OpenSTAAD MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Bentley STAAD.Pro that enables AI agents like Claude Desktop, Gemini, or VSCode Copilot to interact with your STAAD.Pro models and perform various time-consuming tasks like load cases definition, data extraction, repetitive property setting and more.

This MCP server was introduced as part of Bentley's Infrastructure AI Co-Innovation Initiative to help our users and accounts discover opportunities and innovate faster, while connecting Bentley's unique engineering tool capabilities to their emerging agentic workflows.

Key Features

Fast and flexible: Enjoy minimal latency, interact with every STAAD.Pro features covered by the OpenSTAAD API.
AI-friendly: Provides documentation, guidance and feedback via dedicated tools to help your AI agent ramp up quickly on the STAAD.Pro API.
Multi-instance support: Connects to multiple running STAAD.Pro instances simultaneously to parallelize tasks across models.
Privacy-first: All processing happens locally on your machine. No data is sent to the cloud. No telemetry.

Prerequisites

OS: Windows 11 or newer
STAAD.Pro 2025 or newer installed and running

Quick Start with Claude Desktop (<2min)

Download the latest openstaad-mcp.mcpb file from the GitHub Releases page.
Open Claude Desktop.
Click the ☰ menu (top-left) → File → Settings → Extensions.
Click Advanced → Install Extensions.
Select the downloaded .mcpb file.
Click the ☰ menu (top-left) → File → Exit
Restart Claude Desktop.

Claude Desktop will install the server automatically. Open a new conversation and ask Claude to interact with your STAAD.Pro model.

Tip: Make sure STAAD.Pro is running with a model open before you start chatting.

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Other Clients & Configuration

TL;DR:

If not already installed, install uv with the command:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Configure your client to start the server in stdio mode with the command:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp openstaad-mcp

VS Code with GitHub Copilot

For stdio: Open the Command Palette → MCP: Add Server... → Command (stdio) and enter the following command:

  uvx --from git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp openstaad-mcp

For http: First, start the server in a terminal:

  uvx --from git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp openstaad-mcp --transport http

Look for the generated token and URL in the terminal output. It should look like this: `` WARNING: No --token provided. Auto-generated token: abc123def456ghi789jkl012mno345pq INFO: Starting MCP server 'OpenSTAAD MCP' with transport 'http' (stateless) on http://127.0.0.1:18120/mcp ``

Then, in VS Code, open the Command Palette → MCP: Add Server... → HTTP URL and enter the URL shown in the terminal (e.g. http://127.0.0.1:18120/mcp). 18120 is the default port, but yours may differ if you have multiple instances running or if you changed the default. Add the header Authorization: Bearer <token> with the token shown in the MCP server terminal.

GitHub Copilot CLI

Use the /mcp add command inside a Copilot CLI session to add the server. See the Copilot CLI documentation for more details.

For stdio transport, use the command:

  uvx --from git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp openstaad-mcp

For HTTP transport, first start the server in a terminal:

  uvx --from git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp openstaad-mcp --transport http

Then add the server in Copilot CLI using the URL shown in the terminal (e.g. http://127.0.0.1:18120/mcp). 18120 is the default port, but yours may differ if you have multiple instances running or if you changed the default. Add the header Authorization: Bearer <token> with the token shown in the MCP server terminal.

Claude Desktop (manual configuration)

If you prefer manual setup over the .mcpb bundle, edit the Claude Desktop config file directly:

Windows (MSIX): %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_<id>\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Windows (classic): %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openstaad": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp", "openstaad-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code (CLI)

For stdio transport, use the command:

  claude mcp add --transport stdio openstaad -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp openstaad-mcp

For HTTP transport, first start the server in a terminal:

  uvx --from git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp openstaad-mcp --transport http

Then add the server in Claude Code with the command: ``powershell claude mcp add --transport http openstaad http://127.0.0.1:18120/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <your-token>" ` 18120` is the default port, but yours may differ if you have multiple instances running or if you changed the default.

Gemini CLI

For stdio transport, use the command:

  gemini mcp add openstaad uvx --from git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp openstaad-mcp

For HTTP transport, first start the server in a terminal:

  uvx --from git+https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp openstaad-mcp --transport http

Then add the server in Gemini CLI with the command: ``powershell gemini mcp add --transport http --header "Authorization: Bearer <your-token>" openstaad http://127.0.0.1:18120/mcp ` 18120` is the default port, but yours may differ if you have multiple instances running or if you changed the default.

