photocraft/docs/control-protocol.md

Control protocol

The desktop app listens on 127.0.0.1:<port> (loopback only). Start it with a token file so the credential is not exposed in the process command line:

photocraft --control 7878 --control-token-file /private/path/photocraft-control.token \
  --automation-read-root /work/project --automation-write-root /work/project

If the file does not exist, PhotoCraft creates it with a fresh 256-bit token. On Unix the new file is mode 0600; on Windows, protect it with an appropriate user-only ACL. An existing file is reused. If neither a token nor token file is configured, PhotoCraft generates a token for that launch and writes it to standard error. PHOTOCRAFT_CONTROL_TOKEN and PHOTOCRAFT_CONTROL_TOKEN_FILE are the environment-variable equivalents.

The first request on every TCP connection must authenticate. No other method is dispatched before this succeeds:

{"id": "auth", "method": "auth", "params": {"token": "<64 hexadecimal characters>"}}

After the successful authentication reply, each request is one JSON line:

{"id": 1, "method": "ui.inspect", "params": {}}

Each reply is one JSON line with the same id:

{"id": 1, "ok": true, "result": { ... }}
{"id": 2, "ok": false, "error": "unknown tool `foo`"}

The desktop server waits up to 60 seconds for a reply. A request still queued at that deadline is rejected before dispatch; a timeout does not cancel work that has already started.

The transport is apps/photocraft/src/control_server.rs, and the handlers are in crates/ui-egui/src/control.rs. The MCP server (photocraft-cli mcp --bridge 127.0.0.1:<port>, crate photocraft-automation) wraps this same protocol. See MCP bridge below.

