The Design MCP API is a scalable serving platform for Design Intelligence that exposes UX capabilities to developers and AI agents. It acts as a "headless" design engine, providing programmatic access to design systems, tokens, and logic.
The API is built on Google's One Platform and follows the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing it to be used as a tool by AI agents like Gemini.
Key Concepts
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Design MCP implements the MCP specification, which allows AI agents to discover and execute design-related "tools." This enables agents to perform complex design tasks, such as generating color schemes or finding icons, with structured and validated parameters.
Service Architecture
The API is comprised of capabilities across various UX areas including:
- Color: Extract brand colors from images and generate Material Design color schemes.
- Typography: Find and describe fonts (Google Fonts) and icons (Material Symbols).
Data & Resource Model
The Design MCP operates on a set of design-centric resources.
Colors
Colors are typically represented as 6-character hex strings (e.g., #4285F4).
The API can generate a full color scheme, which maps semantic roles (like
primary, on_surface) to specific hex values.
Typography & Icons
- Fonts: Represented by their family names (e.g., "Roboto"). The API provides metadata including supported languages (BCP47) and features.
- Icons: Represented by their names within a specific set (defaulting to "Material Symbols").
Getting Started
Endpoint
The public API is accessible using the following endpoint:
design.googleapis.com.
Authentication
Developers don't need an API Key or OAuth 2.0 credentials.
Client Integration
The integration details will vary by context. Most MCP-compatible agent harnesses provide a streamline mechanism for MCP usage. See the Samples for configuration examples.
Testing with MCP Inspector
For interactive tool discovery and testing, you can use the official MCP Inspector.