Picsart Creative APIs MCP
The Picsart Creative APIs Model Context Protocol (MCP) server lets tools like Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, GitHub Copilot, plus agent runtimes like OpenClaw and Hermes Agent, interact directly with Picsart Creative APIs and documentation.
Our MCP server exposes the same functionality as our APIs, but through the Model Context Protocol. This allows AI assistants to directly interact with your API. On top of that, one can use this same server to get help and guidance with the documentation, e.g. get integration code written, etc.
MCP Endpoint
wss://mcp.picsart.io/v1 or https://mcp.picsart.io/v1
Note (VS Code / Copilot): GitHub Copilot (VS Code) and Copilot CLI connect to remote MCP servers over Streamable HTTP (and may fall back to SSE if needed). If your MCP client does not support wss:// endpoints, use a Streamable HTTP (https://...) endpoint or a gateway that exposes Streamable HTTP.
Authentication
- Requires a Picsart API key (same key you use for REST APIs).
- Send the key via the x-picsart-api-key request header.
- Token can be generated from your dashboard.
What's included
- 90+ dedicated tools — one per API action (endpoint)
- 5 generic tools for documentation and coding
- Each API action (remove background, upscale, text-to-image, etc.) is exposed as its own tool. You call one tool and get the result — no discovery step needed.
How to Connect
Add to~/.cursor/mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"picsart": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.picsart.io/v1",
"headers": {
"X-Picsart-API-Key": "<your_api_key>"
}
}
}
}Add to~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"picsart": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.picsart.io/v1",
"headers": {
"X-Picsart-API-Key": "<your_api_key>"
}
}
}
}Add toclaude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"picsart": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.picsart.io/v1",
"headers": {
"X-Picsart-API-Key": "<your_api_key>"
}
}
}
}Add to~/.vscode/mcp.json:
{
"inputs": [
{
"type": "promptString",
"id": "picsart-api-key",
"description": "Picsart API Key",
"password": true
}
],
"servers": {
"picsart": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.picsart.io/v1",
"headers": {
"x-picsart-api-key": "${input:picsart-api-key}"
}
}
}
}Add to~/.copilot/mcp-config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"picsart": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.picsart.io/v1",
"headers": {
"x-picsart-api-key": "<YOUR_API_KEY>"
},
"tools": ["*"]
}
}
}Add to~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:
{
"mcp": {
"servers": {
"picsart": {
"url": "https://mcp.picsart.io/v1",
"transport": "streamable-http",
"headers": {
"X-Picsart-API-Key": "<your_api_key>"
}
}
}
}
}Recommended (keep the API key out of the file):
OpenClaw supports ${ENV_VAR} interpolation in MCP server headers.
After saving:
Restart or reload your OpenClaw gateway so it picks up the new MCP server config.
Hermes reads MCP servers from ~/.hermes/config.yaml. Put secrets like API keys in ~/.hermes/.env, then reference them from the config.
Step 1: add the key to ~/.hermes/.env
PICSART_API_KEY=<your_api_key>Step 2: add the MCP server to~/.hermes/config.yaml
Hermes supports mcp_servers with a url and headers. It also supports ${VAR_NAME} substitution.
mcp_servers:
picsart:
url: "https://mcp.picsart.io/v1"
headers:
X-Picsart-API-Key: ${PICSART_API_KEY}Step 3: start Hermes
hermes chatIf you change MCP config later:
Reload MCP servers with /reload-mcp.
Testing Your MCP Setup
Once configured, you can test your MCP server connection:
- Open your AI editor (Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)
- VS Code: Open Copilot Chat → select Agent → open the tools list (tools icon) and ensure Picsart is enabled before running prompts.
- OpenClaw and Hermes Agent users can run the same test prompts in their normal chat flow after configuring the MCP server.
- Start a new chat with the AI assistant
- Copilot CLI: Run
/mcp show picsartto confirm the server is running and tools are available, then run the prompts below.
- Copilot CLI: Run
- Ask about Picsart Creative APIs - try questions like:
- "Use picsart. Remove background from https://pastatic.picsart.com/31399405932227146498.png"
- "Use picsart. Get width and height of https://dcdn.picsart.com/dev/a61e8550-d4c5-4837-a10d-cc6a0b3cd971.mov"
- "Use picsart. How do I remove backgrounds from my product images?"
- "Use picsart. Show me an example of how images can be upscaled"
- "Use picsart. Check my credits balance (image-credits-balance) and confirm auth is working."
- "Use picsart. Remove background from
<image_url>, then generate a TypeScript function + a Jest test that mocks the API call." - "Use picsart. Upscale
<image_url>, then generate a Python example + a pytest test with error-handling."
