Lumerical Multi-Product MCP

Control Ansys Lumerical from an MCP-capable AI client such as Codex.

This project exposes a small MCP server around Lumerical's bundled Python API, lumapi.py. It supports:

FDTD Solutions through lumapi.FDTD
MODE Solutions through lumapi.MODE
INTERCONNECT through lumapi.INTERCONNECT
DEVICE through lumapi.DEVICE

The original fdtd_* tools are still available for compatibility. New work should use the generic lumerical_* tools with product=fdtd|mode|interconnect|device.

Why

The goal is to make photonic simulation workflows easier to drive from an AI coding agent:

Detect local Lumerical paths and product availability.
Open visible or hidden product sessions.
Execute Lumerical script snippets through MCP tools.
Keep sessions alive across multiple tool calls.
Load and save project files: .fsp, .lms, .icp, .ldev.
Build simple optical, circuit, and device structures from natural-language instructions.

Tools

Generic tools:

lumerical_detect_tool: detect Lumerical executables, lumapi.py, and product API classes.
lumerical_launch_gui_tool: launch the launcher or a specific product GUI.
lumerical_open_session_tool: open a persistent session for fdtd, mode, interconnect, or device.
lumerical_eval_script_tool: run Lumerical script in that session.
lumerical_eval_script_get_tool: run script and return a named variable.
lumerical_get_variable_tool / lumerical_put_variable_tool: move variables between MCP client and Lumerical.
lumerical_load_project_tool / lumerical_save_project_tool: load and save projects.
lumerical_run_script_file_tool: run an .lsf script file.
lumerical_run_simulation_tool: call run;.
lumerical_close_session_tool: close a session.
lumerical_list_sessions_tool: list open server-side sessions.
lumerical_command_docs_tool: search bundled command docs from Lumerical's docs.json.

Backward-compatible FDTD tool names such as fdtd_open_session_tool and fdtd_eval_script_tool remain exposed.

Requirements

Windows with Ansys Lumerical installed.
Python 3.10 or newer.
An MCP-capable client.

The default example path targets:

D:\Program Files\Lumerical\v202

Change the environment variables if your installation is elsewhere.

Install

From this folder:

py -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -U pip
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -e .

Copy .env.example to .env and edit paths if needed:

Copy-Item .env.example .env

Codex MCP Config

Add a server entry like this to your Codex MCP configuration:

[mcp_servers.lumerical]
command = "C:\\path\\to\\lumerical-fdtd-mcp\\.venv\\Scripts\\python.exe"
args = ["C:\\path\\to\\lumerical-fdtd-mcp\\server.py"]
cwd = "C:\\path\\to\\lumerical-fdtd-mcp"

[mcp_servers.lumerical.env]
LUMERICAL_ROOT = "D:\\Program Files\\Lumerical\\v202"
LUMERICAL_LAUNCHER = "D:\\Program Files\\Lumerical\\v202\\bin\\launcher.exe"
LUMERICAL_FDTD_EXE = "D:\\Program Files\\Lumerical\\v202\\bin\\fdtd-solutions.exe"
LUMERICAL_MODE_EXE = "D:\\Program Files\\Lumerical\\v202\\bin\\mode-solutions.exe"
LUMERICAL_INTERCONNECT_EXE = "D:\\Program Files\\Lumerical\\v202\\bin\\interconnect.exe"
LUMERICAL_DEVICE_EXE = "D:\\Program Files\\Lumerical\\v202\\bin\\device.exe"
PYTHONWARNINGS = "ignore"

Restart the MCP client after changing the configuration.

Smoke Test

After the MCP server is available:

Run lumerical_detect_tool.
Run lumerical_open_session_tool with product=fdtd and hide=true.
Run lumerical_eval_script_get_tool with:

code: mcp_x=2+3;
return_var: mcp_x

Expected returned value:

Then close the session with lumerical_close_session_tool.

Demo Projects

Create minimal verified projects for all supported products:

python examples\create_demo_projects.py --launch

This creates:

examples/demo_projects/demo_fdtd_si_nanoblock.fsp
examples/demo_projects/demo_mode_si_waveguide.lms
examples/demo_projects/demo_interconnect_laser_waveguide.icp
examples/demo_projects/demo_device_charge_region.ldev

Use --visible-create if you want the API creation sessions themselves to be visible.

Notes

This project does not include Ansys Lumerical binaries, licenses, solver output, or private local configuration. It only provides the MCP bridge code and small reproducible demo scripts.

MCP Servers