PaperBanana

About

PaperBanana is an open source, community implementation of the PaperBanana paper on automated academic illustration. It turns methodology text and captions into publication-style diagrams and statistical plots, using a pipeline of retriever, planner, stylist, visualizer and critic agents with iterative refinement. It also offers a CLI, a Python API, batch generation and a local Gradio web UI.

The MCP server runs locally over stdio from the PyPI package paperbanana, started with uvx. It needs Python 3.10 or newer and an API key for a supported provider: OpenAI or Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini, Atlas Cloud or OpenRouter. It is not affiliated with the original paper authors or Google Research.

What you can do

• Generate methodology diagrams from text and a caption
• Create statistical plots from CSV or JSON data
• Refine output iteratively with a critic agent
• Optimize input text and captions before generation
• Run batch generation from a manifest file
• Use OpenAI, Azure, Gemini, Atlas Cloud or OpenRouter models

Tools

Local servers list their tools once they’re running, and this one doesn’t publish its list in advance. Your client shows them after you add it.

Example prompts

• Generate a diagram of my encoder-decoder method from this description

• Create a bar chart plot from results.csv for my paper

• Make an overview figure with the caption 'Our agent framework'

• Refine the last diagram using my feedback about layout

Set up

Every client starts PaperBanana on your machine with the same command. Pick yours; the page remembers your choice.

claude mcp add --transport stdio paperbanana -- uvx paperbanana

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paperbanana": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "paperbanana"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paperbanana": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "paperbanana"
      ]
    }
  }
}

code --add-mcp '{"name":"paperbanana","type":"stdio","command":"uvx","args":["paperbanana"]}'

{
  "servers": {
    "paperbanana": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "paperbanana"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paperbanana": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "paperbanana"
      ]
    }
  }
}

codex mcp add paperbanana -- uvx paperbanana

[mcp_servers.paperbanana]
command = "uvx"
args = ["paperbanana"]

gemini mcp add paperbanana uvx paperbanana

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paperbanana": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "paperbanana"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Embed

Show PaperBanana in a README or on your site. Each embed links to this page, uses the server’s own install command, and sets no cookies. How embeds work

The card, the iframe and the JSON are in English. Add ?lang=it, fr, de or es to their address for another language.

README badge Website card iframe JSON AI prompt

README badge

Markdown

[![PaperBanana on mcp.tc](https://mcp.tc/i/paperbanana/badge.svg)](https://mcp.tc/i/paperbanana)

HTML

<a href="https://mcp.tc/i/paperbanana"><img src="https://mcp.tc/i/paperbanana/badge.svg" alt="PaperBanana on mcp.tc" height="20"></a>

It follows the reader’s light or dark mode. Add ?theme=light or ?theme=dark to fix it, or ?style=compact to show the mark without the word.

Website card

HTML

<script src="https://mcp.tc/w/paperbanana.js" async></script>

The card appears where the tag is. Add data-theme="dark" or data-size="compact" to the tag to change it. The file holds everything it needs, so it makes no other requests and sets no cookies.

iframe

HTML

<iframe src="https://mcp.tc/embed/paperbanana" title="PaperBanana on mcp.tc" width="420" height="200" loading="lazy" allow="clipboard-write" style="border:0;border-radius:8px;max-width:100%"></iframe>

Use it on pages that don’t allow scripts. Add ?theme=light or ?theme=dark to the address to fix the colors.

JSON

The listing as data for your own pages and tools: name, tagline, install command, tools and the “Add to” links. Any site can read it (CORS is open).

https://mcp.tc/i/paperbanana.json

What each field means

AI prompt

Paste this into an AI coding assistant, such as Claude Code or Cursor, and it adds the PaperBanana card to your site.

Markdown

Add the mcp.tc card for PaperBanana, an MCP server, to my website. It is one static script: no build step, no package to install, no cookies.

Put this tag where the card should appear. The card renders right before it:

```html
<script src="https://mcp.tc/w/paperbanana.js" async></script>
```

To show the card somewhere else, put this placeholder there and load the same script once, for example before `</body>`. Keep the link inside: visitors without JavaScript see it.

```html
<div data-mcptc="paperbanana"><a href="https://mcp.tc/i/paperbanana">PaperBanana on mcp.tc</a></div>
```

Options:
- `data-theme="light"` or `"dark"` on the tag or the placeholder fixes the colors. Without it, the card follows the visitor’s light or dark mode.
- `data-size="compact"` gives a smaller card without the tagline.
- The CSS variable `--mcptc-max-width` on the placeholder or a parent sets the width (default `520px`).
- `?lang=` on the script URL sets the card’s language: `en`, `it`, `fr`, `de` or `es`.

If the site has a Content Security Policy, allow `script-src https://mcp.tc` and `img-src data:` (the icon is inline).

For a README or other Markdown docs, use the badge instead:

```markdown
[![PaperBanana on mcp.tc](https://mcp.tc/i/paperbanana/badge.svg)](https://mcp.tc/i/paperbanana)
```

Reference: https://mcp.tc/embed

Change history

This server runs on your computer, so we follow its PyPI package: each new version shows up here, with edits by its owner.

1. 6 Oct 2026, 21:22 UTC, Automatic check

   Tracking started: version 0.3.0.

FAQ