Methods

• engine.execute {command, params}: run any engine or UI command by id. Engine commands run directly with their default params and never open a dialog. Use ui.menu.invoke for menu-click behaviour, which opens a command's dialog when no params are given. params must be a JSON object (omit it or pass null for none); an array, string, number or boolean is an error naming the command, in every transport (control channel, serve, MCP and the CLI)
• engine.commands: list commands with enablement
• ui.inspect: full UI state (tool, panels, views, dialogs, windows, window size). The menu tree is not included; use ui.menu.list. view holds the View/Window/Type preferences: screen_mode, extras, show and snap_to flags, flip_horizontal, arrange (Window › Arrange layout), pixel aspect, font preview size, language options. perf.timings.gpuInfo holds the graphics adapter, backend, driver, the backend chosen at launch and why, the canvas renderer (gpu/cpu) and, after a device loss, lost (help.systemInfo returns the same as info)
• ui.set {tool?, panels?, dockTabs?, dock?, dockWidth?, colorPanel?, maskTarget?, vectorMaskTarget?, selectionMode?, zoom?, center?, fit?, theme?, brushSize?, brushSection?, brushTab?, brushesView?, brushPicker?, brushPickerView?}: change UI state; any other field is an error, checked before anything changes (theme is pro, proMedium, studio, studioLight or classic; selectionMode is the selection tools' options-bar mode, 0 New, 1 Add, 2 Subtract, 3 Intersect; brushSection indexes the Brush Settings sections, brushTab 0 = Brush Settings, 1 = Brushes; brushesView and brushPickerView are list or grid for the Brushes panel and the Brush Preset picker; brushPicker is [x, y] in screen points to open the Brush Preset picker there (as a right-click with a painting tool does) or null to close it, and picking a preset in it is tools.setBrush {"preset": name}; dock is {order: ["layers", …], heights: {"properties": 180}, collapsed: ["color"]}, the right-dock groups top to bottom, their heights in points and the groups collapsed to their tab strip; dockWidth sets the right dock width in points, clamped to 250..520; colorPanel is {background}, whether the Color panel edits the background colour)
  • typeTransform is null outside a temporary Ctrl/Cmd Type-tool drag. During a drag it reports its source document/revision, original affine, oriented frame (layer, local bounds, document-space corners and pivot), and captured gesture. Drive it with ui.pointer and command: true at down; move/up may release the modifier. The document/history remain unchanged during preview, and up applies one type.edit within textEdit's session. Pressing Escape during the drag cancels only the preview. This pointer state is never restored from saved UI state.
• ui.set {tool?, panels?, dockTabs?, dock?, dockWidth?, colorPanel?, maskTarget?, vectorMaskTarget?, selectionMode?, zoom?, center?, fit?, theme?, brushSize?, brushSection?, brushTab?, brushesView?}: change UI state; any other field is an error, checked before anything changes (theme is pro, proMedium, studio, studioLight or classic; selectionMode is the selection tools' options-bar mode, 0 New, 1 Add, 2 Subtract, 3 Intersect; brushSection indexes the Brush Settings sections, brushTab 0 = Brush Settings, 1 = Brushes; dock is {order: ["layers", …], heights: {"properties": 180}, collapsed: ["color"]}, the right-dock groups top to bottom, their heights in points and the groups collapsed to their tab strip; dockWidth sets the right dock width in points, clamped to 250..520; colorPanel is {background}, whether the Color panel edits the background colour)
• ui.menu.invoke {id, wait?} / ui.menu.list: activate a menu item by id; list the menu tree. A menu item that starts a background job (a filter without a dialog, such as Blur More) replies with the job's result once it has been applied; with "wait": false the reply is {job, pending: true} at once
• ui.set also accepts gradientBlendMode (a layer blend mode name, such as Difference) and gradientClassic (boolean) for the Gradient tool options bar.
• Each painting tool keeps its own brush, as in Photoshop: tools.setBrush and ui.set {brushSize} change the active tool's brush, and switching tools swaps in that tool's own (size, hardness, mode, opacity, flow, dynamics, smoothing). A tool used for the first time starts from the brush in hand. The colours, the erase flag and the stroke seed stay shared. So ui.set {tool: "eraser", brushSize: 12} sets the Eraser's size, and ui.set {tool: "brush"} afterwards brings the Brush's own size back. Both gradient modes use the current preset, including its opacity stops. Select Foreground to Transparent through gradient.presets.select, or pass custom stops and transparency: [[0,100],[1,0]] (location 0..1, opacity 0..100). Use applyToLayer: false to edit only the tool preset. Classic gradient drags dispatch paint.gradient without overriding them.
• ui.dialog.open {kind, fields?} (kinds newDocument, about, layerStyle {effect?}, colorPicker {target: foreground|background}, command {command}) / ui.dialog.set {dialog, field, value} / ui.dialog.confirm {dialog, wait?} / ui.dialog.cancel {dialog}. Like ui.menu.invoke, ui.dialog.confirm waits for a background job its command starts (a filter dialog's OK) and replies with the result; "wait": false replies {job, pending: true} at once
  • Layer Style (layerStyle {effect?} opens on that effect kind): the fields hold the dialog's whole state, so agents read and drive it like a user. effects lists every effect instance in the layer's order as {id, kind, on, params, fx} (fx is the effect snapshot the dialog loaded; OK edits that snapshot with params, so anything the dialog doesn't model survives). selected picks the page (blendingOptions or an instance id), preview (default on) gates the live canvas preview, p:blendingOptions edits blend mode/opacity/fill opacity, and patternList names the usable patterns. OK replaces the layer's effects in one step (layer.layerStyle.replace); Cancel discards. "New Style…" saves the pending state via style.presets.new {effects}, a swatch click applies a style preset, and Make/Reset Default use layer.layerStyle.makeDefault / layer.layerStyle.defaultFor
  • Preferences (ui.menu.invoke {id: "edit.preferences.interface"}) edits the sections in its values field. ui.dialog.apply {dialog} saves those values through prefs.set and keeps the same dialog and section open. ui.dialog.confirm saves and closes; ui.dialog.cancel discards only edits made since the last successful Apply. Invalid values return an error without closing the Apply dialog or changing the saved preferences. Settings marked for the next launch still require a restart.
  • Edit › Fill… (ui.menu.invoke {id: "edit.fill"}, Shift+F5, Shift+Backspace) opens the Fill dialog; its fields are edit.fill's params (contents, color, pattern, colorAdaptation, mode, opacity, preserveTransparency), and OK remembers them in the preferences (dialogs["edit.fill"]).
  • A pixel tool pressed on a type, shape, Smart Object or fill layer (e.g. through ui.pointer) opens the "Rasterize?" prompt instead of painting: a dialog with __rasterize (type|shape|smartObject|fill), message, layer, tool and at. ui.dialog.confirm runs the layer.rasterize.* command and then paints at at (two history states, {"rasterized", "painted"}); ui.dialog.cancel does nothing.
• ui.window.open {document?} / ui.window.close {window}: extra document windows
• ui.pointer {events: [{kind: down|move|up, x, y, pressure?, tiltX?, tiltY?, rotation?}], modifiers?, button?}: drive the active tool in document coordinates (pressure 0..1, tilt in degrees -90..90, barrel rotation 0..360: a simulated pen). Modifier flags (shift, alt, command, ctrl, space) go either at the top level or grouped under modifiers; when modifiers is present, top-level flags are ignored. space: true holds Space (the Crop frame, marquee, lasso or shape being drawn then moves instead of growing). button: "right" (or "secondary") is the right button: with the Move tool (or command: true with any tool) it opens the canvas layer menu (layerMenu in ui.inspect lists the layers there, topmost first; select one with layer.select); with Marquee, Lasso, Magic Wand, Object Selection, or Pen it opens a tool context menu (canvasToolMenu in ui.inspect, with ordered command ids, separators, and enabled states); with a painting tool it opens the Brush Preset picker, or erases with Preferences › Tools › Right-click with painting tools = erase. The menus open at the screen position of the pressed document point. Use ui.context.choose {id} for enabled tool-context actions. The Pen menu is documented in docs/context-menu-parity.md. With a Color Picker as the top dialog, down and move sample the image into its new colour instead (its eyedropper, like a click on the canvas) and the tool is not driven.
  • Magnetic Lasso (tool: "magneticLasso"): a down/up pair is a click. The first sets the first fastening point (its modifiers set the selection mode); later clicks fasten a point, or close the border on the first point. move events trace the border with or without a button held, fastening points by themselves; with alt: true a click draws a straight segment and a drag a freehand one. ui.inspect shows the border in progress under magnetic (path, anchors, live, mode). ui.key Enter closes it along the edges, Backspace removes the last fastening point, Escape cancels. To select along edges in one call instead, use the select.magneticLasso command with rough points around the shape.
• ui.click {x, y, button?, count?} / ui.move {x, y}: synthetic pointer input in screen points (button: left (default), right or middle). count (default 1, 2 for a double-click) is at most 256; a larger one is an error and queues nothing
• ui.key {key, command?, shift?, alt?, ctrl?} (flags may also be grouped under modifiers): press and release a key, e.g. {"key": "ArrowLeft", "shift": true}
• ui.type {text}: type text (goes to the focused widget, or to the canvas while the Type tool is editing)
• ui.resize {width, height}: resize the main window
• ui.gpu.simulateLoss {error?}: act as if the wgpu device was lost (or reported an error with error: true). The app switches to the CPU image compositor for the rest of the session and shows the same recovery warning as on a real loss. gpuFallbackNotice in ui.inspect contains the reason while the warning is open. Keep Using CPU saves CPU compatibility for the next launch; Retry GPU saves GPU mode and asks the user to save and restart. The window renderer still requires a working graphics or software adapter. Returns wasActive and gpuInfo. For testing the fallback
• ui.screenshot {path?, focus?}: capture the main window (PNG). With no path the reply contains base64 PNG data; a path is relative to the automation write root. Raises the window first (default) because occluded macOS windows stop rendering
• ui.focus: bring the main window to the front
• app.open {path} / app.save {path}: relative file I/O through the configured automation roots (app.open reads under the read root, app.save writes under the write root; absolute paths, .. and paths escaping the root are refused, and both fail closed when no root was granted). Both reply with warnings (import/export notes such as "adjustment layer flattened"; [] when none), also shown to the user in the status bar and as a notice (notices in ui.inspect); app.open also returns the path and document name, app.save the path written. app.save without path writes back only to the document's own PSD, PSB or .pcraft file, like File › Save. Automation opens and saves never fire script events. Use these two rather than file.open, file.save, file.saveAs or file.saveACopy, which the control channel refuses (see Engine commands)
• app.quit

