mcp-score

Music notation for AI assistants. Describe a piece in plain language and get a MusicXML score; with MuseScore open, read and edit the live score by conversation.

Works with any MCP client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, LM Studio, and others). Status: beta.

Quick demo

"Create a big band chart: 32-bar AABA form, key of Bb, slow blues at 66 BPM, with rhythm changes and rehearsal marks at each section."

The assistant writes a complete music21 script, runs it, and hands you a MusicXML file ready to open in MuseScore, Dorico, or any notation app.

With the MuseScore plugin running, you can go further:

"Read the melody in bars 9-16 and arrange it as a trombone soli following the chord progression."

The assistant reads the live score, applies musical judgement, and writes the arrangement back, all through conversation.

What it does

• Generate scores. The assistant writes a music21 script that exports MusicXML, which opens in MuseScore, Dorico, or any notation app. In Claude Code this is driven by the bundled score-generate skill. In other MCP clients, the generate_score tool runs the script and score_generation_guide supplies the same instructions.
• Edit live scores. MCP tools connect to a running MuseScore and read passages, add notes, dynamics and chord symbols, set barlines, keys, time signatures and tempo, append measures, transpose, and undo.
• Render. The render_score tool exports PDF, PNG, MIDI or audio from a score file through the MuseScore command line; MuseScore must be installed but not running.

Supported applications

Install

Requires Python 3.14 or later.

pip install mcp-score-server
# or
uv tool install mcp-score-server

Then:

mcp-score install-plugin   # MuseScore plugin, for live editing
mcp-score install-skill    # score-generate skill, for Claude Code

Connect your MCP client

Claude Code:

claude mcp add mcp-score -- mcp-score serve

Claude Desktop and other clients: run the command mcp-score with the argument serve, for example in claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-score": { "command": "mcp-score", "args": ["serve"] }
  }
}

Use it with MuseScore

1. Open a score in MuseScore Studio 4.4.2 or later.
2. Plugins > Manage plugins > enable MCP Score Bridge, then Plugins > MCP Score Bridge. Keep its window open.
3. Ask your assistant to connect to MuseScore.

Details and troubleshooting: MuseScore plugin.

Documentation

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Built in spare time, largely with Claude Code, and reviewed by a human before merge.

Author

Thomas Skovlund Hansen — skovlund.dev · thomas@skovlund.dev

License

MIT