SolidCraft CLI

Try SolidCraft in the browser above first; the CLI is for when you want the same modelling without a window. solidcraft-cli is the headless tool that comes with SolidCraft, the free open-source parametric CAD app. Everything below comes from the official docs and the tool's own usage text. Release checked: v0.18.4, published 2026-10-21 (as of 2026-10-22). If you are here for AI agents, the SolidCraft MCP server page covers that side in full.

What the CLI is for

SolidCraft runs as a desktop app, a browser app, a headless CLI and an MCP server, and the README's point is that all four run the same commands. The command registry is one list; the toolbar, a script, solidcraft-cli exec, the control channel and MCP all call the same ids such as sketch.create or solid.extrude.

That gives the CLI four jobs:

• Build a part from a script and write it out as STEP, STL, 3MF or another format, with no window and no clicking.
• Measure a script, a saved design or an imported STEP file: volume, area, faces and the rest, as JSON.
• Picture a part as a PNG, either a quick viewport snapshot or a studio render.
• Serve MCP so Claude Code or another agent can model through it.

Where to get it

The CLI ships with the app rather than as a separate download in most cases:

The desktop executable is solidcraft and the CLI is solidcraft-cli; designs are .solidcraft files. Every package also ships a tiny solvecraft-cli alias from the product's previous name, which just forwards to solidcraft-cli so older scripts keep working. Download links for each platform are on the SolidCraft download page.

The subcommands

From the tool's usage text:

Add --debug to any command for SolidCraft's log on stderr.

A script, and running it

A script is a JSON list of commands. The example from the docs makes a filleted block:

{"commands": [
  {"command": "sketch.create", "params": {"plane": "XY"}},
  {"command": "sketch.rectangle.two_point", "params": {"p0": [0, 0], "p1": [40, 30]}},
  {"command": "solid.extrude", "params": {"distance": 20}},
  {"command": "solid.fillet", "params": {"edges": [[0, 0, 10]], "radius": 3}}
]}

Run it and export in one line:

solidcraft-cli run script.json --out part.step

The repository's own example is examples/bracket.json, which the README runs as run examples/bracket.json --out bracket.step. A timeline feature that fails fails the run, and nothing is written; --allow-errors writes anyway. The STEP file page covers what goes into STEP and what the other export formats keep.

Useful flags on run:

• --save FILE keeps the result as a .solidcraft design as well as exporting it.
• --results prints each command's result, and --json-out FILE sends that JSON to a file as plain UTF-8, which matters on Windows PowerShell, where > would add a byte-order mark.
• --timings prints how long each command took, and --profile splits each one into boolean, tessellation and other time, so you can find the slow step in a long script.

Measuring a part

solidcraft-cli eval examples/bracket.json
solidcraft-cli eval part.step

eval prints the measurement as JSON: volume, area, faces and so on. It takes a script, a saved design or an imported STEP file, so it also works as a quick check on a file someone sent you.

Snapshots and renders

solidcraft-cli snapshot examples/bracket.json --out bracket.png
solidcraft-cli snapshot part.solidcraft --out photo.png --view Photo
solidcraft-cli snapshot plate.solidcraft --out cut.png --tool Pin --section z=12
solidcraft-cli render examples/render-studio.json --out product.png

snapshot looks from the iso view by default. --view takes front, back, top, bottom, left, right or the name of a view saved in the design with view.save; --camera JSON takes any camera in the same form the MCP screenshot tool uses. --no-grid and --no-axes leave out the ground grid and origin axes. --tool NAME draws one body solid and everything else see-through, and --section z=12 cuts the model at a plane so the inside shows, which the docs suggest for checking what a cut or join is about to do. --body "Plate:opacity=0.25" sets one body's opacity or colour.

Pictures are drawn on the GPU with the viewport's own pipelines. A machine without a GPU falls back to a software one, and with neither the CPU rasterizer draws it without surface-analysis colours. SOLIDCRAFT_GPU=auto|hardware|software|cpu chooses, and solidcraft-cli gpu lists what is available.

One command, or a whole design as a script

exec runs a single command on an empty design, which is the quickest way to see what a command returns:

solidcraft-cli exec solid.box '{"length": 20, "width": 10, "height": 5}'
solidcraft-cli commands

script goes the other way: it turns a saved design's history into a script that rebuilds it. The docs use it to turn a bug that only shows on one design into a one-file reproduction:

solidcraft-cli script part.solidcraft --out repro.json
solidcraft-cli eval repro.json

The MCP server

solidcraft-cli mcp starts a Model Context Protocol server on stdio. Headless it runs its own design session; --in starts it from a design or script, and --connect 127.0.0.1:PORT bridges it to a running desktop app started with --control PORT so you can watch the agent work. Files the agent's tool calls can reach are confined unless you pass --allow-path DIR or --allow-any-path. For Claude Code the setup is one line, claude mcp add solidcraft -- solidcraft-cli mcp; the MCP page has the Claude Desktop config, the tools and an example session.

What the CLI does not do

• It is not a different modeller. It runs the same commands as the app, so anything the app cannot model, the CLI cannot either.
• It does not slice or cut toolpaths. Export STL or 3MF and hand off to a slicer; CAM is listed as deferred on the project roadmap.
• It has no window. For interactive work use the desktop app, or the browser version at the top of this page.

Start by running solidcraft-cli commands once to see the registry, then write a four-line script like the one above. From there, the home page has the browser app for trying commands by hand, and the tutorial shows the same block-and-holes part built in the UI.