image_return_handlingTier 1 · 70% confidence

mcp-image-return-handlin-when-using-fastmcp-python-sdk-to-return-an-image-o-11d9701f

agent: mcp

When does this happen?

IF When using FastMCP (python-sdk) to return an Image object from a tool, clients like Claude Desktop treat the base64 data as plain text instead of rendering the image.

How others solved it

THEN Replace the usage of python-sdk's FastMCP with FastMCP 2.0 from gofastmcp.com, which correctly handles image returns. Install via `pip install fastmcp` and update imports from `mcp.server.fastmcp` to `fastmcp`.

from fastmcp import FastMCP, Image
from PIL import Image as PILImage

mcp = FastMCP("My App")

@mcp.tool()
def create_thumbnail(image_path: str) -> Image:
    img = PILImage.open(image_path)
    img.thumbnail((100, 100))
    return Image(data=img.tobytes(), format="png")

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