Transport Modes

The server supports two transport modes:

| Mode | When to use | |------|-------------| | stdio (default) | The MCP client launches the server process directly. Used by Claude Desktop, Claude Code, VS Code Copilot (stdio config). | | HTTP | The server runs persistently and clients connect over the network. |

CLI Options

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --transport {stdio,http} | stdio | Transport mode | | --log-level LEVEL | INFO | DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, or ERROR | | --log-file PATH | OS default | Path to log file | | --port PORT | 18120 | [http] TCP port to listen on | | --token TOKEN | - | [http] Bearer token for authentication |

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Available MCP Tools

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | discover_api | Lists available API skills and usage guidance | | read_skills | Returns detailed guidance for requested skills | | list_instances | Lists active STAAD.Pro instances with model paths and versions | | execute_code | Runs validated Python code against the connected STAAD.Pro model | | get_status | Returns connection state, STAAD version, model path, analysis status |

File I/O

The execute_code tool supports optional server-side file I/O for bulk data workflows. Instead of passing large datasets through the agent's context window, the server reads/writes CSV and XLSX files directly and injects the data into the sandbox as the input_data variable.

| Parameter | Description | |-----------|-------------| | input_path | Path to a .csv or .xlsx file. The server reads and parses it, then injects the data as the immutable input_data variable in the sandbox. | | output_path | Path where the sandbox return value will be written. The return value must be a list-of-lists (CSV) or a {sheet_name: {columns, rows}} dict (multi-sheet XLSX). | | overwrite | Allow overwriting an existing output file (default false). |

Path containment: File paths must resolve inside a configured allowed boundary before any read/write occurs. The server supports both client-configured MCP roots and server-configured allowed directories (via --allowed-dirs or user_config.allowed_directories in the manifest). The server validates paths against these boundaries before any file access.

Limits: Max file size 50 MB, max 100K rows, max 500 columns, max 50 input sheets.

Security Notes

Bearer token authentication. Pass --token MY_SECRET_TOKEN when running in HTTP mode and include Authorization: Bearer <token> in client requests.
DNS rebinding protection. Starlette Middlewares validate Host, Sec-Fetch-Site and Origin headers.
Code sandbox. The execute_code tool validates all Python code via

AST analysis before execution. Imports, file access, and dangerous builtins are blocked.

Privacy Policy

Please find the Bentley Systems privacy policy here.

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Development Setup

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/BentleySystems/openstaad-mcp.git
cd openstaad-mcp

2. Create a virtual environment

python -m venv .venv

# Windows (PowerShell)
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

# Windows (cmd)
.venv\Scripts\activate.bat

3. Install in editable mode with dev dependencies

pip install -e ".[dev]"

4. Run the server from source

# stdio mode (default)
openstaad-mcp

# HTTP mode
openstaad-mcp --transport http

5. Run tests

# All unit tests (no STAAD.Pro needed)
pytest

# Specific test files
pytest tests/test_skills.py tests/test_connection.py -v

# Integration tests (requires a running STAAD.Pro instance on Windows)
pytest -m integration -v

6. Lint

ruff check .
ruff format --check .

7. Building the MCPB Bundler

To produce the standalone .exe files distributed via the installer:

  pip install -e ".[build]"
  pyinstaller mcpb/openstaad-mcp.spec --noconfirm

This creates one file in the dist/ directory:

openstaad-mcp.exe: console executable (stdio & http transport)

To create the .mcpb installer bundle, run:

  npm install -g @anthropic-ai/mcpb
  New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path mcpb-staging -Force
  Copy-Item dist/openstaad-mcp.exe mcpb-staging/

  $version = (Select-String -Path pyproject.toml -Pattern '^version\s*=\s*"(.+)"$').Matches[0].Groups[1].Value
  $manifest = Get-Content mcpb/manifest.json -Raw | ConvertFrom-Json
  $manifest.version = $version
  $manifest | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 10 | Set-Content mcpb-staging/manifest.json -Encoding utf8

  mcpb pack mcpb-staging/ openstaad-mcp.mcpb

The output MCPB bundle is written to .\openstaad-mcp.mcpb.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on setting up your development environment, branch naming, running tests, and submitting pull requests.

OpenSTAAD MCP Server