The free MifBlender download is the Blender add-on and an MCP server in one zip. With it, Claude, or any app that speaks MCP, works inside your Blender through typed tools for modeling, mesh editing, materials and shader nodes, UVs, lighting and cameras, animation, rigging, sculpting, physics and particles, Geometry Nodes, rendering, import and export. You do not need Unreal Engine or MifBridge.

Download it from the MifBlender page. The steps below are also in the README inside the zip.

What is in the download

	what it is	where it runs
`MifBlender-<version>.zip`	the Blender add-on. It listens on `127.0.0.1:8792`	inside Blender
`mcp-server/`	the MCP server your AI app starts. It turns each request into a call to the add-on	on your computer, started by the AI app

The server holds the same Blender tools as MifBridge's own MCP server, built from the same code at the same release. MifBridge adds Unreal Engine and the tools that send models between Unreal and Blender, such as mif_send_to_unreal; those are the only tools the free server leaves out.

1. Install the add-on

Extract the download.
In Blender, open Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Add-ons and choose Install (on Blender 4.2 and later, the arrow menu at the top right, then Install from Disk). Pick the MifBlender-<version>.zip that is inside the download, not the download itself.
Tick MifBlender. Its server starts by itself: the 3D viewport's N-panel ▸ MifBridge tab says it is listening on 8792 and shows this Blender's process id.

Upgrading from an older MifBlender: close Blender, move the old MifBlender folder out of Blender's scripts/addons folder, then install. Installing over an enabled copy can leave old files beside new ones.

2. Install Python and the MCP library

The server needs Python 3.10 or newer and one library:

python -m pip install -r mcp-server/requirements.txt

With uv you can skip this step and start the server with uv run --with mcp python <path>/server.py instead.

3. Connect your AI app

Replace <path> with the full path of the extracted mcp-server folder, written with forward slashes, such as C:/Users/you/MifBlender-MCP/mcp-server. On macOS and Linux, use python3 if that is what your system calls it.

Claude Code, in a terminal:

claude mcp add mifblender -- python <path>/server.py

Claude Desktop: Settings ▸ Developer ▸ Edit Config opens claude_desktop_config.json. Add this, then restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mifblender": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["<path>/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json in a project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for every project) and Windsurf (~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json) take the same block.

VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "servers": {
    "mifblender": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["<path>/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Codex CLI (~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.mifblender]
command = "python"
args = ["<path>/server.py"]

Any other MCP app: start python <path>/server.py as a stdio server.

4. Check it works

With Blender open, ask your assistant to call bl_status. It answers with Blender's version and the port it reached. Then ask for something real, such as "add a rounded cube with a brushed metal material and render a preview".

Settings

Set these in your app's env block for the server when you need them:

variable	default	what it does
`MIF_BLENDER_PORT`	`8792`	the port the add-on listens on (the add-on's Port preference)
`MIF_BLENDER_TOKEN`	`dev`	must match the add-on's Token preference
`MIF_TOOL_PACKS`	`lean`	`lean` sends your app three tools and finds the rest when needed, which keeps every request small. `blender` loads every tool at once; naming packs, such as `blender_core,blender_materials`, loads only those
`MIF_BLENDER_TIMEOUT`	`180`	seconds one call may take
`MIF_GENERATIVE`	on	`off` hides the generative `bl_gen_*` tools

Safety

Everything stays on your computer. The add-on listens on 127.0.0.1 only, and the server talks only to it.
run_python runs any Python inside Blender. Untick Allow run_python in the add-on preferences to keep the assistant to the typed tools.
The bl_gen_* tools are generative: they send a prompt to a ComfyUI you run yourself and do nothing without one. Every other tool builds from explicit parameters. See Using MifBridge without generative AI.

License

The add-on is MIT licensed. The MCP server's license is mcp-server/LICENSE in the download. Both are free.

Free Blender MCP