Updating the CAST Imaging API

Overview

The CAST Imaging MCP Server is regularly updated (see the release notes) and releases more frequently than CAST Imaging itself. Because the CAST Imaging API is bundled with each CAST Imaging release, it can lag behind the MCP Server - potentially preventing users from adopting the latest MCP Server version without a full CAST Imaging update.

To address this, the CAST Imaging API can be updated independently:

via a standalone update installer on Microsoft Windows
by updating the image tag in your Docker/Podman environment

To understand whether you need to update your CAST Imaging API, you should consult the MCP Server and CAST Imaging compatibility matrix for Microsoft Windows and for Linux/Docker/Podman.

CAST Imaging will continue to ship with the APIs bundled as before. The standalone installer (Windows) and image tag update (Docker/Podman) are additional options for customers who need to update their APIs component without a full CAST Imaging update.

Updating the CAST Imaging API cannot be reversed - it is not currently possible to downgrade back to the API version bundled with your CAST Imaging installation without re-installing CAST Imaging.

API update process

Prerequisites

An installation of CAST Imaging (and Imaging APIs) must already be present on the system.
Version downgrades are not supported - the API update installer only allows updates.

Microsoft Windows

On the machine hosting the imaging-viewer component, download the CAST Imaging APIs standalone installer .zip from https://extend.castsoftware.com/#/extension?id=com.castsoftware.imaging.apis&version=latest
Extract the .zip file. The extracted folder contains imaging-apis-installer.bat.
Run the update: Open PowerShell or Command Prompt as Administrator and navigate to the extracted folder:

cd path\to\com.castsoftware.imaging.apis.<version>

Then run:

imaging-apis-installer.bat --update

Administrator privileges are required. The installer will verify this automatically.

Docker/Linux

For Docker-based deployments, no standalone installer is required. On the machine hosting the imaging-viewer component, edit your .env file located here:

$ cd /opt/cast/installation/imaging-viewer/

Then update the imaging_apis image tag to the desired version:

IMAGING_API_IMAGE_TAG=<version>

Then pull and restart the service:

docker compose pull imaging_apis
docker compose up -d imaging_apis

Post API update

Once the APIs have been updated, it is recommended to restart the CAST Imaging MCP Server.