Image editing with MCP: choose your workflow / Galactrex

Choose the editing tools for the job

BeforeEdit supplies a local MCP companion for an agent to use image-editing tools on Windows. It can work with photo layers and pixel-art documents, save an editable master and export finished files. You direct the changes and keep control of the layers. The desktop editor also has photo, pixel and vector workspaces for your own edits.

For a person drawing a sprite in a browser, BeforePixel is the simpler entry point. Its hosted edition offers layers, palettes, mirror tools and PNG export; Creative adds animation. Its browser-to-agent pairing is not public. The two products have different jobs and connection paths.

Give the agent a deliverable it can verify

A useful brief names the canvas, the objects, the editable file and the export. Start with a small sprite or a simple composition, rather than asking for a complete brand from one sentence. Define which parts must remain separate layers.

For example: make a 16 × 16 icon on a transparent background with separate outline and colour layers. Save a .bepixel master and a PNG preview in the artwork folder. Ask the agent to inspect the canvas and layers, then check the preview yourself before calling it finished.

Connect locally and keep the folder boundary

Install BeforeEdit through GLTX Hub and activate an owned license or Creative access. In a compatible MCP client, launch the bundled companion as a local stdio process. Follow the setup guide for the real executable path and BEFOREEDIT_ALLOWED_ROOTS.

Let the client discover the companion's tools and capabilities. The released pixel workflow includes beforeedit_pixel_build and beforeedit_pixel_inspect. Keep the agent's read and write access limited to the intended artwork folder; an unrelated browser URL is not a substitute for this connection.

Keep an editable source and test the export

Use .bephoto for an editable photo composition and .bepixel for a pixel-art document. Treat PNG, GIF, APNG or PSD as delivery formats chosen for the job. Reopen the native master and inspect the delivered file in its destination app.

Check the dimensions, transparency, named layers and animation timing that matter for the brief. A file existing on disk is only one part of a successful delivery. An MCP connection supplies editing tools; design decisions and review still matter.

When another workflow is a better fit

BeforeEdit is Windows software. Choose another workflow when you require a different desktop platform or exact Photoshop smart-object, effect or vector-shape round-tripping. Preserve original PSD files when those features matter.

Use BeforePixel for browser drawing rather than claiming the public canvas is an agent server. Use Afterimage for lyric videos and Aftertext for timed typography. Pick the app that produces the file you actually need.