Identify any font from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client

Plug WhatFontIs into your AI workflow with a single config snippet. Free 200 identifications per day after signup — prepaid credits for the rest.

npm i @whatfontis/mcp github.com/whatfontis/wfi-mcp

What's MCP?

The Model Context Protocol is a small open standard that lets AI assistants (Claude, Cursor, Continue, Cline, your own bots) call tools you bring along — like a font identifier. Once installed, you can just say “identify this font” and your assistant will reach back to WhatFontIs, run the match, and reply with the top results.

No third party sees your API key — the MCP server runs locally on your machine and talks directly to www.whatfontis.com/api2/index.php over HTTPS.

Install in 30 seconds

Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config (or open claude_desktop_config.json directly). Paste:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whatfontis": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@whatfontis/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "WFI_API_KEY": "wfi_mcp_YOUR_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Save, restart Claude Desktop. In a chat, type “can you identify this font?” and attach an image — Claude will call the identify_font tool.

One command:

claude mcp add whatfontis npx @whatfontis/mcp 
  -e WFI_API_KEY=wfi_mcp_YOUR_KEY_HERE

Then in claude, just ask: “what's this font” with an image URL.

Open ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or use Settings → MCP → Add new server) and paste:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whatfontis": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@whatfontis/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "WFI_API_KEY": "wfi_mcp_YOUR_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor; the tool shows up in @-mentions.

Open the MCP servers JSON for your client and add the same block as above. Cline's path is the Settings UI; Continue uses ~/.continue/config.json under mcpServers.

If your MCP client lives in a sandbox without npx, install globally first: npm i -g @whatfontis/mcp and point command at the binary directly.

The tool

`identify_font`

Identify a font from an image URL or a base64 image and return a ranked list of matches.

Input

{
  "image_url":     "https://example.com/sample.png",
  "image_base64":  null,
  "text":          "Hello"
}

Pass either image_url (publicly fetchable PNG/JPG) or image_base64 (raw or data-URI). text is an optional hint about what's written in the image; helps the matcher pick correct letters when the image is ambiguous.

Output

[
  {
    "title":  "Matura MT Std",
    "url":    "https://www.whatfontis.com/Matura-MT-Std.font",
    "image":  "https://d1ly52g9wjvbd2.cloudfront.net/img16/M/A/Matura-MT-StdA.png",
    "image1": "https://d1ly52g9wjvbd2.cloudfront.net/img16/M/A/Matura-MT-Stda.png",
    "image2": "https://d1ly52g9wjvbd2.cloudfront.net/img16/M/A/Matura-MT-Std0.png",
    "type":   "Commercial",
    "site":   "Myfonts.com"
  },
  ...
]

title is the font name. url links to the WhatFontIs details page (with download / license info). image is the uppercase preview, image1 the lowercase, image2 a digit sample. type is "Free" or "Commercial"; site is the source catalog (Myfonts.com, FFonts.net, Adobe, Creative Fabrica, …). Results are returned in match-quality order.

Pricing

FREE

200 / day

After signup, every account gets 200 identifications per day, reset at 00:00 UTC.

PREPAID CREDITS

$1 = 1,000 credits

Flat rate. Credits never expire. Used only after your free 200/day is exhausted. Pay via card or PayPal (Braintree).

ENTERPRISE

Custom

100k+ requests / month, dedicated SLA, custom licensing. Contact us.

FAQ

Where does my API key live?

It's stored in your MCP client config file on your own machine (e.g. ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop). The MCP server runs locally and sends your key only to www.whatfontis.com over HTTPS. Anthropic, Cursor, etc. never see it.

Can I have multiple keys?

Yes — one primary key (carries your daily quota) plus up to nine secondary keys for organising different devices (laptop, work machine, CI, etc.). All keys share the same per-user quota and credit balance — secondaries are just labels you can revoke individually without rotating the primary.

Does the MCP server work offline?

No — it forwards requests to www.whatfontis.com, so it needs an internet connection. The actual font matching (char detection + ML) runs on our servers.

What does “daily free quota applies BEFORE credits” mean?

Your first 200 requests of the day are always free, regardless of how many credits you have. Only the 201st request (and onward) deducts from your prepaid balance — one credit per request. If both your daily quota AND credits run out, you'll get a 402 quota_exceeded response.

Is there a refund policy on credits?

Credits never expire, so unused balance stays on your account indefinitely. For accidental top-ups within 7 days, contact us for a manual reversal.

Can I host the MCP server myself?

Yes — the npm package source is at github.com/whatfontis/wfi-mcp (MIT). Set WFI_BASE_URL to point at a self-hosted clone if you want full network control.