mcp to your adb-mcp path
• Python path: Change /usr/bin/python3.12 to your Python 3.12+ path
• Preview save path: Update the save/view paths for your OS

Usage

Start the proxy server

cd /path/to/adb-mcp
bash start-photoshop-proxy.sh

Load the UXP plugin

1. Open UXP Developer Tools
2. Load the Photoshop MCP Agent plugin
3. In Photoshop, open the plugin panel and click Connect

Use with Claude Code

Just ask Claude to do things in Photoshop:

Create a new 1920x1080 document with a dark gradient background

Add a text layer that says "Hello World" centered on the canvas

Generate an image of a sunset and apply a vignette effect

Open my file and rename all layers to follow a consistent naming convention

The skill automatically verifies the proxy connection before executing commands.

How it works

Unlike a traditional MCP server registration, this skill works by:

1. Writing JSONL commands to a temp file
2. Running uv run mcp run ps-mcp.py:mcp with stdin file redirect
3. Parsing the JSON-RPC responses
4. Chaining multiple commands for complex compositions

This approach avoids MCP server startup issues and works reliably with Claude Code's CLI execution model.

Credits

• adb-mcp by Mike Chambers - The MCP server, proxy, and UXP plugins that make this possible (MIT License)
• Skill adaptation for Claude Code CLI by MastroMimmo

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

The underlying adb-mcp project is also MIT licensed by Mike Chambers.