MCP Server

Checking which printers need a bed clear, queueing a rush job, entering a phone order and chasing a job that will not start are all small tasks, and on a busy farm they add up to someone sitting at the dashboard all day. The Printago MCP server lets an AI assistant do them for you when you ask in plain language.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard way AI assistants such as Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Cursor connect to outside tools. Once Printago is connected, you can say things like:

• "Which printers do I need to pull prints off?"
• "Print three Benchys in red PLA and put them at the front of the queue."
• "The orange cube job is stuck. Why?"
• "Phone order from Dana Kim: two BRKT-01 and one CUBE-20, due the 20th. Enter it and get it printing."
• "We now sell the Benchy in red, black and green. Set up the colour options."

The assistant works on your live store with the permissions of your API key, so it can do what that key can do.

Connect it

You need an API key and Node.js 18 or newer.

Claude Code

claude mcp add printago --env PRINTAGO_API_KEY=<your api key> -- npx -y @printago/cli mcp

If you already use the Printago CLI and have run printago auth login, the key is picked up from there:

claude mcp add printago -- printago mcp

Claude Desktop, Cursor and other clients

Add this to the client's MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "printago": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@printago/cli", "mcp"],
      "env": { "PRINTAGO_API_KEY": "<your api key>" }
    }
  }
}

printago mcp install prints these snippets.

What it can do

The server offers about thirty tools, each shaped around a job you would actually ask for rather than a single API endpoint.

Area	What you can ask for
Farm overview	Every printer and what it is doing, the queue, open orders, and a list of what needs attention
Printers	Status and loaded filament, marking a bed clear, taking a printer out of rotation, renaming, tags, continuous print, plate type and other print settings, recording which filament is in which slot, pause, resume and stop, and a look at the camera
Queue	Queue parts or SKUs with a quantity, material, plates, priority or a specific printer. List jobs. Find out why a job is waiting and what would fix it. Cancel, retry, move to the front, or clear finished jobs
Parts	Add a part from a file, a download link, or OpenSCAD source the assistant writes for you. Rename, set the material, restrict it to tagged printers
SKUs	Create a product from parts, change what it contains, and set up variant options such as Color so an order for BENCHY-RED prints in red
Materials	List materials, colours and where each is loaded. Add a material with its colours
Orders	List orders and where each stands, enter an order, send orders to print, fix a line item that matches no SKU, add items, close or cancel, and pull new orders from your connected sales channels
Everything else	Two general tools reach any endpoint of the REST API, for things like reports, maintenance and integration settings

Tools take the names you use (a printer name, a part name, a SKU code, an order number, "black PLA Basic"), so you do not need IDs. If a name could mean more than one thing, the assistant is told the candidates and asks you.

Keeping it safe

• Read-only mode. Add --read-only to expose only the tools that cannot change anything. Good for a status assistant.
• A smaller toolset. --toolsets printers,queue exposes only those areas. The areas are farm, printers, queue, parts, skus, materials, orders and api.
• Scoped API keys. The assistant can never do more than its key allows. Give it a key with only the permissions it needs.
• Bed clears. The assistant is told never to mark a bed clear unless you say it is. A printer that starts on a full bed will crash, so say so explicitly.

claude mcp add printago-status -- printago mcp --read-only

Running it as a shared server

By default the server runs on your own machine, started by the AI client. To serve a team, run it over HTTP:

printago mcp --http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8787

Each request carries its own API key in the Authorization: Bearer <api key> header, so one server can serve several stores and people. Connect a client to it with:

claude mcp add --transport http printago https://your-host/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <your api key>"

Put it behind HTTPS before exposing it beyond your own network. A shared server cannot read files from your computer, so add parts by download link there.

Limits

• Connecting a new sales channel (Shopify, Etsy and so on) still happens in the Printago app, because it needs you to sign in to the storefront.
• Live temperatures and print progress percentages are not available through the server yet. It reports state: printing, paused, ready, waiting for a bed clear, offline.
• Features on a paid add-on answer with a clear "not included in your plan" message if your store does not have them.