add-printer

Add Printer

Register a printer on the CUPS server. Requires the printer's network URI and optional driver specification.

When to use

• User has a new printer on the network and wants to add it to CUPS
• Printer discovered via Bonjour or ARP but not yet registered
• Moving a printer to a new server

Inputs to gather

• name — friendly name for the printer (required, e.g. "Office-HP-LaserJet")
• uri — network URI (required, e.g. ipp://printer.lan:631/ipp/print or socket://192.168.1.50:9100)
• driver — driver name (optional; CUPS auto-detects if unset, e.g. "drv:///sample.drv/generic.ppd")

Procedure

1. Pre-flight warning. Inform the user:

   Adding a printer to CUPS requires lpadmin group or sudo privilege on the CUPS server.
   If this fails, you may need to:
   - Add your user to the lpadmin group on the server: sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin <user>
   - Or provide a password when prompted for sudo.
   

2. Call MCP tool add_printer with name, uri, and optional driver. The MCP server is network-cups (registered in .mcp.json).

3. Report result. On success:

   Printer added: <name> at <uri>.
   Run list-printers to verify.
   

4. On failure, emit the MCP error and suggest:

   • Check the URI is correct (ping the host, verify port).
   • Verify sudo/lpadmin privilege on the CUPS server.
   • Check the CUPS daemon is running on the server: systemctl status cups.
   • Run diagnose-network-printing to check CUPS connectivity.

Output / side effects

• Printer registered on the CUPS server.
• No local files modified.
• Note: This operation runs on the CUPS server, not the client machine.

Safety / constraints

• Requires privilege (lpadmin or sudo) on the CUPS server.
• Errors are usually privilege or network-related; local errors suggest the MCP server itself is misconfigured.
• Confirm the URI format before submitting; incorrect URIs cannot be edited after addition and must be removed/re-added.