MCP Server installation on Microsoft Windows

Overview

This guide covers the installation of CAST Imaging MCP Server on Microsoft Windows. It’s intended for:

  • Direct installation on Microsoft Windows
  • new installations (i.e. from scratch)
  • in-place updates to a new release

The installation package com.castsoftware.imaging.mcpserver external link includes an installation script (.bat file), various configuration files and the binaries themselves.

Requirements

MCP Server is a standalone component and can therefore be installed wherever convenient in your local environment, e.g. on a dedicated machine, or on a machine already used by other CAST Imaging components.

When using a dedicated machine, CAST recommends following the general hardware and software requirements but note that the component does not require:

  • a Java JRE/JDK

Other requirements:

  • MCP Server runs as a Microsoft Windows service on TCP port 8282 although you can change this in the configuration.conf file (see below). You may therefore need to adjust firewall rules to allow incoming and outgoing connections to this port
  • see software requirements for more information about supported Microsoft Windows OS versions
  • a minimum of 2GB free disk space
  • CAST Imaging ≥ 3.4.1 installed and functioning (MCP Server interacts with the imaging-services component) in your network
  • a MCP-aware client such as GitHub Copilot (Visual Studio Code), Claude Desktop etc.
  • a CAST Imaging API key, see Generating an API key

What’s new?

See the release notes.

Installation process

Step 1 - Verify connection to CAST Imaging

Before proceeding, ensure you can access CAST Imaging (the imaging-services component) from the machine where you intend to install MCP Server by running the following (tailored to your own environment):

curl -H "x-api-key: <your-imaging-api-key>" http://<your_imaging_public_URL>:8090/rest/ready

The expected output is true.

Step 2 - Download the installation media

Download the latest release of the installer (com.castsoftware.imaging.mcpserver external link) and unzip it anywhere on your local disk. The following files/folders will be created:

com.castsoftware.imaging.mcpserver.<version>/
├── mcpserver
├── tools
├── configuration.conf
├── mcp-server-installer.bat
├── README.md

Step 3 - Configure your installation

Locate the configuration.conf file at the root of the unzipped files. Open the file with a text editor and update the installation variables to match your environment:

HOSTNAME_CONTROL_PANEL="imaging-services machine"      # Required: IP address/hostname/FQDN of the machine on which the "imaging-services" component is installed. You can use localhost if MCP Server is installed on the same machine as the "imaging-services" component.
PORT_CONTROL_PANEL=8098                               # Default port on which the CAST Imaging Control Panel service (part of the "imaging-services" component) is running - unless you have changed this during the CAST Imaging installation, leave it as is
MCP_SERVER_PORT=8282                                  # Default MCP server listening port
INSTALL_DIR=C:\Program Files\CAST\Imaging-MCP-Server  # Default installation location
CONFIG_DIR=C:\ProgramData\CAST\Imaging-MCP-Server     # Default Config setting files location
IMAGING_PAGE_SIZE=1000                                # Sets the number of records the MCP server fetches per request (internal batching).
IMAGING_DISPLAY_PAGE_SIZE=20                          # Sets how many records are shown per page in the user-facing response
IMAGING_CODE=False                                    # Defines whether the application source code is accessible to the MCP Server or not: when it is set to False source code (from the Imaging analysis results) cannot be accessed by the MCP Server and therefore source code will not figure in any results returned by MCP server

Step 4 - Run the installation

Open a CMD window with elevated permissions (right click, Run as administrator) and execute the following command from the root of the unzipped files:

mcp-server-installer.bat --install configuration.conf

On completion, check that a Microsoft Windows service named CAST Imaging MCP Server has been created and is up and running.

Step 5 - Configure an MCP-Aware client

Create a mcp.json configuration file for your MCP-aware client. The storage location for this file depends on your client:

  • GitHub Copilot (Visual Studio Code): .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace
  • Claude Desktop: Client-specific configuration directory

The mcp.json must use the following template, where "url" is the IP address/hostname/FQDN and port number (8282 by default) of the machine hosting the MCP Server:

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "imaging-key",
      "type": "promptString",
      "description": "Imaging API Key"
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "imaging": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://<your-mcp-server-host:port>/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "imaging_api_key": "${input:imaging-key}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 6 - Test your MCP-Aware client

  1. Launch your MCP-aware client
  2. Enter your CAST Imaging API key when prompted
  3. Run a test query, for example:
List all applications

or:

List 5 transactions for application <your-application-name>

If successful (see below), you’re ready to use your MCP Client with your MCP Server.

Success indicators

✅ Connection successful if you receive:

  • Valid application listings
  • Architectural insights
  • Suggested analysis queries

❌ Check configuration if you see:

  • Connection errors
  • Authentication failures
  • Empty responses

Example queries

Basic application information

List all applications

Transaction analysis

List all applications transactions
Show 10 transactions for application MyApp

Data flow analysis

List available applications datagraphs
Show data graphs for application MyApp

Quality insights

List applications insights
Show quality issues for application MyApp

Architectural analysis

Analyze the architecture of MyApp
Show dependencies for MyApp

Troubleshooting

  1. Check the Microsoft Windows service CAST Imaging MCP Server and restart it if required.
  2. Check MCP Server logs in:
%INSTALL_DIRECTORY%/logs
  1. Test connectivity to CAST Imaging API:
curl -H "x-api-key: <your-imaging-api-key>" http://<your_imaging_public_URL>:8090/rest/ready
  1. Validate configuration files:
  • Check %PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\Imaging-MCP-Server\mcpserver\conf\app.config
  • Ensure "url" parameter in the client mcp.json points to correct URL
  1. Regenerate API key in CAST Imaging profile if necessary.

Update process

The installation media contains a dedicated update option allowing you to run an in-place update to a new release of CAST MCP Server:

  • Download the new installation media for the target release
  • Unzip the installation media (it is NOT necessary to modify the configuration.conf file - all existing settings are preserved).
  • Open a CMD window with elevated permissions (right click, Run as administrator) and execute the following command from the root of the unzipped files:
mcp-server-installer.bat --update

Uninstall process

The installation media contains a dedicated uninstall option: to run it, open a CMD window with elevated permissions (right click, Run as administrator) and execute the following command from the root of the unzipped files:

mcp-server-installer.bat --uninstall