FreeSurfer (Claude Skill)

Process structural MRI data (T1w, T2w, FLAIR, etc.) with FreeSurfer, especially for cortical/subcortical segmentation, surface reconstruction, parcellation, cortical thickness, volume statistics, or full recon-all pipeline.


Type	Claude Skill
Supplier	CUHK-AIM-Group (community OSS, MIT)
Availability	GA — part of the NeuroClaw neuroimaging skill library
Pricing	Free / OSS (MIT)
Capabilities	Read/Write — Claude runs the skill’s Python locally (Bash), not as an MCP tool

How to install

Claude Code — clone and copy the skill into your skills directory:
```
git clone https://github.com/CUHK-AIM-Group/NeuroClaw
cp -r NeuroClaw/skills/freesurfer-tool ~/.claude/skills/
```
Project-scoped alternative: copy into .claude/skills/ instead. NeuroClaw skills assume the collection’s shared helpers (claw-shell, modality tool skills) and the upstream neuroimaging stack (FreeSurfer/FSL/fMRIPrep/etc.) — install those dependencies, or run the bundled installer for the full environment:
```
cd NeuroClaw && python installer/setup.py
```
which configures the Python env, CUDA/GPU, and the neuroimaging tools.

What it does

Use this skill whenever the user wants to process structural MRI data (T1w, T2w, FLAIR, etc.) with FreeSurfer, especially for cortical/subcortical segmentation, surface reconstruction, parcellation, cortical thickness, volume statistics, or full recon-all pipeline. Triggers include: ‘freesurfer’, ‘recon-all’, ‘segment MRI’, ‘FreeSurfer processing’, ‘cortical segmentation’, ‘subcortical segmentation’, ‘run recon-all’, ‘freesurfer T1’, ‘process brain MRI with freesurfer’, ‘aseg aparc’, or any request to run FreeSurfer on NIfTI MRI data for research analysis.

Primary use cases: ‘freesurfer’, ‘recon-all’, ‘segment MRI’, ‘FreeSurfer processing’, ‘cortical segmentation’, ‘subcortical segmentation’, ‘run recon-all’, ‘freesurfer T1’, ‘process brain MRI with freesurfer’, ‘aseg aparc’, or any request to run FreeSurfer on NIfTI MRI data for research analysis.

Notes

Distributed as a SKILL.md (plus code examples) in the NeuroClaw skill library — Claude executes it locally via Bash/Python rather than as an MCP server. Upstream license: MIT. The skill directory upstream is skills/freesurfer-tool.

Sources

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