Available Tools
The available tools is a reflection of how API services are grouped under the API Reference:
image-remove-background (Remove & Change Background), image-upscale (Upscale), image-ultra-upscale (Ultra Upscale), image-ultra-upscale-getresult (Get the Ultra Upscale Result), image-ultra-enhance (Ultra Enhance), image-face-enhance (Face Enhancement), image-list-effect-names (Effect Names), image-apply-effect (Effects), image-create-effect-previews (Effect Previews), image-apply-laser-engraving-effect (Laser Engraving Effect), image-list-ai-effect-names (AI Effect Names), image-apply-ai-effect (AI Effects), image-adjust (Adjust), image-transfer-color (Color Transfer), image-transfer-style (Style Transfer), image-create-mask-previews (Mask Previews), image-apply-mask (Masks), image-generate-texture (Texture Generator), image-generate-pattern (Pattern Generator), image-vectorize-raster-to-svg (Image Vectorizer), image-design-import (Design Import), image-design-import-getresult (Get the Design Import Result), image-surfacemap (Surfacemap Image), image-add-watermark (Add Watermark), image-upload (Upload Image), image-credits-balance (Credits Balance), image-edit (Basic Editing), image-blend (Blending), image-tagging (Image Tagging), image-describer (Describe Image), image-cars-classifier (Classify the Car Image)
video-upscale-fps (Video FPS Upscale), video-upscale-fps-getresult (Get the Video FPS Upscale Result), video-adjust (Adjust Video), video-apply-effect (Video Effects), video-edit (Edit Video), video-trim (Trim Video), video-crop (Crop Video), video-concat (Concatenate Videos), video-concat-segments (Create a Video Highlight), video-fit (Fit Video), video-metadata (Get Video Metadata), video-get-thumbnail (Get Video Thumbnail), video-set-thumbnail (Set Video Thumbnail), video-set-thumbnail-getresult (Get the Video with Updated Thumbnail), video-encode-ctv (Make Video CTV-Compatible), video-adjust-audio (Adjust Audio), video-transcribe-audio (Transcribe Audio), video-transcribe-audio-getresult (Get the Transcribe Audio Result), video-add-watermark (Add Watermark), video-getresult (Get the Video Result), video-upload (Upload Files), video-credits-balance (Credits Balance)
genai-text2text-completions (Text2Text Completions), genai-text2image (Text2Image), genai-text2image-getresult (Get the Text2Image Result), genai-text2sticker (Text2Sticker), genai-text2sticker-laser-engraving (Text2Sticker with Laser Engraving Effect), genai-text2sticker-getresult (Get the Text2Sticker Result), genai-generate-logo (Logo Generator), genai-generate-logo-getresult (Get the Logo Generator Result), genai-image-inpainting (Inpaint Image), genai-image-outpainting (Outpaint Image), genai-smart-background (Smart Background), genai-expand-image (Expand Image), genai-generate-image-bleed (Generate Bleed), genai-image-inpainting-getresult (Get the Inpainting Result), genai-credits-balance (Credits Balance)
vd-export-replay (Export Replay), vd-export-replay-getresult (Get the Export Replay Result), vd-describe-variable-data-content (Describe Replay's Variable Data), vd-export-variable-data-content (Export Variable Data Content), vd-export-variable-data-content-getresult (Get the Export Variable Data Content Result), vd-credits-balance (Credits Balance)
list-endpoints (List Endpoints), get-endpoint (Get Endpoint), get-request-body (Get Request Body), get-response-schema (Get Response Schema), list-security-schemes (List Security Schemes), search-specs (Search Specs), list-specs (List Specs), execute-request (Execute Request), get-code-snippet (Get Code Snippet)
As a rule of thumb, you can use this pattern to decide which tools to include. For instance, the name image includes all tools under Programmable Image APIs product. At the same time, if one uses image-remove-background that will include only services under the Remove Background category of Programmable Image APIs.
Usage Optimizations
There are certain limitations when running Cursor (e.g. 40-tool limit and up to 80 with settings) and similar tools. For instance, during the process you may get messages such as:
- Exceeding total tools limit. You have 81 tools from enabled servers.
In order to make sure the number of tools and tokens are used efficiently, you can do this type of optimizations:
Define which tools to include
- Enter Settings
- Enter Tools & MCP
- Select Picsart, Edit
- You will see 70+ tools listed. Choose specific tools that are needed.
- Note, Cursor supports up to 80 tools.
- Enter Settings
- Enter Tools & MCP
- Select Picsart, Edit
- You will see 70+ tools listed. Choose specific tools that are needed.
- Note, Windsurf supports up to 100 tools
- Note, Claude supports up to 128 tools
Use the tools menu in Copilot Chat (Agent mode) to quickly enable/disable MCP servers/tools.
Optional: define toolsets to group related tools so you can toggle a curated subset instead of browsing dozens of tools.
When adding the server (/mcp add) or editing ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json, set Tools to a comma-separated allowlist instead of *(example: image-remove-background,image-upscale,list-endpoints,get-code-snippet).
GitHub Copilot CLI supports 128 tools.
If you want a smaller tool list, whitelist only the Picsart tools you need. After changes, run /reload-mcp.
mcp_servers:
picsart:
url: "https://mcp.picsart.io/v1"
headers:
X-Picsart-API-Key: ${PICSART_API_KEY}
tools:
include:
- image-remove-background
- image-upscale
- genai-text2imageIf you don’t see MCP options/tools in VS Code Copilot, your organization may restrict MCP usage via policy/settings (e.g., MCP access controls). Contact your admin to enable MCP servers for Copilot/VS Code.
Updated 3 months ago
