RhinoMCP - Rhino Model Context Protocol Integration

RhinoMCP connects Rhino to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing AI agents to directly interact with and control Rhino. This integration enables prompt assisted 3D modeling in Rhino 3D.

Features

• Two-way communication: Connect AI agents to Rhino through a socket-based server
• Object manipulation: Create, modify, and delete 3D objects in Rhino
• Document inspection: Get detailed information about the current Rhino document
• Script execution: Execute Rhinos python scripts in Rhino (experimental, may not work every time)
• Get Script Documentation: Get the documentation of a specific RhinoScript python function
• Object selection: Select objects based on filters, e.g. name, color, category, etc. with "and" or "or" logic
• Set/Create/Delete Layers: Get or set the current layer, create new layers, or delete layers

[!NOTE]
So far the tool only supports creating primitive objects for proof of concept. More geometries will be added in the future. Supported objects: Point, Line, Polyline, Circle, Arc, Ellipse, Curve, Box, Sphere, Cone, Cylinder, Surface (from points)

Demo

Demo 1

This demo shows how AI can interact with Rhino in two directions. Click the image below to watch the video.

Demo 2

This demo shows how to ask AI to create custom scripts and execute them in Rhino. Click the image below to watch the video.

Tutorial

Thanks to Nate. He has created a showcase and installation tutorial for this tool.

Components

The system consists of two main components:

1. MCP Server (src/rhino_mcp_server/server.py): A Python server that implements the Model Context Protocol and connects to the Rhino plugin
2. Rhino Plugin (src/rhino_mcp_plugin): A Rhino plugin that creates a socket server within Rhino to receive and execute commands

Installation

Prerequisites

• Rhino 7 or newer (Works onWindows and Mac); make sure you Rhino is up to date.
• Python 3.10 or newer
• uv package manager

⚠️ Only run one instance of the MCP server (either on Cursor or Claude Desktop), not both

Installing the Rhino Plugin

1. Go to Tools > Package Manager
2. Search for rhinomcp
3. Click Install

Install uv

If you're on Mac, please install uv as

brew install uv

On Windows

powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

⚠️ Do not proceed before installing UV

Config file

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rhino": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["rhinomcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude for Desktop Integration

Go to Claude > Settings > Developer > Edit Config > claude_desktop_config.json to include the above config file.

Cursor integration

Make sure your cursor is up to date.

Create a folder .cursor in your project root.

Create a file mcp.json in the .cursor folder and include the above config file:

Go to Cursor Settings > MCP and check if it's enabled.

Usage

Starting the Connection

1. In Rhino, type mcpstart in the command line
2. Make sure the MCP server is running in the rhino terminal

Using with Claude

Once the config file has been set on Claude, and the plugin is running on Rhino, you will see a hammer icon with tools for the RhinoMCP.

Using with Cursor

Once the config file has been set on Cursor, and the plugin is running on Rhino, you will see the green indicator in front of the MCP server.

If not, try refresh the server in Cursor. If any console pops up, please do not close it.

Once it's ready, use Ctrl+I to open the chat box and start chatting with Rhino. Make sure you've selected Agent mode.

Technical Details

Communication Protocol

The system uses a simple JSON-based protocol over TCP sockets:

• Commands are sent as JSON objects with a type and optional params
• Responses are JSON objects with a status and result or message

Limitations & Security Considerations

• The get_document_info only fetches max 30 objects, layers, material etc. to avoid huge dataset that overwhelms Claude.
• Complex operations might need to be broken down into smaller steps

Building the tool and publishing

Building and publishing the server

cd rhino_mcp_server
uv build
uv publish

Building and publishing the plugin

1. build the tool in Release mode
2. copy the "manifest.yml" file to the "bin/Release" folder
3. run yak build in the Release folder
4. run yak push rhino_mcp_plugin_xxxx.yak to publish the plugin

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Disclaimer

This is a third-party integration and not made by Mcneel. Made by Jingcheng Chen

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