WebP Batch Converter

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for batch converting images to WebP format with cross-platform support. Works seamlessly with MCP-aware IDEs like Cursor.

🌟 Features

• 🖼️ Batch conversion of PNG, JPG, and JPEG files to WebP
• 🌍 Cross-platform support (macOS, Linux, Windows)
• ⚡ Multi-threaded processing for fast conversions
• 🎛️ Flexible options including quality control, lossless mode, and metadata preservation
• 📊 Detailed reporting with file sizes and savings statistics
• 🔧 Dual engine support - prefers Google's cwebp, falls back to Sharp
• 🎯 MCP integration for use in AI-powered development environments

📦 Installation

Global Installation

npm install -g webp-batch-mcp

Local Development

git clone https://github.com/mhe8mah/webp-batch-mcp.git
cd webp-batch-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Docker

docker build -t webp-batch .
docker run -v /path/to/images:/data webp-batch

🚀 Usage

Command Line Interface

node dist/cli.js [options]

Options

• --src <dir> - Source directory to scan (default: current directory)
• --quality <0-100> - WebP quality setting (default: 75)
• --lossless - Use lossless encoding (recommended for PNG)
• --overwrite - Replace original files with WebP versions
• --threads <n> - Number of concurrent conversions (default: CPU count)
• --preserve-meta - Preserve EXIF and ICC metadata
• --flat <dir> - Output all WebP files to specified directory

Examples

# Convert all images in current directory
node dist/cli.js

# High quality conversion of specific directory
node dist/cli.js --src ./photos --quality 95 --preserve-meta

# Lossless conversion with overwrite
node dist/cli.js --src ./images --lossless --overwrite

# Batch process to output directory
node dist/cli.js --src ./input --flat ./output --threads 8

MCP Server

The MCP server exposes a single tool: convert_to_webp

Tool Parameters

{
  "src": "string",          // Source directory (default: ".")
  "quality": "number",      // Quality 0-100 (default: 75)
  "lossless": "boolean",    // Lossless mode (default: false)
  "overwrite": "boolean",   // Replace originals (default: false)
  "threads": "number",      // Concurrent threads (default: CPU count)
  "preserveMeta": "boolean", // Keep metadata (default: false)
  "flat": "string"          // Output directory (optional)
}

⚙️ How to Add This Server in Cursor

1. Clone and build the project:

git clone https://github.com/mhe8mah/webp-batch-mcp.git
cd webp-batch-mcp
npm install
npm run build

2. Open Cursor Settings
3. Navigate to Features → MCP
4. Add a new server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "webp-batch": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/webp-batch-mcp/dist/server.js"]
    }
  }
}

5. Restart Cursor
6. The convert_to_webp tool will be available in your AI conversations

🔧 Technical Details

Conversion Strategy

1. Primary Engine: Google's cwebp tool (included in libwebp-tools)

   • Fastest performance
   • Best compression
   • Full feature support

2. Fallback Engine: Sharp (Node.js)

   • Pure JavaScript implementation
   • No external dependencies
   • Cross-platform compatibility

Output Behavior

• Default: Creates .webp files alongside originals
• Overwrite mode: Replaces originals with WebP versions
• Flat mode: Outputs all WebP files to specified directory
• Metadata preservation: Maintains EXIF and ICC profiles when requested

Performance

• Utilizes all CPU cores by default
• Processes images concurrently using p-limit
• Provides real-time progress feedback
• Reports detailed conversion statistics

🛠️ Development

Building

npm run build

Testing

npm test

Development Mode

npm run dev

📊 Test Results

Verified with real web images:

• JPEG (35KB → 17KB): 51% space savings
• PNG (7.9KB → 2.8KB): 65% space savings
• Overall: 53% average compression

📋 Dependencies

Runtime

• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk - MCP server framework
• sharp - Image processing fallback
• chalk - Colorized terminal output
• commander - CLI argument parsing
• glob - File pattern matching
• p-limit - Concurrency control

Development

• typescript - Type safety
• tsup - Fast TypeScript bundler
• jest - Testing framework

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass
5. Submit a pull request

🆘 Support

For issues and feature requests, please use the GitHub issue tracker.