# Nanobanana MCP Server (MCP server)

> Nanobanana MCP Server is an MCP server that provides image generation and editing capabilities. It has 400 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with uvx nanobanana-mcp-server. It works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code and needs an API key.

A production-ready Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides AI-powered image generation capabilities through Google's Gemini models with intelligent model selection.

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | https://github.com/zhongweili/nanobanana-mcp-server |
| GitHub stars | 400 |
| License | MIT |
| Language | Python |
| Transport | stdio |
| Packages | pypi: nanobanana-mcp-server |
| Remote URL | none |
| Needs API key | yes |
| Official | no |
| Works with | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code |
| Category | AI & search |
| Latest release | v0.4.6 (Sep 27, 2026) |
| Last commit | Oct 2, 2026 |
| MCP registry name | io.github.zhongweili/nanobanana-mcp-server |

## Install

### Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nanobanana-mcp-server": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "nanobanana-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

### Claude Code

```sh
claude mcp add --env GEMINI_API_KEY=your-value --transport stdio nanobanana-mcp-server -- uvx nanobanana-mcp-server
```

### Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nanobanana-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "nanobanana-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

### VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "gemini_api_key",
      "description": "GEMINI_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "nanobanana-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "nanobanana-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GEMINI_API_KEY": "${input:gemini_api_key}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Config formats checked against the official docs on 2026-10-07.

## Environment variables

- `GEMINI_API_KEY` (secret) (required): Your Gemini API key
- `IMAGE_OUTPUT_DIR`: The image output directory

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---

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