ableton-live-mcp 0.1.0

Control Ableton Live with AI through the Model Context Protocol

Ableton Live MCP

MCP Server for Ableton Live, to let AI agents control or inspect Ableton. This is just an experiment, please don't take it too seriously.

Quick Start

1. Install uv if you don't have it
2. Install Remote Script: Copy the ableton/ folder into Ableton's MIDI Remote Scripts directory as AbletonLiveMCP/ (see detailed instructions below)
3. Enable in Ableton: Settings > Link, Tempo & MIDI > Control Surface > AbletonLiveMCP
4. Connect Claude: pick one method from Setup below
5. Go: Ask Claude to do something in Ableton

How It Works

Claude  →  MCP Server  →  TCP :16619  →  Remote Script (inside Ableton)
                                              ↓
                                        exec(python_code)
                                              ↓
                                     Live Object Model
                                   (song, tracks, clips, devices, browser...)

The Remote Script runs inside Ableton's embedded Python interpreter. Claude sends Python code as a string, the Remote Script exec()s it with the full Live API in scope, and returns the serialized result. There are no predefined commands — anything the Live API supports is available immediately.

What Claude Can Do

# Read session state
song.tempo                                        # → 120.0
[(i, t.name) for i, t in enumerate(song.tracks)]  # → [(0, "Bass"), (1, "Drums"), ...]

# Modify session
song.tempo = 140
song.tracks[0].name = "Lead Synth"

# Create tracks and clips
song.create_midi_track(-1)
song.tracks[-1].clip_slots[0].create_clip(4.0)

# Write MIDI notes (MidiNoteSpecification is in scope, no import needed)
clip = song.tracks[0].clip_slots[0].clip
clip.add_new_notes(tuple([
    MidiNoteSpecification(pitch=60, start_time=0.0, duration=0.5, velocity=100),
    MidiNoteSpecification(pitch=64, start_time=1.0, duration=0.5, velocity=90),
]))

# Find and load instruments (find_item, find_items, find_track, load_to are in scope)
load_to(song.tracks[0], browser.instruments, "Grand Piano")
load_to(find_track("Drums"), browser.drums, "808")

# Control transport
song.start_playing()
song.stop_playing()
song.tracks[0].clip_slots[0].fire()

# Mix
find_track("Bass").mixer_device.volume.value = 0.7
song.tracks[0].mixer_device.panning.value = -0.3

Prerequisites

• Ableton Live 11+ (uses the extended MIDI note API)
• uv — handles Python and dependencies automatically

Install uv

macOS/Linux:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Windows:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

You do not need to install Python separately — uv manages that for you.

Setup

1. Install the Remote Script

The Remote Script runs inside Ableton. It needs to be in Ableton's MIDI Remote Scripts directory.

Option A — Download just the Remote Script (if you're using uvx and don't need the full repo):

Download ableton/__init__.py from this repo and place it in a folder called AbletonLiveMCP inside:

• Windows: C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live XX\Resources\MIDI Remote Scripts\
• macOS: Right-click Ableton Live > Show Package Contents > Contents/App-Resources/MIDI Remote Scripts/

Option B — Clone the repo and symlink (recommended for development):

git clone https://github.com/opendining/ableton-mcp-server.git

# Windows (PowerShell, run once)
New-Item -ItemType Junction `
  -Path "C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 12 Intro\Resources\MIDI Remote Scripts\AbletonLiveMCP" `
  -Target "C:\path\to\abletonmcp\ableton"

Then enable in Ableton: Settings > Link, Tempo & MIDI > Control Surface > AbletonLiveMCP (Input/Output: None).

2. Connect Claude

Pick one method. Using multiple at once will start duplicate servers.

Claude Desktop (no clone needed)

Edit your config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "AbletonLiveMCP": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": ["ableton-live-mcp"]
        }
    }
}

Claude Code (no clone needed)

claude mcp add --scope user AbletonLiveMCP -- uvx ableton-live-mcp

Claude Code plugin (clone required)

Auto-starts the MCP server and loads the agent guide skill:

claude --plugin-dir /path/to/abletonmcp

From a cloned repo

If you cloned the repo and want to run from source instead of PyPI:

# Claude Code
claude mcp add --scope user AbletonLiveMCP -- uv run --directory /path/to/abletonmcp ableton-live-mcp

// Claude Desktop
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "AbletonLiveMCP": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/abletonmcp", "ableton-live-mcp"]
        }
    }
}

3. Verify

1. Make sure Ableton is running with AbletonLiveMCP control surface active
2. Start/restart your Claude client
3. The MCP server connects to Ableton automatically on first use

Troubleshooting: Check Ableton's Log.txt for Remote Script errors:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\Log.txt
• macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/Log.txt

MCP Tools

The server exposes three tools:

Tool	Purpose
execute(code)	Send Python code to run inside Ableton. The main tool.
api(class_name?)	Browse the Live API reference by class (Song, Track, Clip, Device, etc.).
search_api(query)	Search the API reference by keyword across all classes.

api and search_api read from a structured API reference. Claude can execute anything the Live API supports, not just what's in the reference.

Execution Scope

Every execute call gets a fresh namespace with:

Variable	What It Is
song	The Live Set — tempo, tracks, scenes, transport
app	The Live Application — browser, version info
tracks	Shortcut for song.tracks (stale after create/delete — use song.tracks or find_track)
returns	song.return_tracks
master	song.master_track
browser	app.browser — instruments, effects, drums, sounds
Live	The Live module — Live.Clip, Live.Device, etc.
MidiNoteSpecification	Live.Clip.MidiNoteSpecification — no import needed
find_item(parent, query)	Search browser tree for best match. Returns BrowserItem or None
find_items(parent, query)	Search browser tree, return ranked list of matches
find_track(name)	Look up a track by name. Returns Track or None
load_to(track, parent, query)	Find a browser item and load it onto a track
log	Write to Ableton's Log.txt
json	The json module
time	The time module

Architecture

See DEVELOPMENT.md for the full technical guide.

Acknowledgments

This project was inspired by ahujasid/ableton-mcp, which pioneered the idea of connecting Ableton Live to AI agents via MCP. That project uses a fixed set of tool-per-action commands (create track, add notes, set tempo, etc.).

This fork takes a different approach inspired by Cloudflare's Code Mode: instead of predefined commands, the agent writes and executes Python directly against Ableton's runtime. A streamlined execution scope with built-in helpers (find_item, find_track, load_to, etc.) and a searchable API reference give the model everything it needs to use the full Live API without being limited to a curated command set.

License

MIT