Scientific Figure Library

Scientific Figure Library is a standard MCP server and MCP App for finding, importing, and materializing scientific figure references. It is not tied to Wisp: any stdio MCP host can use it. The included Wisp manifest and Skill are a thin optional adapter.

The first release has two template sources:

• FigureYa — 319 searchable modules with local thumbnails and commit-pinned archives.
• User Library — figures and plotting code copied from paths supplied by the MCP host.

The host Agent analyzes an uploaded image, a natural-language request, or a data file. It builds a compact retrieval intent, searches both sources, inspects the top preview, and decides whether that candidate actually matches before materializing anything. The catalog score orders retrieval candidates; it is not a recommendation or visual-similarity score.

For image input, the Agent must first inspect the user's image with the host's view_image, then inspect the top candidate with figure_library_preview. The final recommendation includes an Agent-produced visual pass/reject score covering chart family, layout, axes/geometry, encodings, and annotations/style, plus a separate data-compatibility verdict.

Safety contract

The server copies and extracts reference files but never executes plotting code or dependency installers. It verifies imported user files with SHA-256 and verifies FigureYa archives against the pinned catalog.

Materialization errors are terminal. figure_library_materialize returns a STOP: error that instructs the Agent to report the exact failure and wait for the user. The Agent must not switch extraction modes, use another downloader, fetch the complete repository, recreate the template, or generate a substitute/demo plot. This behavior is covered by the MCP smoke test.

Build

Requirements: Node.js 22 or newer.

npm install
npm run check

Use with any stdio MCP client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "figure-library": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/ScientificFigureLibrary/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "FIGURE_LIBRARY_DIR": "/absolute/path/to/my-figure-library",
        "FIGUREYA_SOURCE_PACK_DIR": "/optional/path/to/FigureYaSourcePack"
      }
    }
  }
}

FIGURE_LIBRARY_DIR defaults to ~/.figure-library. The server exposes:

• figure_library_open — op