Automation

Everything RustFig does is a command with an id (for example shape.rectangle, transform.rotate, tool.chop). The menus, keys and mode buttons all run commands, and so can programs.

• The command list: Help > RustFig Reference shows every command with its id, parameters and shortcut. It is also the reference for the other routes.
• Control channel: start with rustfig --control 7979 FILE.fig and send JSON lines to 127.0.0.1:7979: {"id":1,"method":"engine.execute","params":{"command":"shape.rectangle","params":{"x":600,"y":600,"width":1200,"height":600}}}. Other methods list commands, run user-interface commands such as help.open, report the window state or take a screenshot. --background opens the window without taking the keyboard focus.
• MCP: rustfig-cli mcp is a Model Context Protocol server over standard input and output, so an AI assistant can draw and edit figures with the same commands, and render the result.
• Command line: rustfig-cli convert in.fig out.pdf converts files, rustfig-cli info FILE describes one, and rustfig fig2dev ARGS (or running the program under the name fig2dev) is fig2dev's own command line (fig2dev -L eps in.fig out.eps), whose options are documented in fig2dev's manual page; fig2dev -h lists the general options, fig2dev -h -L eps adds those of one language.

Coordinates in commands are Fig units: 1200 per inch, 450 per centimetre in metric drawings, y growing downwards. Mutating commands are atomic and one undo step each.

To open a manual page from a script: {"method":"ui.run","params":{"command":"help.open","params":{"topic":"chop.md"}}}.