Engine commands

Change the UI language without restarting with prefs.set: {"path":"interface.language","value":"fr"}. Supported codes and preview/apply behaviour are documented in UI localisation. prefs.get and the existing preference store expose and persist the same setting; scripts keep using canonical command IDs.

engine.execute runs any command by id. engine.commands (or the engine command command.list) lists them all, with labels, menu paths, shortcuts, a parameter description, and whether each is currently enabled. Examples:

Command	Params
file.new	{"width":1920,"height":1080,"mode":"rgb","depth":8,"background":"white"}
layer.new.layer	{"name":"Ink"}
layer.select	{"layer":id,"mode":"replace|toggle|range|add"}: ⌘-click = toggle, ⇧-click = range; document.inspect reports selectedLayers and a per-layer selected flag
channel.target / channel.setVisible	Channels panel target and eyes ("composite", colour name, alpha index or name, "quickMask"). document.inspect (and channel.list) report channels: composite/colour/alpha rows with visibility, channel options, quickMask, target. Pixel commands without a target param follow the targeted channel
layer.setProps	{"layer":id?,"name":…,"visible":…,"opacity":0..1,"blend":"Multiply"}
layer.setExpanded	{"layer":id?,"expanded":bool?,"all":bool?}: open/close a group in the Layers panel (no expanded: toggle; all: every group). A view change saved with the document (PSD open/closed folder), not an undo step; document.inspect reports expanded on groups
layer.newAdjustmentLayer.hueSaturation	{"hue":30,"saturation":10}
paint.stroke	{"points":[[x,y,pressure],…],"size":20,"color":"#ff0000"}
select.rect	{"x":0,"y":0,"width":100,"height":50,"mode":"add","ellipse":false}
document.inspect	{}: layer tree, history, selection bounds
document.pixel	{"x":10,"y":10}: composite RGBA
document.presets.list	{} → {presets:[{name,settings}]}: saved New Document configurations
document.presets.save	{"name":"Product square","settings":{"width":1600,"height":1600,"background":"transparent"}}: save a snapshot; names are trimmed, 1–255 characters, and ASCII case-insensitive duplicates are rejected
document.presets.get	{"name":"Product square"} → {preset,params}: fetch settings; pass params to file.new to create a document, optionally adding a document name
document.presets.delete	{"name":"Product square"}: delete the named saved configuration
type.hitTest	{"layer":id?,"x":px,"y":px}: character under a document point. No layer picks the topmost visible type layer there. Result {"layer","index","line","inside"}
type.caret	{"layer":id?,"index":char}: caret segment in document pixels, {"index","line","segment":[[x,y],[x,y]]} (rotated and vertical type included)
type.navigate	{"layer":id?,"index":char,"move":"wordPrev|wordNext|linePrev|lineNext|lineStart|lineEnd|start|end","x":px?}: neighbouring caret. x keeps the column across line moves. Result {"index"}
actions.list	{} → {actions:[{name, steps}], recording} (the name being recorded, or null)
actions.get	{"action": name or index} → {name, steps:[[id, params], …]}, the shape file.automate.batch and droplets take
actions.record	{"name":"Red"} starts a new action (default name Action N). {"action": name or index} appends to one that exists
actions.stop	{} → {action, steps}. Copies replayable journal entries since actions.record (queries and action-editing commands omitted)
actions.play	{"action": name or index, "from": step?}. from and failed.step are 0-based. Returns {action, ran, failed?:{step, id, error}} and still returns ok when a step fails, so a partial run is reported. Leaves one history step per step that ran. Supports nested action calls up to 16 levels, rejecting cycles. While recording, playing another action appends one named actions.play step instead of its expanded commands. On an untrusted session each step is authorized the same way as a top-level command
actions.move	{"action": name or index, "step": index?, "to": index} moves a step within its action, or moves the whole action when step is omitted. to is the final zero-based index. Pending steps can be reordered while recording; invalid moves leave the list unchanged.
actions.delete	{"action": name or index, "step": index?}. With a zero-based step: {action, deletedStep, steps}, also allowed while recording. Without step: {deleted}, refused while recording

