Erd Editor vs Glazecalc
A side-by-side look at the Erd Editor and Glazecalc MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Erd Editor for developer tools work as a local process; choose Glazecalc for developer tools over a hosted endpoint. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose Erd Editor when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- Its auth model fits you: No auth required.
- You want tools like
erd_list_documents, erd_open_document, erd_save.
Choose Glazecalc when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
- You prefer a remote HTTP/SSE transport.
- You want tools like
search_materials, get_material, analyze_recipe.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| Quality signal | 71/100 · Great | 72/100 · Great |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Remote HTTP/SSE |
| Auth | No auth required | Not declared |
| Pricing | Free | Not declared |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 1,730 | 0 |
| Directory activity | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 77 | 33 |
| Full listing | View Erd Editor | View Glazecalc |
Tools & capabilities
Erd Editor tools 77
erd_list_documentsLists ERD documents with path, open, active, dirty and readonly. With an editor serving the working directory (the VS Code extension, the Obsidian plugin or the JetBrains IDE plugin) it lists that editor's, every open project's in a JetBrains IDE; otherwise the ERD files under the working directory.erd_open_documentOpens a document for editing, in the ERD editor of the editor that serves it, if one does (the VS Code extension, the Obsidian plugin or the JetBrains IDE plugin). With create it makes the file first if missing; a name with no extension gets .erd.json.erd_saveSaves a document an editor holds to disk. VS Code keeps edits unsaved until this is called; Obsidian and JetBrains IDEs save them as they save the user’s edits, and this writes them at once. On disk, with no editor, edits are written at once and this does nothing.erd_undoReverts the last edit this agent made to the document, never the user’s edits. Calls that made no undo entry are skipped and named.erd_redoApplies again the edit erd_undo last reverted.erd_readReads a document as a snapshot, as DDL, as its raw JSON or, with the scripts format, its before and after scripts alone. The sql format of the whole document includes the document's before and after scripts. The sql format with tableIds, tableNames or groupNames gives the DDL of just those tables, the way to read a large schema; a read too large for one answer is refused with how to narrow it. For ids and details prefer erd_list and erd_get. Change a document only through the erd_ tools, never by writing its file.erd_listLists a document: its settings and counts, then a page of tables, each with its id, position and size on the ERD canvas (the width approximate, the height exact), with their indexes and relationships (each relationship once, with one of its tables) and, for a table in a table group or with a logical name, its groupId or logicalName; after the tables come the table groups, the memos, then the rows of the domain, term and word dictionaries, each with its name and what it gives a physical name or column. A small schema fits in one page. On a larger one, nextOffset and note say how to go on: query finds tables by a word, namesOnly lists every table name in a call or a few. Columns, comments, memo text, the tables of a group and every field of a dictionary row come from erd_get; the foreign keys a table holds, from erd_read sql with tableNames.erd_getGives the entities named, in full: tables with their columns and size, relationships with their columns, indexes with their columns, memos with their text, table groups with their tables, and words, terms and domains with every field. Ids and names that name nothing live are listed in missing; ids one answer has no room for are listed in notReturned, to ask for again.erd_list_checksLists what the word, term and domain dictionaries find, as the Checks sheet of the editor's Dictionary tab does, and changes nothing. Errors: a name two rows of one dictionary share, a link to a domain the document does not list, a forbidden word in a logical name or a term's name. Warnings: a word no dictionary lists, a synonym used for a standard word, each in a logical name or a term's name, a physical name other than the one the term of its logical name gives, a column type other than its domain's. Each check names its target (a table, a column with its table, or a word, term or domain row) with its names, the field read, the text found and, where the dictionaries have them, the suggestions to use instead, and counts gives each code's total. The words, terms and domains come first in sheet order, then each table and its columns in document order. With no dictionary row nothing is checked. A long list comes a page at a time: pass nextOffset, or list again from offset 0 after fixing some, since a fixed check leaves the list.erd_add_tableAdds an empty table at a free spot and returns its id in createdIds. Name it with erd_change_table_name.erd_remove_tableRemoves a table with its columns, indexes and every relationship that touches it.erd_change_table_nameRenames a table. The name is then its own: nameDerived goes off, so a later logical name leaves a name that is not empty as it is.