AI agents

Ask your coding agent or assistant to "make these photos smaller" or "turn this recording into a GIF", and it can use Roue to do it: same presets, same engine, same rules as the wheel. Everything still runs on your computer.

Roue gives agents two things:

An MCP server, roue mcp. It's part of Roue (nothing else to install) and works with any agent that speaks the Model Context Protocol: Claude Code, Codex, VS Code, Cursor, Zed, Gemini CLI, Goose...
A skill that tells the agent when to reach for Roue and which preset fits which request. It works with or without the MCP server: without it, the agent uses the roue command instead.

Install Roue first (Install): both talk to the roue command on your computer.

Claude Code#

The Roue plugin bundles the MCP server and the skill. In Claude Code:

/plugin install roue --marketplace guilyx/roue

On Claude Code older than 2.1.275, add the marketplace first:

/plugin marketplace add guilyx/roue
/plugin install roue@roue

Then ask away: "Convert ~/Pictures/IMG_2041.HEIC to JPG", "Make demo.mov small enough for Discord". Plugin updates arrive with Roue releases.

Just the MCP server, without the skill:

claude mcp add --scope user roue -- roue mcp

Other agents#

Codex:

codex mcp add roue -- roue mcp

VS Code (Copilot agent mode):

code --add-mcp '{"name": "roue", "command": "roue", "args": ["mcp"]}'

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json), Gemini CLI (~/.gemini/settings.json) and most other clients take the same JSON:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "roue": { "command": "roue", "args": ["mcp"] }
  }
}

For the skill, copy plugin/skills/convert-files into your agent's skills folder (for Claude Code, ~/.claude/skills/).

Tools#

Tool	What it does
`list_presets`	The presets, or only those that fit the given files, most relevant first. Each says whether its tools are installed.
`file_info`	Type, size, length, codecs and resolution of files, and the presets that fit them.
`convert`	Convert files or folders with a preset. Takes `output_dir` and `recursive`, like the command line. Returns the paths it wrote, and sizes before and after. With `merge-pdf`, all the files go into one PDF, in the order given.
`undo_last`	Move the files the last conversion wrote to the trash.
`check_tools`	Which conversion tools are installed, and the command that installs the missing ones.

convert reports progress while it runs, and the agent can cancel it. Results show up in roue history, so roue undo works on them too.

What the agent can and can't do#

It converts files you point it at, with your user's permissions, like roue convert in a terminal.
It never overwrites anything: results get a new name next to the original (or in output_dir), and originals are never touched.
It doesn't see what's in your files through Roue: the tools return paths, types and sizes. The agent can still open files with its own tools, if you let it.
It doesn't install anything: when a tool is missing, check_tools gives the install command, and the agent asks you to run it.

Most agents ask before running a tool the first time. convert and undo_last change files on disk, so it's a good idea to keep that prompt for them.

Try the server by hand#

roue mcp speaks JSON-RPC over stdin and stdout, one message per line:

printf '%s\n' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{}}}' \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list_presets","arguments":{"files":["/path/to/photo.heic"]}}}' \
  | roue mcp

Or point the MCP Inspector at it: npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector roue mcp.