The Actions panel shows replayable steps immediately while recording. Click an individual step to select it, then use the trash button to remove that step; selecting the action heading instead targets the whole action. Step deletion also works during recording and does not undo the document edit. The control equivalent is actions.delete {"action": "Name", "step": 0} (zero-based). Omitting step deletes the whole action, which still requires recording to be stopped.

Desktop actions also record and replay View › Fit on Screen (view.fitOnScreen), 100% (view.actualPixels), Zoom In and Zoom Out through their menu commands or shortcuts. Select an action and press Record to append steps; the plus button starts a new action. A final ["view.fitOnScreen", {}] step fits the resized document when the canvas is laid out. Headless playback reports unsupported view commands as failed steps.

In the desktop Actions panel, right-click an action to assign a function key (F1–F12), or choose None to remove it. The binding follows the action name, regardless of the selected row, and is saved in preferences. For example, the existing edit.keyboardShortcuts command accepts {"set":{"actions.play:My action":"F6"},"allowUnknown":true,"removeConflicts":false}. A named action takes precedence over the ordinary menu shortcut while it exists and is bound; removing its binding or deleting it restores that menu shortcut. The panel moves a key away from another action when assigning it. Action playback still checks each nested command's automation permissions.

UI-level commands (view.zoomIn, window.theme.pro, edit.search, …) are also accepted by engine.execute and ui.menu.invoke.

Commands that read or write files by path, instead of through the automation roots, are refused with "automation command … uses ambient filesystem paths and is disabled; use capability-scoped document methods". That covers every file.* command except file.new, the file.close* commands and a few path-free ones such as file.fileInfo, so file.open, file.save, file.saveAs and file.saveACopy always fail here: open and save with app.open / app.save. Path parameters of other commands (layer.exportAs {path}, filter.distort.displace {mapPath}, preset imports, and plug-in install/reload) are refused the same way. prefs.set rejects whole-preference updates and file-backed sections (colorSettings, scriptEvents, historyLog, plugIns and scratchDisks) so automation cannot configure ambient file access indirectly. The desktop app also refuses image.mode.*, which can load the colour profiles set in its preferences. The rules are in crates/automation/src/workspace.rs.

type.editText starts inline editing of the active type layer and selects all its text, like double-clicking its thumbnail in Layers. Text input, Commit and Cancel use the existing Type tool editing session; non-type layers return an error without changing the tool or document.

Background jobs (#210)

Long commands (every filter.*, edit.contentAwareFill, edit.contentAwareScale, file.automate.photomerge, brush.presets.importAbr) and file opens run as background jobs in the desktop app: the window keeps drawing, the status bar shows progress with a Cancel button, and jobs that lock the active document show a modal progress dialog (Esc cancels). engine.execute, ui.menu.invoke and ui.dialog.confirm still wait for the result by default; pass "wait": false to get {job, pending: true} at once, then poll jobs.list (state: running, done, failed, cancelled; progress 0–1; the result or error) and stop it with jobs.cancel {job}. A cancelled or failed job leaves the document unchanged. While a job runs, commands that would edit its document fail with "… is still running on this document". ui.inspect reports jobs (running jobs, opening files). Set PHOTOCRAFT_INLINE_JOBS=1 to run everything inline.

Preferences

Preferences (Edit › Preferences, grouped like Photoshop's dialog sections) live in the engine, so the same commands work in the app, the CLI and headless MCP. Paths are dotted camelCase keys: <section>.<key>, with sections general, interface, workspace, tools, historyLog, fileHandling, export, performance, scratchDisks, cursors, transparencyAndGamut, unitsAndRulers, guidesGridAndSlices, plugIns, type, enhancedControls, rawDefaults, integrations, plus shortcuts.<command id>, menus (hidden, colors.<id>), toolbar (hidden, order) and colorSettings (Edit › Color Settings).

Command	Params
prefs.get	{"path":"performance.historyStates"}; no path returns everything
prefs.set	{"path":"cursors.painting","value":"precise"} or {"values":{"unitsAndRulers.rulers":"cm","guidesGridAndSlices.gridColor":"#ff8800"}}. Values are validated (choices, ranges, #rrggbb colours, shortcut syntax); a batch applies all or nothing. A section path takes an object and merges it key by key
prefs.reset	{"path":"performance"} (a section or key); no path resets everything. An individual shortcuts.<id> or menus.colors.<id> reset removes the override and returns null, including when it is already absent
edit.preferences.<section>	the section's values; in the app (no params) it opens the Preferences dialog on that section
edit.keyboardShortcuts	{"set":{"edit.fill":"Cmd+Shift+F"},"reset":true|["id",…],"removeConflicts":true,"filter":"blur","list":false}: returns overrides, matching commands and conflicts. A shortcut moved to another command is removed from its old owner unless removeConflicts is false. "" removes a shortcut, null restores the default. The held temporary tools are bindable too: tools.temporary.hand (Space; also repositions a selection being drawn), tools.temporary.zoomIn (Cmd+Space), tools.temporary.zoomOut (Cmd+Alt+Space); they list with "hold": true. In the app it opens Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus
edit.menus / edit.toolbar	{"hide":["edit.fade"],"show":[…],"color":{"edit.fill":"red"},"reset":false} / {"hidden":["Sponge"],"order":[…]}
edit.colorSettings	{"workingRgb":"display-p3","workingCmyk":"coated-cmyk","workingGray":"sgray","policyRgb":"preserve|convert|off",…,"askOnMismatch":true,"intent":"perceptual","bpc":true}; honoured when opening files (file.openAs, the app's File › Open) and by Image › Mode and "working" profile specs. color.profileMismatch {"action":"preserve|convert|discard|assignWorking"} answers the mismatch prompt