- +65 more on the listing page
Glazecalc tools 33
search_materialsFinds ceramic raw materials (feldspars, clays, frits, fluxes) and, if asked, colorants in Glazecalc's library by name, alias or maker. Use it to find the exact name the other tools take.get_materialOne material from Glazecalc's library: its oxides, loss on ignition, whether it is discontinued and what replaces it, where it is sold, hazards and the data sheet it comes from.analyze_recipeWorks out a glaze recipe's unity (Seger) formula, oxide groups, silica to alumina ratio, fired analysis, loss on ignition and calculated thermal expansion, as the Glazecalc app does. stull says where the recipe sits on Stull's chart (1912, as the recipe page draws it): silica and alumina in moles, the region (unfused, matte, semi-matte, bright or underfired) and whether it falls in the crazed area; a guide to the surface, not a promise.check_limitsChecks a glaze recipe for what is past a recommended limit for its firing (too much boron or alkali, too little alumina, too little or too much clay, rising expansion...) and says what the fired glaze will likely do, as the Glazecalc app does. A cone is checked in the band the recipe page gives it (low cone 06-02, mid 1-7, high 8-11); from cone 12 up (band 'top') no published limits reach, so the band's limits are not checked and limitsNote says so. With a firing, coneFit says whether the chemistry looks like that firing's, by Katz's boron rule and Hesselberth & Roy's silica and alumina whatever limit set is chosen: verdict 'cooler' or 'hotter' only when boron and silica or alumina agree on another band; 'fits' (nothing points away, not a pass); 'skipped' where the published figures do not reach (lead, lithium, much soda and potash or zinc, raku, cones 01 to 3, cooler than cone 06 or hotter than cone 10...). Cone 6 against cone 10 is told apart only roughly (strength 'soft'). stull says where the recipe sits on Stull's chart, as analyze_recipe gives it. These are cautions and guides from published figures, not a test and not a guarantee of food safety.convert_cone_temperatureConverts between a pyrometric cone and its temperature, and between °C and °F. Orton cones run 022 to 42: Glazecalc's figure, from 022 to 15, is Orton's older chart for large cones at 150 °C an hour, and Orton's current figures (self-supporting cones at 15, 60 and 150 °C an hour, large cones at 60 and 150, cone 022 to 14) come beside it; Orton publishes no figure above cone 14, so cones from 16 up have none. SK cones (JIS R 8101, SK 022 to SK 20) by the standard's nominal figures. Give a cone, or a temperature to find the nearest cones.suggest_substitutesFinds the discontinued or scarce materials in a recipe and the modern ones that replace them, then suggests amounts that keep the unity formula as near as the materials allow, as the Glazecalc app does. report.closeness says how near the new unity formula comes to the old, oxide by oxide, as match_from_materials does. Test any suggestion before using it.match_from_materialsRemakes a glaze recipe from only the materials listed in "have", keeping its unity formula as near as they allow, as Match with what I have does in the Glazecalc app. report.closeness says how near the new unity formula comes to the old, oxide by oxide: close (within 0.02, or 5% of a large amount such as silica's), off, or far (more than three times that), with a verdict (close, fair or poor) and a summary. report.miss and report.best are the solver's own scores, for comparing runs. Raw clay is held to 20% of the batch where that costs the match little (report.capped and allowMore say more). Test any suggestion before using it.solve_targetMakes a glaze recipe, in percent, from the materials given whose unity formula comes as near a target as they allow (Solve for a target in the Glazecalc app). The target is a unity formula (moles; the fluxes are scaled to add up to 1) or an oxide analysis (percent by weight of the fired glaze), with potash and soda apart. Give