MCP server: tab focus required, breaks with open plugin

Help us improve Penpot
1

Setup

  • Penpot in browser (Chrome), macOS 15
  • penpot-mcp (Python stdio, Claude Code)

Issue 1 — Tab must stay focused at all times (most critical)

The MCP server drops connection whenever the Penpot browser tab loses focus. Switching to any other app breaks it. This
blocks all multitasking — you must stare at Penpot the entire time. Especially painful during long operations (100+
components, several minutes) but applies constantly.

Issue 2 — Opening a plugin silently breaks MCP

Opening any plugin in Penpot silently breaks the MCP server. The client still reports “connected” but all calls fail with
Server not initialized. No error is shown anywhere.

Issue 3 — Page reload required to recover

Closing the plugin does NOT restore the MCP connection. Only a full page reload works. Plugin sessions and MCP sessions
are mutually exclusive — every switch requires a full reload.

Question: Are these known limitations? Any workarounds?

2

Hi Ismail, we’re looking into this. I had a chat about this with @juan.delacruz to see if we can polish the remote version of the MCP server. We’re targetting 2.16.1 for this (we first need to publish 2.16.0 and we can’t block that process right now). We might reach out to you to double check some hypothesis. Thanks!