Values the app honours live: history states (every open document), effect-cache budget, interface theme, canvas colour and border, checkerboard size and colours (CPU and GPU canvas), gamut warning colour and opacity, guide/grid/smart-guide colours and styles, grid spacing and subdivisions, ruler units (rulers, Info panel, Image Size default unit), image interpolation (Image Size default), painting and other cursors, zoom with scroll wheel, Use Shift Key for Tool Switch, keyboard shortcuts, hidden and coloured menu items, autosave interval and crash recovery, and the history log text file. GPU on/off and the GPU tile size apply at the next launch.

The desktop app stores them in preferences.json in the platform config directory (macOS ~/Library/Application Support/Photocraft, Windows %APPDATA%\Photocraft, Linux $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/photocraft; override with PHOTOCRAFT_CONFIG_DIR); autosaves go to its Recovery folder, and the window size and position, the dock width and floating-panel geometry to ui.ron beside it (a file holding values that would crash startup is discarded). In portable mode (a portable.txt or PhotoCraft.portable file beside the executable, as in the Windows portable zip) that directory is PhotoCraftData next to the executable instead. The web build keeps them in localStorage. A save writes only the values this instance changed since it last loaded or saved them over what storage holds now, so a second browser tab (or app window) never reverts the other's changes; for a value changed in both, the latest save wins. A failed write stays pending and is retried (after 2 s, doubling up to 30 s, and sooner after a further change); the status bar reports the first failure and a notice a persistent one.

User and imported (.abr) brush presets live in the config directory's Presets folder: one .pcbrushes JSON file per preset group, content-addressed tip bitmaps under tips/, and an index.json with the group order and deleted built-ins (see photocraft_engine::preset_store). The store loads in the background at launch and syncs after every brush preset change; built-ins are never written. The Actions list is actions.json in that same folder and survives a restart. Headless CLI/MCP sessions and the web build keep brush presets and the action list for the session only, unless a store is attached. Gradient presets (including imported .grd groups) persist with the preferences.

Named New Document presets also persist with preferences (presets.documents) on desktop and web. File › New › Save Preset… saves the current form; the Saved tab selects a configuration or deletes it. Selection only fills the form: Create still runs file.new, and the document name is independent of the preset name. Settings include pixel width/height, resolution in ppi, mode, depth, background, and display unit (px, in, cm, mm, pt, pica) and resolutionUnit (in, cm). The defaults match File › New. Background Color captures the toolbox colour as backgroundColor: [r,g,b] (0..1), so reusing it does not follow later toolbox changes. Up to 256 presets are kept. Invalid saved entries are skipped independently; other presets and preferences still load. Automatic Recent configurations are separate follow-up work.

Snapping

With View › Snap on, tool gestures snap to the View › Snap To targets (guides and grid while they are shown, layer edges and centres, document bounds and centre, selection edges) within 8 screen pixels: Move tool drags (the moved layers' bounds), marquee, crop, shape, type-box and pen points, Free Transform handles and drags inside the box, and guides. Holding Ctrl disables snapping for the drag. With View › Show › Smart Guides on, the Move tool also snaps to other layers and draws magenta alignment lines. ui.pointer drives the same code, so agents get identical results.

MCP bridge

photocraft-automation provides an MCP server built on the official Rust SDK (rmcp). It runs in one of two modes:

• Headless (photocraft-cli mcp): an in-process photocraft_engine::Session. There is no window.
• Bridge (photocraft-cli mcp --bridge 127.0.0.1:7878 --control-token-file <path>): every tool is forwarded to a running photocraft --control 7878 --control-token-file <path> over this protocol, so agents see and drive the live app.

