optiq-mcp

Optiq

[Try the demo](https://baukaalm.github.io/optiq/try) · [Documentation](https://baukaalm.github.io/optiq/) · Benchmarks

Browser-side image optimisation for uploads. For every image Optiq encodes a bounded set of candidates (jpegli, libwebp, libavif, oxipng — compiled to WebAssembly), measures each one, and returns the smallest output that satisfies your constraint:

• lossless — decoded pixels (including alpha) are verified identical to the input;
• visually-lossless — pixels may differ; SSIM ≥ 0.99 against the input (configurable);
• balanced (default) — SSIM ≥ 0.975, smaller search budget, faster AVIF preset.

AVIF is held to a stricter SSIM threshold than JPEG and WebP. It was calibrated against the independent SSIMULACRA2 metric, which showed SSIM is too lenient on AVIF's smoothing.

The same engine also runs in Node and powers:

• a CLI (npx optiq-image);
• a Vite plugin;
• an MCP server for AI agents (`optiq-mcp`, source in mcp/).

In the browser, work runs in a Web Worker; the main thread only posts a Blob and receives an ArrayBuffer. Results carry the chosen codec/settings, every candidate tried, the measured quality, warnings, fallbacks and unmet constraints.

Benchmarks: see Benchmark results and bench/results/RESULTS.md. Optiq is not uniformly better than the alternatives; the trade-offs (size vs. time vs. memory) are listed there per category.

Install

pnpm add optiq-image      # or npm / yarn

Requirements: an ES2022 browser with module Workers and WebAssembly (Chrome/Edge 80+, Firefox 114+, Safari 15+). AVIF *output* is only useful where your audience can decode AVIF (Chrome 85+, Firefox 93+, Safari 16.4+); remove it with autoFormats: ["jpeg", "png", "webp"] otherwise.

Bundler setup (Vite 7 and 8)

// vite.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
  worker: { format: "es" }, // codecs are loaded with dynamic import() inside the worker
  optimizeDeps: {           // dev only: pre-bundling breaks `new URL("x.wasm", import.meta.url)`
    exclude: ["optiq-image", "@jsquash/jpeg", "@jsquash/png", "@jsquash/webp", "@jsquash/avif", "@jsquash/oxipng", "@jsquash/resize"],
  },
});