PaperBanana MCP Server: Setup for Claude, Cursor and Other Apps

• Draws a methodology diagram from your text

  Takes a methodology passage and a caption and draws a publication-style diagram as a PNG, refining it over several rounds. You can add sketch images to guide the layout.

  Try: “Draw a diagram of the pipeline in this methods section, caption 'Overview of our approach'.”

  Write · generate_diagram

• Draws a statistical plot from JSON data

  Takes JSON data and a description of the plot you want, and returns a publication-style plot as a PNG after several refinement rounds.

  Try: “Plot this accuracy data as a bar chart comparing the three models.”

  Write · generate_plot

• Keeps refining a diagram you already made

  Loads a saved methodology run from the output folder and runs more critique and redraw rounds on it.

  Try: “Refine run_20260101 and make the encoder block bigger.”

  Write · continue_diagram

• Keeps refining a plot you already made

  Loads a saved plot run from the output folder and runs more critique and redraw rounds. It tells you to use the diagram tool if the run is a diagram.

  Try: “Continue that plot run with larger axis labels.”

  Write · continue_plot

• Resumes any earlier run with feedback

  Resumes a saved run folder, with optional critic feedback, for either kind of figure.

  Try: “Resume run_20260101 with the feedback 'use fewer colours'.”

  Write · continue_run

• Scores a diagram against a human one

  Compares a generated image with a human-drawn reference on faithfulness, conciseness, readability and aesthetics and names the winner.

  Try: “Compare my generated diagram with the reference image.”

  Files · evaluate_diagram

• Scores a plot against a human one

  Does the same four-way comparison for a statistical plot and its human-made reference.

  Try: “Score this plot against the reference plot.”

  Files · evaluate_plot

• Plans a full paper's figures

  Reads a paper and plans a set of method diagrams and plots, then can generate them and write a figure package with LaTeX and captions. A dry-run option only writes the plan.

  Try: “Plan the figures for this paper but do not generate yet.”

  Write · orchestrate_figures

• Draws many diagrams from a manifest

  Runs a batch of methodology diagrams listed in a manifest file and writes a batch report with the results.

  Try: “Run the diagram batch in manifest.yaml.”

  Write · batch_diagrams

• Draws many plots from a manifest

  Runs a batch of statistical plots listed in a manifest file and writes a batch report.

  Try: “Run the plot batch in plots.yaml.”

  Write · batch_plots

• Downloads the example set for better results

  Downloads about 254 MB of reference diagrams, checked against a hash, and caches them. The retriever uses them to draw better diagrams. It only needs to run once.

  Try: “Download the reference set.”

  Write · download_references

Watch out for

• Your text goes to a model provider

  Methodology text, data and images you pass are sent to the provider behind your key. Do not use unpublished or confidential work unless that is acceptable. github.com

• Every figure costs API credits

  You pay for every model call on your own key, not PaperBanana. Each figure makes several text and image calls, and batch and paper-planning tools make many. The README lists Gemini image generation at $0.134 per 1K image. Set a spending limit on the key. github.com

• Tools write files to a folder

  Runs, reports and LaTeX files are written under the output folder, which defaults to outputs in the working directory. github.com

• One tool downloads 254 MB

  The reference download tool fetches about 254 MB once and caches it locally. github.com

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