The bridge keeps one authenticated TCP connection open. A transport failure while sending a request or waiting for its reply, including a reply timeout, drops the connection and reports that the operation may have completed; inspect the document before retrying an edit. It never automatically resends the failed request. The next separate call reconnects and authenticates, and reply lines whose id does not match the request are skipped. It only accepts loopback addresses, because the app only listens on loopback. Supply its bearer token with --control-token-file, --control-token, PHOTOCRAFT_CONTROL_TOKEN_FILE, or PHOTOCRAFT_CONTROL_TOKEN:

photocraft-cli mcp --bridge 127.0.0.1:7878 \
  --control-token-file /private/path/photocraft-control.token

How each MCP tool maps onto control methods in bridge mode:

MCP tool	Control method
command_run {id, params, wait?}	engine.execute {command: id, params, wait}
jobs_list / jobs_cancel {job?}	jobs.list / jobs.cancel {job?}
command_list {filter?, enabled_only?}	engine.commands (filtered by the MCP server)
doc_new {…}	engine.execute {command: "file.new", params}
doc_inspect	engine.execute {command: "document.inspect"}
doc_open {path}	app.open {path}
doc_save {path} / doc_export {path}	app.save {path}
doc_render_preview {max_side?}	ui.screenshot, returned directly as PNG image content
session_list, ui_inspect	ui.inspect
ui_screenshot {max_side?}	ui.screenshot, returned as PNG image content
ui_pointer {events, modifiers?, button?}	ui.pointer (other arguments are an error)
ui_menu_invoke {id}	ui.menu.invoke
ui_set {fields}	ui.set
control_call {method, params}	any method, passed through unchanged

Bridge previews capture the app window; passing index is an error. Headless doc_render_preview supports index without changing the active document.

doc_select and doc_close work only in headless mode. The ui_* tools and control_call work only in bridge mode; in headless mode they return a tool error that explains how to start bridge mode.

Security note: TCP control uses a bearer token, not client identity or general per-method authorization. A client that possesses the token receives the non-filesystem control surface, including UI input, command execution, and application control. Keep token files private, do not commit or log tokens, and do not pass a token directly on a shared system where process command lines are visible. The protocol is unencrypted and must remain on loopback; do not tunnel or proxy it to an untrusted host.

Filesystem access fails closed unless launch-time read and/or write roots are granted with --automation-read-root and --automation-write-root (or PHOTOCRAFT_AUTOMATION_READ_ROOT / PHOTOCRAFT_AUTOMATION_WRITE_ROOT). Request paths must be non-empty, forward-slash relative paths beneath the applicable root. Absolute paths, parent traversal, alternate separators, drive/device/stream prefixes, malformed components, and link escapes are rejected before file effects. Read and write authority are independent; the parent of a new output file must already exist. Engine commands that still use ambient filesystem paths are disabled for automation until they are migrated to the same capability interface. Interactive desktop file pickers retain normal user-selected access.

Headless server

photocraft-cli serve keeps one headless engine session (no window, no GPU) and answers the same JSON-lines envelope on stdio, or on 127.0.0.1:<port> with --port <port> (loopback only; each authenticated connection shares the session). TCP uses the same first-frame auth exchange and token options as desktop control. Stdio does not require this TCP handshake because access is inherited from the process pipe. It is the fastest way for a script or agent to make many edits: no MCP framing, no app start-up per command. Configure its file access with the same --automation-read-root and --automation-write-root flags. Implementation: crates/automation/src/rpc.rs.

Method	Params
engine.execute	{command, params?, wait?}: any engine command (wait: false starts a long one as a background job: {job, pending})
jobs.list / jobs.cancel	{} / {job?}: background jobs; cancel one or all. Every request (and MCP tool call) first applies the jobs that finished, so doc.save, doc.inspect, doc.render and session.list include a finished job's result without polling jobs.list first
engine.commands	{filter?}: registry with params docs and enablement
session.list	open documents and the active index
doc.open / doc.new	{path} / file.new params
doc.save	{path?, format?, quality?, index?} (.pcraft native, else export by extension). Without path only a PSD, PSB or .pcraft document is written back to its own file, in its own format; anything else is an error and the file is left unchanged. A successful layered save (PSD, PSB or .pcraft) records the current revision as saved and makes the file the document's path, so session.list reports dirty: false; a flat export is a copy and leaves the document dirty
doc.inspect	{index?}: same JSON as document.inspect
doc.render	{index?, maxSide? (1024; 0 = full), path?}: PNG to path, else {mime, base64}
doc.select / doc.close	{index} / {index?}
batch	{steps: [{command, params?, wait?} | {method, params?}], stopOnError? (true)} → {completed, failed, results} (a step with wait: false starts a long command as a background job, like engine.execute)
methods	the list above

printf '%s\n' \
  '{"id":1,"method":"doc.open","params":{"path":"in.jpg"}}' \
  '{"id":2,"method":"batch","params":{"steps":[{"command":"image.adjustments.invert"},{"command":"filter.blur.gaussianBlur","params":{"radius":3}}]}}' \
  '{"id":3,"method":"doc.save","params":{"path":"out.png"}}' | \
  photocraft-cli serve --automation-read-root /work/project --automation-write-root /work/project

The MCP server has the same batching as the command_batch tool ({steps:[{id, params, wait?}], stop_on_error}), in headless and bridge mode. A step with wait: false returns {job, pending} at once, as command_run does; later steps that edit the same document fail with a message naming the job until it ends.

Transport limits

The desktop and headless TCP listeners currently enforce:

• a 1 MiB maximum encoded request line;
• an 8 MiB maximum encoded JSON reply, including the newline;
• at most 16 simultaneously serviced connections per listener;
• a 30-second socket read/write timeout;
• at most 256 steps in a headless batch or MCP command_batch request.