the materials by their library names, or onHand for the materials on the person’s shelf (with a token or connected app that may read it). closeness says how near each oxide comes: close (within 0.02, or 5% of a large amount such as silica’s), off, or far (more than three times that), with a verdict (close, fair or poor) and a summary; unreachable names the target’s oxides nothing given supplies. Raw clay is held to 20% of the batch where that costs the match little (capped and allowMore say more). Test any recipe before using it.blend_recipesWorks out the test tiles of a line blend between recipes a and b (2 to 11 steps), or of a triaxial blend when c is given too (2 to 6 rows, up to 21 tiles), as the Blends page of the Glazecalc app does. Each tile is a mix of the corner recipes, each taken as a percent of its base: its shares, its recipe in percent, its key unity formula figures (silica, alumina, boron, the fluxes), silica to alumina, calculated expansion, its place on the Stull chart (stull), the names of the limit cautions it has, and, with a firing, whether its chemistry fits that firing (coneFit verdict). With two recipes and steps 2 it compares them oxide by oxide (differences). Give base materials only, no colorants. This is a calculation from published figures, not a test result: the tiles, fired, decide, and the cautions are guides, not a guarantee of food safety.vary_materialShows what one material does to a glaze, by putting more and more of it into a base recipe (an ingredient blend or progression test: whiting 0 to 20, say, in 2 to 11 tiles). With mode "add" (the default) it goes on top of the base, so the recipe grows; with mode "replace" the same amount comes out of another material of the base (`instead`), so the total stays the same. Each tile has its amount of the material, its recipe in percent, its key unity formula figures (silica, alumina, boron, the fluxes), silica to alumina, calculated expansion, its place on Stull's chart (stull: region, crazed), the names of the limit cautions it has, and, with a firing, whether its chemistry fits that firing (coneFit verdict). trend sums up what moves from the first tile to the last, and which Stull regions the tiles cross. Give base materials only, no colorants. This is a calculation from published figures, not a test result: the tiles, fired, decide, and the cautions are guides, not a guarantee of food safety.compare_recipesCompares two glaze recipes side by side: for each, its recipe in percent, key unity formula figures, silica to alumina, calculated expansion, place on Stull's chart (stull), the names of the limit cautions it has and, with a firing, whether its chemistry fits that firing (coneFit verdict); then what changes from A to B oxide by oxide (differences), and which materials are in A only, in B only, or in both, with their percents. It is the same comparison blend_recipes makes with two recipes and two steps, under a name that is easy to find. Give base materials only, no colorants. This is a calculation from published figures, not a test result: fire both, and the tiles decide.search_guidesSearches Glazecalc's plain-language guides for potters (glazing from first principles, making a glaze, safe mixing, safety at home with children and pets, firing a kiln, and a companion to John Britt's free glaze course, in English only) in the language asked for, or in English where that language has no match. Returns each matching section's title, anchor, a short excerpt, its address on the website and its resource URI, which resources/read returns in full. Use it for glaze defects, safety, firing and terms, and cite the address.- +21 more on the listing page
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
Erd Editor
{
"mcpServers": {
"erd-editor": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@dineug/erd-editor-mcp"
]
}
}
}
Glazecalc
{
"mcpServers": {
"glazecalc": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"ng"
]
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
Erd Editor is categorized under Developer Tools and uses a local stdio subprocess. Glazecalc belongs to Developer Tools and uses a remote HTTP/SSE transport. Pick Erd Editor for developer tools work and Glazecalc for developer tools.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.
Erd Editor is listed as free. Auth: no auth required. Glazecalc has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add erd-editor and glazecalc as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, Erd Editor has a quality signal of 71/100 (Great) with 1 views, 0 installs and 1,730 GitHub stars. Glazecalc has 72/100 (Great) with 0 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars.