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Cadlens MCP Server

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Model Context Protocol server that wraps the CADLens REST API.

About

Model Context Protocol server that wraps the CADLens REST API.

Security Report

4.8
Use Caution4.8High Risk

This MCP server is well-structured and implements proper authentication via API key. The codebase shows careful input validation, appropriate use of FormData for file uploads, and good error handling. Permissions align with the server's stated purpose of parsing CAD files via the Cadlens API. Minor code quality issues exist but do not indicate security vulnerabilities. Supply chain analysis found 9 known vulnerabilities in dependencies (2 critical, 2 high severity). Package verification found 1 issue.

7 files analyzed · 14 issues found

Security scores are indicators to help you make informed decisions, not guarantees. Always review permissions before connecting any MCP server.

Permissions Required

This plugin requests these system permissions. Most are normal for its category.

env_vars

Check that this permission is expected for this type of plugin.

HTTP Network Access

Connects to external APIs or services over the internet.

File System Read

Reads files on your machine. Normal for tools that analyze or process local data.

What You'll Need

Set these up before or after installing:

Your CADLens API keyRequired

Environment variable: CADLENS_API_KEY

API base URL (default: https://api.cadlens.co/v1)Optional

Environment variable: CADLENS_API_BASE

Public URL for webhook auto-registration (optional)Optional

Environment variable: WEBHOOK_PUBLIC_URL

How to Install

Add this to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "io-github-cadlens-co-cadlens-mcp": {
      "env": {
        "CADLENS_API_KEY": "your-cadlens-api-key-here",
        "CADLENS_API_BASE": "your-cadlens-api-base-here",
        "WEBHOOK_PUBLIC_URL": "your-webhook-public-url-here"
      },
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@cadlens/mcp-server"
      ],
      "command": "npx"
    }
  }
}

Documentation

View on GitHub

From the project's GitHub README.

cadlens-mcp

npm version GitHub

A Model Context Protocol server that wraps the Cadlens CAD parsing API so MCP-aware LLM clients (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Zed, Windsurf) can parse CAD files (.dwg, .dxf, .dwf, .dwfx, .dgn V7, .pdf, max 100 MB) and reason over the extracted entity, layer, and metadata payloads.

Cadlens converts CAD drawings into structured JSON without requiring AutoCAD or any desktop software — learn more at cadlens.co.

Install

Get an API key from the Cadlens dashboard first — keys start with cadl_ and are created in the dashboard for free.

Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf

Add to your MCP client config (e.g. ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cadlens": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cadlens/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "CADLENS_API_KEY": "cadl_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code CLI

claude mcp add cadlens \
  --env CADLENS_API_KEY=cadl_xxx \
  -- npx -y @cadlens/mcp-server

Development (build from source)

npm install
npm run build

export CADLENS_API_KEY="cadl_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
node dist/index.js

Tools

ToolWhat it does
cadlens_parse_fileUpload a local CAD file, poll until parsed (5 min budget), return summary.
cadlens_parse_urlDownload a CAD file from a URL, then parse it like parse_file.
cadlens_get_jobCheap status check (PENDING / PROCESSING / COMPLETED / FAILED).
cadlens_get_resultFetch parsed content. mode: summary (default), entities_by_type, entities_on_layer, full.
cadlens_refresh_image_urlRe-fetch the 1h presigned PNG URL without re-downloading the full result.
cadlens_list_jobsThe 100 most recent jobs for the configured API key.
cadlens_delete_jobDelete a job and its S3 artifacts. Irreversible.

Configuration

Env varRequiredDefaultNotes
CADLENS_API_KEYyesCreated in the CADLens dashboard.
CADLENS_API_BASEnohttps://api.cadlens.co/v1Set to http://localhost:3001/v1 for local dev.
WEBHOOK_PORTno0 (random)Port for the in-process webhook receiver.
WEBHOOK_PUBLIC_URLnounsetSet to a tunnel URL (ngrok/cloudflared) to let CADLens hit the local receiver. When set, parse calls auto-register the webhook and the poller short-circuits on receipt.
REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MSno30000Per-HTTP-request timeout for CADLens calls.

Webhook short-circuit (optional)

If WEBHOOK_PUBLIC_URL is set, parse_file / parse_url register a per-process webhook URL alongside the upload. The webhook handler updates an in-memory job-state cache; the poller checks that cache before each HTTP GET and returns early when COMPLETED / FAILED arrives. This trims worst-case latency by up to one full poll tick (~1 s) without changing the tool surface.

Example tunnel setup:

cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8787 &
export WEBHOOK_PORT=8787
export WEBHOOK_PUBLIC_URL="https://<your-tunnel>.trycloudflare.com"

Development

npm run typecheck
npm run lint
npm test
npm run smoke   # tools/list smoke test against built binary

Project-scoped Claude agents

This repo ships five agents under .claude/agents/:

  • cadlens-api-debugger — diagnoses unexplained CADLens 4xx/5xx using mcp-server-reference.md.
  • mcp-tool-tester — drives JSON-RPC against the built server to validate tool responses.
  • mcp-tool-implementer — scaffolds new tools following the existing src/tools/* pattern.
  • cad-drawing-summarizer — uses the MCP tools to summarize a CAD file in natural language.
  • cad-layer-inspector — drills into a single layer of a parsed drawing.

Links


GitHub Topics

Add these topics to this repo for discovery: mcp mcp-server model-context-protocol ai-agents claude cad dwg dxf cad-api llm-tools engineering-api


License

MIT

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