An oversized line, excess connection, unauthenticated request, or unauthorized filesystem path is rejected before command dispatch or file effects. The headless JSON-lines stdio server also enforces the request and reply byte ceilings; MCP over stdio (photocraft-cli mcp) does not cap request bytes, because the MCP SDK reads its own request lines (only MCP tool results are checked). A TCP connection is closed after an oversized line; on stdio an oversized or non-UTF-8 line gets one error reply (id: null), the rest of that line is skipped without being dispatched, and the session and its open documents keep serving. MCP tool results are checked as encoded JSON, including the text/image content envelope, and the MCP bridge bounds incoming desktop replies. A batch or command_batch stops at the first step whose result no longer fits the reply budget (that step may have run; later ones do not). MCP charges each result at its size escaped inside the text content, so the reply still lists completed, failed and every result so far, ending with the budget error.

Headless automation previews (doc.render / MCP doc_render_preview) allow a maximum requested edge of 2048 pixels and a source document of at most 67,108,864 pixels. maxSide: 0 (MCP max_side: 0) still means full size, but fails if the document's longest edge exceeds 2048. PNG results are capped at 5 MiB before base64 encoding or writing a rendered file. Preview dimension/source checks run before compositing; the encoded-PNG check runs after encoding. Explicit trusted-local CLI rendering keeps its existing behavior.

Batch replies have an aggregate byte budget with space reserved for the outer reply and ID. Exhausting it stops later steps even when stopOnError is false. A result can exceed the reply budget after an edit has run: the error says the operation may have completed. Earlier steps are not rolled back; inspect state before retrying. The MCP bridge drops an oversized incoming reply without automatically retrying the operation. Bridged screenshots are decoded with 8192-pixel edge, 16,777,216-pixel, and 64 MiB allocation ceilings, even without downscaling.

These ceilings do not implement explicit JSON-depth policy, total session/document-memory accounting, compositor scratch-space accounting, command cancellation/duration limits, or general per-method capabilities. Desktop screenshot capture/encoding and document import/export still need their own operation budgets; the desktop reply ceiling applies after the UI creates its response. A bounded output does not imply bounded command cost.

Rendering modes

performance.renderingMode accepts auto, gpu, or cpu. Automatic is the default for new settings; older useGpu: false or gpuBackend: cpu preferences continue to select CPU mode until an explicit mode is saved. Changes apply at the next launch. Automatic and GPU both fall back on graphics errors rather than risk documents. CPU compatibility composites images on the CPU and prefers software window adapters, when available. macOS still uses Metal for the window. A failed window renderer initialization retries once in CPU compatibility mode; a driver process crash is detected by the startup marker on the next launch.

Camera Raw dialog

On the desktop the dialog is a window of its own (title bar, moved and resized like any window), as Adobe Camera Raw is; the main window is dimmed and takes no input while it is open, and closing the window is Cancel. Where the platform has no extra windows (the web build) it is drawn over the main window.

Screenshots: ui.screenshot captures the main window only, and eframe cannot capture an immediate viewport, so while Camera Raw has its own window the PNG shows the dimmed main window, not the dialog. Read the dialog's state through ui.inspect (cameraRaw: params, histogram, zoom, control rectangles) and drive it with the ui params below. To see it, render offscreen (cargo run -p photocraft-ui-egui --example snapshot -- --script '[["ui.menu.invoke", {"id": "filter.cameraRaw"}]]' or an egui_kittest harness): those embed viewports, so the dialog is drawn over the main window and appears in the image.

ui.menu.invoke {"id":"filter.cameraRaw","params":{}} opens Camera Raw on the active RGB/Grayscale layer. params: {"smartFilter": {"layer": id, "index": i}} opens it on an existing Camera Raw smart filter instead (as double-clicking the filter in the Layers panel does): the stored settings over the pixels below that filter, previewed through the filter mask; commit then runs layer.smartFilter.setParams with every setting. params.ui accepts set (filter settings), before, scope, view, commit and cancel. All parts of one request are validated before any is applied; a rejected request leaves the settings, view state, preferences and document unchanged (and closes a dialog it opened). Unknown ui or settings properties, non-boolean before / commit / cancel, and commit together with cancel are errors. Point curves (pointCurve, pointCurveRed, pointCurveGreen, pointCurveBlue) are empty or 2–16 finite points in 0–255 with inputs at least one level apart. Commit dispatches one filter.cameraRaw engine command; a failed commit keeps the dialog open for correction. Nothing else writes document history.

Opening a raw file. An interactive open (File › Open, Open Recent, drag and drop, the command line) of a camera raw developed from its sensor data shows this dialog first, titled "Camera Raw (name)", with Open and Cancel, as Photoshop opens raws in Adobe Camera Raw. ui.inspect.cameraRaw.openingRaw is then {name, path}. Commit (Open) re-develops the raw when Temperature, Tint or Exposure changed (as-shot white-balance gains and develop exposure on the sensor data; without an as-shot white balance, or without the file's bytes, they stay RGB adjustments), applies the remaining settings as one filter.cameraRaw step and leaves the document unmodified; its result is {document, redeveloped, filter?}. Cancel closes the document. app.open and other automation opens never show the dialog. The preference rawDefaults.openInCameraRaw (default true) turns it off.

Imported PSD Camera Raw filters whose processing settings are all mapped or neutral use this same editor. params.__cameraRawPsd is reserved import/export metadata: preserve it when editing stored parameters. Other processing fields or versions remain opaque Photoshop filters. See PSD Smart Filters for the supported settings and export limits.

