Maya Control Panel¶

The Maya Control Panel is optional. It runs inside Maya and gives you a small UI for managing the Maya-side commandPort.

Use it if you want a button-driven setup instead of opening commandPort from the Script Editor.

What It Does¶

open or close commandPort
change the port number
remember local preferences
optionally auto-start on Maya launch

It does not replace the external MCP server. The panel lives inside Maya; the MCP server still runs as a separate process.

Compatibility¶

Maya version	Qt binding
Maya 2022-2024	`PySide2`
Maya 2025+	`PySide6`

Open the Panel¶

Run this in Maya:

from maya_mcp.maya_panel import show_panel

show_panel()

Typical Workflow¶

Open the panel in Maya
Start commandPort
Confirm the port matches your client or server config
Start your MCP client and call health.check

Auto-Start on Maya Launch¶

The repo includes an example scripts/userSetup.py.

Place it in Maya's scripts directory for your version:

Platform	Example path
Windows	`Documents/maya/<version>/scripts/userSetup.py`
macOS	`~/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/<version>/scripts/userSetup.py`
Linux	`~/maya/<version>/scripts/userSetup.py`

If you already have a userSetup.py, merge only the parts you need.

Preferences Helpers¶

from maya_mcp.maya_panel.preferences import (
    get_all_preferences,
    get_auto_start,
    get_port,
    reset_preferences,
    set_auto_start,
    set_port,
)

Common use:

set_port(7002)
set_auto_start(True)
print(get_all_preferences())

Controller Helpers¶

from maya_mcp.maya_panel.controller import (
    close_command_port,
    get_port_status,
    is_command_port_open,
    open_command_port,
    toggle_command_port,
)

Common use:

open_command_port(7001)
print(is_command_port_open(7001))
print(get_port_status(7001))
close_command_port(7001)

Troubleshooting¶

If the panel does not appear:

import maya_mcp
print(maya_mcp.__file__)

If commandPort will not open:

import maya.cmds as cmds
print(cmds.commandPort(query=True, listPorts=True))

If auto-start is not working:

from maya_mcp.maya_panel.preferences import get_all_preferences

print(get_all_preferences())