Head to head · Design canvases · October 2026 research run

Penpot API + MCP vs UX Pilot MCP server

Penpot API + MCP scores 43.7 (E) on agent readiness against UX Pilot MCP server's 33 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. UX Pilot MCP server leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do design canvases.

Best design workspace and canvas APIs for AI agents · All 133 design comparisons

Which one, for what

Penpot API + MCP E

Best for Teams that want design files on their own servers and an agent working alongside a person in the editor.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 46 against 15
  • Schema & documentation, 66 against 45
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 76 against 45
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 22

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

Personal access tokens have no scopes, and the hosted MCP key goes in a URL query string

UX Pilot MCP server F

Best for Designers on UX Pilot who want an agent to organise screens, review UX and build React prototypes.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 46 against 41
  • Security & auth, 39 against 33

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Penpot API + MCP loses 5 points for them

Watch for

No status page, limits or error docs

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Transparency & trust Penpot API + MCP +46

Penpot API + MCP 68

MPL-2.0, including the MCP server (30). Privacy policy of 5 August 2025 names Kaleidos Subsidiary S.L., PostHog and Google Analytics, keeps data 'as long as the commercial relationship is maintained', points to a DPA in the terms and says nothing about AI training or data locations (15 of 30). Changes land in CHANGES.md, and the separate penpot-mcp repository was archived with a pointer when it moved, but there's no deprecation policy. The MCP server's move to SDK v2 removed SSE on 23 September with no changelog line we could find (8 of 20). The cloud names some processors without locations, and we didn't check self-hosted telemetry defaults (8 of 20).

UX Pilot MCP server 22

Terms and privacy render with script and weren't readable (0). Data handling not read (0). A tool that maps old tool names to new calls eased the 3.0 change, no dates (5 of 20). Subprocessors not found (0). 0 + 0 + 5 + 0 = 5.

Reliability Penpot API + MCP +31

Penpot API + MCP 46

Penpot runs as a cloud service and as self-hosted software, so this is the average of the two rubrics. Cloud (10). No status page per the 30 September check (0), so no readable incident history (5 of 30). No rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA published (0, 0, 0). The RPC API is documented and in use, while the repository's own notes call MCP multi-user mode 'under development and not yet fully integrated' (5 of 10). Self-hosted (82). Official Docker images and install guides (20). Backend, frontend, end-to-end and MCP test workflows run on push and pull request, pass state not visible (20 of 25). 706 open issues, actively labelled with milestones, and several regressions opened on 1 October are marked release blockers for 2.19.0 (15 of 25). CHANGES.md records every release, without an API versioning policy (12 of 15). Version 2.18 (15).

UX Pilot MCP server 15

No status page found (0). No history (5). No limits found (0). No retry guidance (0). No SLA (0). Not labelled beta (10). 0 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 15.

Maintenance & community Penpot API + MCP +31

Penpot API + MCP 76

2.18.1 on 2026-10-01 (30). 2.17.0 (22 July), 2.17.1 (17 August), 2.17.2 (27 August), 2.18.0 (23 September) and 2.18.1 inside 90 days (20). Issues are labelled and given milestones within a day, and an OAuth-for-MCP issue opened on 1 October (18 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry and no official API client (0). MCP tests in CI and dependencies updated on 29 September (8 of 10).

UX Pilot MCP server 45

Registry 3.0.0 and repository on 4 November 2026 (30). Dated releases not found (0). Issues not read (0). Official registry entry ai.uxpilot/uxpilot (15). README-only repository (0). 30 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 45. Registry presence read from Anchor Terminal's own daily import of the official MCP registry (/api/v1/registry.json, 6 November 2026), not the registry's API.

Schema & documentation Penpot API + MCP +21

Penpot API + MCP 66

Each instance serves API docs and an OpenAPI description generated from the backend at /api/main/doc, and the MCP tools declare zod schemas (25). No llms.txt. The MCP server's high_level_overview and penpot_api_info tools hand the model its docs instead (3 of 10). RPC docs are generated with little prose. MCP descriptions are long and tell the model to read the overview before execute_code (12 of 20). RPC inputs are typed, but the main MCP tool takes one JavaScript string (9 of 15). A curl example for get-profile. No documented error format, and the integration guide says 'we do not have any specific documentation for the webhooks yet' (5 of 15). CHANGES.md per release (12 of 15).

UX Pilot MCP server 45

Schemas not read without sign-in (15 of 25). No llms.txt read (0). Tools grouped by job (find, organise, delete, import, review, React), with a help tool that maps old names to new calls (14 of 20). Inputs not verifiable (5 of 15). A tool that returns any action's fields with an example (8 of 15). Registry 3.0.0 on 4 November; no changelog (3 of 15). 15 + 0 + 14 + 5 + 8 + 3 = 45.

