Install as a tool
Give any agent native Texel tools: a portable Agent Skill and an MCP server (with an interactive 3D viewer for MCP Apps hosts). The quickest route is the prompt on the developer page: paste it into your agent and it installs the skill itself.
Agent Skill
The minecraft-skin-design skill follows the open Agent Skills format (a SKILL.md with name and description frontmatter). It teaches the protocol and works with either the MCP tools or the CLI. Save it in your agent's skills directory; for Claude Code:
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/minecraft-skin-design
curl -o ~/.claude/skills/minecraft-skin-design/SKILL.md https://www.texel.dev.br/skills/minecraft-skin-design/SKILL.mdAgents without skill support can read /agent.md instead: the protocol, spec reference and art guide in one file.
MCP server
texel-mcp.mjs is a single file with no install step: the compiler, docs, examples, schemas and the 3D viewer are embedded. Requires Node 18+.
curl -O https://www.texel.dev.br/texel-mcp.mjsClaude Code
claude mcp add texel --scope user -- node /absolute/path/texel-mcp.mjsFiles are written to the directory the server runs in. Pin it with --env TEXEL_WORKSPACE=/path/to/skins or the --workspace <dir> flag.
Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code and other clients
{
"mcpServers": {
"texel": {
"command": "node",
"args": ["/absolute/path/texel-mcp.mjs", "--workspace", "/absolute/path/skins"]
}
}
}What the server provides
| Kind | Name | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| tool | texel_render | Compile + review; returns the review sheet image. Opens the 3D viewer in MCP Apps hosts. |
| tool | texel_patch | Apply a spec patch (change layers by id) and render the result like texel_render. |
| tool | texel_live | Start a live session: returns a studio URL where the person watches every texel_render. |
| tool | texel_share | Short share link (/s/<id>) for a spec. |
| tool | texel_pull | The spec behind a share link, to keep developing an existing skin. |
| tool | texel_validate | Fast error check, no images. |
| tool | texel_save | Write the texture's files (.png, block parts, animation .png.mcmeta, _eyes), .skin.json and an optional sheet to the workspace. |
| tool | texel_render_family | Expand a family; lineup image + per-member scores. |
| tool | texel_save_family | Write every member plus lineup.png. |
| tool | texel_import_png | Turn an existing PNG into an editable spec; with pixelize, any picture (concept art, an HD skin) first. |
| tool | texel_pack | Build a resource pack (.zip or folder) from specs, families and folders, with pack.mcmeta, .mcmeta files and, on request, models. |
| tool | texel_check_pack | Check any resource pack: format and versions, names, PNGs, animations, GUI scaling, entity texture sizes, broken references, unused textures. |
| tool | texel_diff | Which faces a change touched, with a pixel mask. |
| tool | texel_get_example, texel_read_docs | Offline examples and docs. |
| resource | texel://docs/{page}, texel://examples/{id}, texel://schema/{name} | Same content as resources. |
| resource | ui://texel/viewer | MCP App: interactive 3D preview with a feedback box that posts back to the chat. |
| prompt | design_skin, design_texture, continue_skin, design_family, critique_skin | Protocol runbooks with arguments. |
All write tools are confined to the workspace directory; paths outside it are rejected.
Updates
Downloaded copies don't update themselves. Once a day the CLI and the MCP server fetch /version.json (the current release and where its files live) and compare it with their own version. When a newer release is out, the CLI prints the update steps on stderr and the MCP server adds them to the next tool result, with the release notes, so the agent can download the new texel.mjs, texel-mcp.mjs and SKILL.md over the old ones before its next command. The run that printed the notice completed normally. The check waits at most 1.5 s, is cached in ~/.texel/, stays silent offline, and is skipped when CI or TEXEL_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 is set. node texel.mjs --version and node texel-mcp.mjs --version print the installed version; the skill carries it in metadata.version.