Image Description

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides AI-powered image analysis using xAI's Grok API.

Purpose

This MCP server provides a secure interface for AI assistants to analyze images using Grok's advanced vision capabilities. It supports both web-hosted images and local files, offering detailed descriptions, technical metadata extraction, and optical character recognition (OCR).

Features

Current Implementation

• describe_image_url - Analyzes images from web URLs and provides AI-generated descriptions
• describe_image_file - Analyzes local image files and provides AI-generated descriptions
• extract_text_from_image - Performs OCR to extract readable text from images

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop with MCP Toolkit enabled
• Docker MCP CLI plugin (docker mcp command)
• Grok API key from https://console.x.ai/

Installation

See the step-by-step instructions provided with the files.

Usage Examples

In Grok4 Code Fast, you can ask:

• "Describe this image: https://example.com/image.jpg"
• "What does this local image show: /path/to/image.png"
• "Extract any text from this image: https://example.com/document.jpg"
• "Give me a detailed analysis of this photo: https://example.com/photo.jpg"
• "What text can you read in this screenshot: https://example.com/screenshot.png"

Local Testing

# Set environment variables for testing
export GROK_API_KEY="your-grok-api-key"

# Run directly
python image-description-mcp_server.py

# Test MCP protocol
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/list","id":1}' | python image-description-mcp_server.py

Adding New Tools

1. Add the function to image-description-mcp_server.py
2. Decorate with @mcp.tool()
3. Update the catalog entry with the new tool name
4. Rebuild the Docker image

Troubleshooting

Authentication Errors

• Verify secrets with docker mcp secret list
• Ensure GROK_API_KEY is set correctly
• Check API key validity at https://console.x.ai/

Image Processing Errors

• Ensure image URLs are accessible and valid
• Check local file paths exist and are readable
• Verify image formats are supported (JPEG, PNG, WebP, etc.)

Security Considerations

• All secrets stored in Docker Desktop secrets
• Never hardcode API keys
• Running as non-root user in Docker
• Images processed temporarily in memory
• No permanent storage of image data
• Sensitive data never logged

API Documentation

This service integrates with xAI's Grok API:

• Grok API Reference: https://docs.x.ai/docs/api-reference
• MCP SDK Documentation: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/sdk

Data Sources

External Image URLs

• Source: Web-hosted images accessible via HTTP/HTTPS
• Access Method: HTTP GET requests using httpx
• Purpose: Download images for analysis from any public URL
• Limitations: Only accessible URLs; no authentication-protected images

Local Image Files

• Source: Filesystem access to local image files
• Access Method: Python file I/O
• Purpose: Analyze images stored locally on the user's system
• Supported Paths: Absolute and relative file paths
• Supported Formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP, TIFF, GIF, BMP

Grok API

• Source: xAI's Grok model with vision capabilities
• Access Method: REST API calls via httpx
• Purpose: AI-powered image analysis and description generation
• Data Flow: Images converted to base64, sent to Grok, receive structured analysis

Image Processing

• Source: PIL (Pillow) and OpenCV libraries
• Access Method: Local processing
• Purpose: Extract technical metadata and perform OCR
• No External Calls: Pure local processing

License

MIT License