The response and ui.inspect.cameraRaw contain:

• histogram: source (before | after), size, approximate, 256-bin red / green / blue, samples, transparent, invalid, per-channel underflow / overflow, and exact endpoint counters shadows (≤0) / highlights (≥1). Counts describe the bounded preview proxy in its RGB sample domain, not full-resolution or ICC display-gamut statistics.
• previewRevision (advances only when the proxy is re-developed), renderMs, histogramMs (CPU only; zero on WebAssembly).
• curveState (selected, drag) and curveRect: [left, top, right, bottom] | null (null while the Curve section is closed). Changing set.pointCurve cancels a stale gesture.
• scope (the view state below), hasScopeSelection, vectorscope (bins, samples, before, selectedRegion) or null, scopeMs, scopeRevision, overlayRevision.
• pointerReadout and samplerReadouts: position, space (rgb 0–255 in the preview sample space, or lab through the document ICC profile → D50), values, alpha; null on invisible pixels.
• hoverSample: position, rgb (histogram domain) and hueSaturation (turns, 0–1; only while the vectorscope is shown), or null.
• hoveredZone, previewRect, scopeRect, vectorscopeRect.
• view (zoom: null for fit, or a numeric factor where 1 = 100%, center: [u,v], hand), zoom (effective factor, null before layout), sourceSize, viewportRect. At 100%, one source pixel maps to one physical display pixel, including on HiDPI displays.
• previewApproximate, detailPending, detailError: whether the visible image still uses the proxy, whether full-resolution refinement is running, and any refinement error.

params.ui.view changes navigation only: zoom: "fit" | 0.0001..=16, center: [u,v] (finite coordinates in 0..=1, clamped to keep the image within view), hand: bool. Fit recentres and follows window resizing; navigation resets when opening a different Camera Raw dialog. Invalid mixed requests are atomic, just like scope and filter settings. View requests do not re-develop the proxy or change filter parameters/history.

With the Zoom tool (Z), click toggles Fit / 100%; click-drag right/left scrubs in/out. Ctrl-drag (Command on macOS) fits a rectangular region. H selects Hand; Space temporarily pans, including while placing colour samplers. Alt/Option + wheel zooms at the pointer; an unmodified wheel pans. Pinch zooms. Ctrl/Command +/- zoom, 0 fits, and Alt/Option + Ctrl/Command + 0 shows 100%; Ctrl/Command+Shift-click also selects 100%. Right-click opens Fit / 100% / preset percentages. Tool double-clicks fit the image. Text fields retain their keys and wheel gestures over the settings panel still scroll it.

The proxy remains the fast path while changing settings. Where more source pixels are needed, Camera Raw lazily refines with the same engine Camera Raw pipeline at pixelScale=1 and the same selection/filter-mask coverage. Native refinement runs off the UI thread (one revision at a time); stale results are discarded. Only a bounded visible crop is uploaded to the GPU, and pan/zoom reuse developed pixels. Before and neutral settings read the original pixels directly. Absurd proxy domains (over 512 MP, including distant sparse off-canvas pixels) are rejected before reading pixels. Full-resolution refinement is capped at 64 MP to bound the existing full-image engine pipeline; above that it explicitly reports unavailability and keeps the proxy. Oversized viewport crops also retain the proxy. Without a browser worker, wasm explicitly retains the filtered proxy rather than block its UI; Before and neutral settings still crop the original source pixels. The histogram and vectorscope continue to analyse the bounded proxy; readouts and clipping warnings use the full-resolution pixels once refinement is visible.

params.ui.scope changes presentation only: shadows / highlights (clipping warnings, U / O), lab, samplerTool (S), vectorscope, selectedRegion (requires a document selection), redRight, hideSkinLine, floating, floatingRect: [left, top, right, bottom] (200×150 to 4096×4096 points), sample: [u,v] | null, and the probe list: samplers: [[u,v], …] replaces it, or clearSamplers: true, removeSampler: index and addSampler: [u,v] edit it, applied in that order (the two forms can't be combined). Coordinates are normalized to the displayed proxy; at most nine probes. tone: {zone: "blacks|shadows|exposure|highlights|whites", delta} adjusts the same parameter as a histogram drag (reset: true sets it to 0); Exposure clamps to ±5 stops, the others to ±100.

Hover, probe movement, theme changes and panel resizing never re-develop the image; Before/After and region changes rebuild only the dependent analysis. Display options and the floating panel geometry persist in preferences dialogs["filter.cameraRaw.scope"]; probes and vectorscope visibility reset when the dialog opens. HDR scopes are not implemented. See camera-raw-histogram.md.

Editing and composing actions

Creating an action scrolls its row into view; newly recorded steps are revealed immediately. Drag a step above or below another step in the same action to reorder it. Drag an action header to reorder the action list. The insertion line marks the drop position; dragging near the rows' top or bottom scrolls the list. Reordering is saved with the actions and does not undo image edits.

While recording, press a function key assigned to another action (or play it from the panel). The recorder adds Play Action: as one step, and the called action still executes. Playback resolves the name each time, so editing or moving the called action does not freeze or retarget the caller. Reassigning F6 later does not change an already recorded named call. Missing actions, recursive calls and nesting beyond 16 levels fail visibly; a child failure stops the parent before its next step. Every nested command retains the normal automation permission check. Existing recordings containing expanded commands remain unchanged; remove those steps and record the named call again if desired.