Autodesk Inventor Bridge

MCP server and skill toolkit for Autodesk Inventor 2025+ add-in developers, packaged as a Claude Cowork / Claude Code plugin.

Repository: https://github.com/Cadtastic-Solutions/Autodesk-Inventor-MCP

This is the boilerplate scaffold. Per-feature capabilities (crash analysis, add-in management, project editor, task scheduler, reset, pack-and-go, read-only viewer, add-in scaffolding, crash trend dashboards) land on their own feature/inventor-* branches. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the branch model.

What ships on main

Component	Description
MCP server skeleton	.NET 8 self-contained executable hosting the Inventor.Mcp.Server infrastructure: STA-pinned main thread, DI host, stderr-only logging, SessionTools (inventor_versions_list, inventor_session_start, inventor_session_adopt, inventor_session_list, inventor_session_terminate)
Shared infrastructure	InventorInstanceManager (3-tier COM lookup, ROT registration, health verification, reconnect-once), InventorInstallations + InventorBinaries (Inventor SDK + sibling-binary discovery), WindowsApi (source-gen P/Invoke)
Crash store	scripts/crash_store.py — SQLite shim shared between the diagnosis / trends features (those features ship on their own branches)
Plugin manifest	.claude-plugin/plugin.json advertising the plugin, .mcp.json pointing at the published exe
Documentation	Architecture, API, build, roadmap (docs/); feature-by-feature requirements (REQUIREMENTS.md); contribution workflow (CONTRIBUTING.md)

MCP server architecture

+-----------------------------+              +------------------------+
|   Claude (Cowork / Code)    |  stdio MCP   |  Inventor.Mcp.Server   |
|                             | <==========> |  .NET 8, [STAThread]   |
|   plugins/autodesk-inventor |              |  - SessionTools        |
+-----------------------------+              +-----------+------------+
                                                         | COM
                                                         v
                                             +------------------------+
                                             |  InventorInstanceMgr   |
                                             |  - per-session GUID    |
                                             |  - 3-tier COM lookup   |
                                             |    (HWND / moniker /   |
                                             |     ROT enumeration)   |
                                             |  - health verification |
                                             +-----------+------------+
                                                         | starts / adopts
                                                         v
                                             +------------------------+
                                             |  Inventor.exe (PID 1)  |
                                             |  Inventor.exe (PID 2)  |
                                             |  ...                   |
                                             +------------------------+

Mermaid versions and full sequence diagrams: see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.

Install + build

1. Install the plugin in Cowork or Claude Code (drag autodesk-inventor.plugin onto the app or use the plugins UI).

2. On a Windows machine with .NET 8 SDK and Autodesk Inventor 2025+ installed:

   cd <plugin root>\server
   .\build.ps1
   

   This runs dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true and drops the self-contained exe at server\dist\Inventor.Mcp.Server.exe — the path .mcp.json points at.

3. Restart Cowork / Claude Code. The MCP server starts on first tool call.

Full build, packaging, and exclusion rules: see docs/BUILD.md.

The plugin distribution does NOT ship a prebuilt exe — Autodesk.Inventor.Interop.dll isn't redistributable, and the self-contained exe is ~70 MB. Build time on a modern machine is under 10 seconds.

Scope

• Inventor 2025+ (CoreCLR / .NET 8, CER service 7.2.x). Older Inventor (.NET Framework) is out of scope; see REQUIREMENTS.md §4.3 Constraints.
• MCP-first design — every feature wrapper leads with a typed MCP call; documented CLI / COM fallbacks let scripts still work when the server isn't running.

Layout

autodesk-inventor/
  .claude-plugin/
    plugin.json                     # plugin manifest, name + version + repo
  .mcp.json                         # stdio MCP entry pointing at server/dist/Inventor.Mcp.Server.exe
  .gitignore                        # Visual Studio + .NET + AI-tool ignores
  LICENSE                           # Apache License 2.0
  NOTICE                            # Attribution to Cadtastic Solutions (propagates to derivatives)
  README.md                         # you are here
  REQUIREMENTS.md                   # feature-by-feature requirements specification
  CHANGELOG.md                      # version history
  CONTRIBUTING.md                   # branch model, PR workflow, code conventions
  docs/
    ARCHITECTURE.md                 # system design, session model, known gotchas
    API.md                          # MCP tool surface contract (DTOs, error semantics)
    BUILD.md                        # build pipeline + packaging
    ROADMAP.md                      # ship gates + future work
  scripts/
    crash_store.py                  # SQLite shim (shared by future diagnosis features)
  server/
    src/
      Inventor.Mcp.Server.csproj    # net8.0-windows, self-contained publish
      Program.cs                    # Host + DI + STA main + SessionTools registration
      Detection/
        InventorInstallations.cs    # registry-based install discovery
        InventorBinaries.cs         # sibling-binary path resolution
      InstanceManagement/
        InventorInstanceManager.cs  # session lifecycle + 3-tier COM lookup
        InventorInstanceManagerExtensions.cs  # TryResolveSession helper
      Tools/
        SessionTools.cs             # session lifecycle MCP tools
      WindowsInterop/
        WindowsApi.cs               # [LibraryImport] P/Invoke + COM lookup helpers
    stubs/
      InventorInteropStub.cs        # compile-only stub when Inventor isn't installed
    build.ps1                       # one-liner to publish + drop into dist/
    dist/
      README.md                     # explains why the exe isn't shipped

Per-feature directories (skills/inventor-*/, additional Tools/*.cs) appear in feature branches; see CONTRIBUTING.md §1.

License

Apache License 2.0. Derivatives must include the NOTICE file (§4(d)) — that's the mechanism that ensures Cadtastic Solutions remains credited downstream.

Author

Addam Boord ([email protected]) — Cadtastic Solutions