gst-mcp

MCP server for GStreamer introspection and pipeline development. Helps LLMs understand GStreamer elements, caps, and pipeline construction.

Installation

From PyPI (recommended)

# Using uvx (no install needed)
uvx gst-mcp

# Or install globally
uv tool install gst-mcp

# Or with pip
pip install gst-mcp

From source

git clone https://github.com/wizenink/gst-mcp
cd gst-mcp
uv sync

System Requirements

• Python 3.13+
• GStreamer 1.0 with development files
• PyGObject (GStreamer Python bindings)

On Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S gstreamer gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good python-gobject

On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good python3-gi

Usage with Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gstreamer": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["gst-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or if installed from source:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gstreamer": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/path/to/gst-mcp", "run", "gst-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Registry Introspection

• list_elements - List elements by category (source, sink, decoder, encoder, muxer, demuxer, filter, parser)
• get_element_info - Get detailed element info (properties, pads, caps templates, signals)
• list_plugins - List all installed GStreamer plugins
• get_plugin_info - Get plugin details and its elements
• search_elements - Search elements by name, description, or caps

Caps & Negotiation

• parse_caps - Parse caps string to structured info
• check_caps_compatible - Check if two caps can intersect
• check_elements_can_link - Check if elements can link based on pad caps
• suggest_converter - Suggest converter elements for incompatible elements

Pipeline Tools

• validate_pipeline - Validate pipeline syntax with error suggestions
• run_pipeline - Execute pipeline (sync with timeout or async)
• get_pipeline_status - Get status of running pipeline
• stop_pipeline - Stop a running pipeline
• list_running_pipelines - List all running pipelines
• get_pipeline_graph - Generate DOT graph of pipeline

Documentation & Examples

• get_examples - Pipeline examples by category (playback, transcoding, streaming, capture, effects, testing, analysis)
• fetch_online_docs - Fetch element documentation from GStreamer website

Example Queries

Ask Claude:

• "What elements can decode H.264 video?"
• "Can I link videotestsrc directly to x264enc?"
• "How do I create a pipeline to transcode MP4 to WebM?"
• "What properties does the compositor element have?"
• "Show me examples of RTMP streaming pipelines"

License

MIT