Payments & pricing Penpot API + MCP +10

Penpot API + MCP 30

No machine payment protocol (0). Plan prices are public, Unlimited $7 an editor a month capped at $175 and Enterprise $25 a member, with no per-call price (10 of 20). The cloud Professional plan is free with no card (20). A person signs up and creates the token or MCP key in account settings (0). Self-hosting the community edition is free under MPL-2.0.

UX Pilot MCP server 20

No machine payment protocol (0). Pricing behind script, not read (0). Free tier (20). A person signs up (0). 0 + 0 + 20 + 0 = 20.

Security & auth UX Pilot MCP server +6

Penpot API + MCP 33

Personal access tokens can expire after 30 to 180 days or never and can be deleted at any time, but carry no scopes. The hosted MCP URL takes its key in the userToken query parameter as the documented setup, and until 2.18.0 (23 September 2026) an MCP key also worked as a full API token, so less 10 (10 of 30). No read-only mode. execute_code runs arbitrary JavaScript against the plugin API, which can delete shapes, and the docs only advise starting with read-only operations. The plugin must stay open in the user's tab (5 of 20). Shared files and library content reach the model with no injection guidance (3 of 15). Audit events exist in the codebase, but we found no operator-facing call log (5 of 15). SECURITY.md routes reports through GitHub advisories, and four were published in 2026. No security.txt per the 30 September check, and no bug bounty or certification found (10 of 20).

UX Pilot MCP server 39

OAuth or a bearer key; scopes not published (20 of 30). Organise tools never delete, and deletes need confirmation (14 of 20). Imported AI output and comments are third-party text; no injection guidance (3 of 15). No audit log (0). No security programme found (2 of 20). 20 + 14 + 3 + 0 + 2 = 39.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runPenpot API + MCPUX Pilot MCP serverEdge
Reliability16%204615Penpot API + MCP +31
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26645Penpot API + MCP +21
Agent ergonomics13%16.24146UX Pilot MCP server +5
Security & auth14%17.53339UX Pilot MCP server +6
Payments & pricing10%12.53020Penpot API + MCP +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87645Penpot API + MCP +31
Transparency & trust7%8.86822Penpot API + MCP +46
Negative events≤15-50
TotalE 43.7/100F 33/100

Facts side by side

FactPenpot API + MCPUX Pilot MCP server
KindHTTP APIMCP server
VendorPenpot (Kaleidos)UX Pilot
Hosted endpointhttps://design.penpot.app/api/rpc/commandhttps://mcp.uxpilot.net/mcp
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPStreamable HTTP
AuthTokenOAuth
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMPL-2.0none
Tools exposed5none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
MCP registrynot listedai.uxpilot/uxpilot
Last release2026-10-01none
Terms last updated2025-08-05no document linked
Privacy policy last updated2025-08-05no document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot read yet
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot read yet
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot read yet
Popularity61k stars, 1.3k npm/wknone
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Penpot API + MCP

MPL-2.0 and self-hostable, with API, webhooks and MCP on the free cloud plan. Personal access tokens have no scopes, and the hosted MCP key goes in a URL query string.

UX Pilot MCP server

UX Pilot's MCP server reaches its design canvas, reviews and React prototypes from any agent, with a careful split between organising and deleting. Little else is public, no status page, limits, errors or readable legal pages.

Before you call either

Penpot API + MCP

  1. Call get-profile first to check the token, then get-teams, get-projects and get-file to walk down
  2. Ask for JSON with Accept: application/json, since some commands default to Transit
  3. Call high_level_overview and penpot_api_info before execute_code. They tell the model what the plugin API can do
  4. Keep the Penpot tab in the foreground. A backgrounded or frozen tab stalls MCP calls
  5. Give tokens an expiry. They carry full account access

UX Pilot MCP server

  1. Ask the help tool for an action's fields before calling it
  2. Delete only after the user confirms
  3. Treat imported AI output and comments as untrusted

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Penpot API + MCP or UX Pilot MCP server?

Penpot API + MCP scores 43.7 (E) on agent readiness against UX Pilot MCP server's 33 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. UX Pilot MCP server leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth.

Do Penpot API + MCP and UX Pilot MCP server need an API key?

Penpot API + MCP needs an access token. UX Pilot MCP server uses an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Penpot API + MCP and UX Pilot MCP server without installing anything?

Yes. Penpot API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://design.penpot.app/api/rpc/command and UX Pilot MCP server at https://mcp.uxpilot.net/mcp.

Are Penpot API + MCP and UX Pilot MCP server open source?

Penpot API + MCP is open source (MPL-2.0). No open-source release is listed for UX Pilot MCP server.

Other comparisons with Penpot API + MCP or UX Pilot MCP server

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