Ableton MCP – Technoa edition

An MCP server and Ableton Live Remote Script that let an AI assistant (Claude via the Model Context Protocol) see a whole Live set and work in it safely: groups, returns, master, locators, automation state, arrangement notes, routing, sidechains, meters in dBFS, clip automation – plus an undo model you can trust and snapshots that show exactly what changed.

It started as a fork of ahujasid/ableton-mcp and was rebuilt step by step while producing techno with it, with one goal: the assistant should be a real co-producer, not a read-only observer. It cannot hear – listening stays with you.

Status: a one-time public snapshot. It is developed further in a private repo and may be updated here by hand now and then, without promises. Issues and pull requests may go unanswered.

Language: tool descriptions, tool replies and code comments are German. Language models handle that without trouble; this README is English.

What is different from the original

New on top: set snapshots and diffs, undo marks with a foreign-change check, clip automation, groove per range, track routing and sidechain sources, device management (insert, move, duplicate, delete with backup), dBFS meters with a reference track, note fields like velocity_deviation and release_velocity, and guards against overwriting arrangement material.

Related MCP server: io.github.peterkolbe/ableton-for-ai

Tools (59)

Tracks can be given everywhere as index, name (or a unique part of it), A/B for returns, or master. Bars are 1-based, as in Live.

The undo model

Live has one undo history, shared by you and the assistant. So:

• undo only takes back as many steps as the MCP itself created since it started, and names each one (undone: move_device [HAT CLOSED] 'Utility' 1 -> 7). More only with force=true – that would hit your own steps.

• mark_undo("before") before a series, undo_to_mark("before") takes back exactly that series. With a snapshot at the mark, undo_to_mark first re-reads the set and refuses if something changed that no MCP command explains (your hand edit would otherwise be undone instead), and afterwards checks that the marked state is back.

• Solo, arm, loop, playhead and launching clips create no undo step in Live; the reply says so. Setting an automated value overrides the automation; undo restores the value but not the automation – use re_enable_automation.

• delete_device, the arrangement clip delete tools and clear_clip_envelope write the full previous state as JSON next to the server (technoa_mcp/geloeschte_geraete/, technoa_mcp/geloeschte_clips/), in case undo is not enough. Deleting a session clip (delete_clip) has no such backup.

Snapshots

snapshot reads the whole set (tracks, routing, mixer, every device parameter, clips with a content fingerprint, locators, grooves, playhead; ~8 s, changes nothing) and stores it as JSON. snapshot_diff compares two of them – or one against "now" – and lists changes by importance: tracks, routing, devices, automation, mixer, song, parameters, clips. Tracks are matched by name, clips by start position, devices as a chain.

Snapshots are stored per project in snapshots/<project>/ next to technoa_mcp/, or under ABLETON_MCP_SNAPSHOT_DIR. Without project, the project with the newest snapshot is used, otherwise default.

Installation

Tested on Windows 11 with Ableton Live 12.4.6 and 12.4.7 and Python 3.11.9, with Claude Code as client. Other systems and Live versions are untested.

1. Python environment (from the repository folder):

   py -3.11 -m venv venv
   venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Remote Script into Live – with Live closed:

   venv\Scripts\python.exe technoa_mcp\deploy_remote_script.py --check   # where would it go?
   venv\Scripts\python.exe technoa_mcp\deploy_remote_script.py           # install

   It writes only <User Library>\Remote Scripts\AbletonMCP\__init__.py. Default User Library: Documents\Ableton\User Library (macOS: Music/Ableton/User Library). If you moved it (Live: Settings > Library), pass --user-library "<path>". An existing script there is backed up to technoa_mcp/deploy_backups/ first; --restore puts the newest backup back.

3. Enable it in Live: start Live, Settings > Link, Tempo & MIDI, pick AbletonMCP as a Control Surface (Input/Output: None).

4. Register the MCP server with your client, e.g. a .mcp.json for Claude Code:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "ableton": {
         "command": "C:\\path\\to\\repo\\venv\\Scripts\\python.exe",
         "args": ["C:\\path\\to\\repo\\technoa_mcp\\server.py"]
       }
     }
   }

   The same block works in Claude Desktop's claude_desktop_config.json.

Live reads Remote Scripts only at startup, so after every deploy restart Live. Changes to server.py, views.py or als_reader.py only need a restart of the MCP server.

Coming from the original ableton-mcp: both use the name AbletonMCP and port 9877, so use one or the other. The deploy script backs up the original before replacing it.

Removing it: deploy_remote_script.py --restore, or delete the folder Remote Scripts\AbletonMCP in your User Library and restart Live.

Configuration

Privacy and security

• No telemetry, no dataset recording, no network access beyond the local socket. The server depends on nothing but the MCP library.

• Server and Remote Script talk over 127.0.0.1:9877 without authentication – any program on your machine could send commands to Live while the script runs. The original allowed binding to other addresses via an environment variable; that is removed.

• inspect_lom (exploring Live's API) only reads properties, never calls methods, and refuses names starting with _.

Known limits

Mostly Live API limits, found the hard way:

• Arrangement track automation is unreachable through the API (Live 12.4.7). Clip envelopes work on session clips only; arrangement clips return none. The way into the arrangement: write the curve into a session clip, then duplicate_to_arrangement. There the curve applies inside the clip; before and after it, the fader does.

• A new clip envelope starts with the parameter's current value at the clip start, and that first point cannot be overwritten step-wise – you can get a click at the loop restart. The reply warns and names the workaround.

• A clip groove cannot be removed via the API (clip.groove = None is rejected). A neutral 0 % groove in the pool is the workaround.

• Devices are managed on track level only, not inside racks (rack parameters can be read and set via chain_path). Device tools were verified with Live devices, not with plugins.

• watch_meters polls a few times per second; Live's own peak display read 0.6–0.8 dB higher. The meter-to-dBFS mapping was calibrated on one machine (measured range 0.106–0.812; above that it is extrapolated and marked ~).

• start_playback without bar starts at Live's start marker, not at the playhead or the loop. For measuring use bar="loop".

• Loading an instrument from the browser can arm the track (Live's auto-arm); the tools report it, disarm=true undoes it.

What was tested

• Without Live: 149 tests (technoa_mcp/tests/) against a fake Live that mimics the quirks met on the real thing (main-thread-only access, values that update one pass later, group track errors). They run the Remote Script over its socket and the whole chain over MCP stdio:

  cd technoa_mcp
  ..\venv\Scripts\python.exe -m unittest discover -s tests

• On a real set (Live 12.4.6/12.4.7, Windows): each write command was read before, re-read after and undone; one undo step per command was confirmed for mixer, device parameters, notes, tempo, locators, tracks, clips, device management, groove, routing, sidechain, duplicate_to_arrangement with repeat, and clip volume envelopes. Snapshots and undo_to_mark (including the refusal on a hand edit) were used during real sessions.

• Only in the fake Live: set_song, delete_arrangement_clips, clip envelopes on device parameters/sends/pan, routing of returns and master, plugins in the device tools, drum racks, time signature changes.

• This public snapshot was cleaned up from the private repo (one feature tied to an unreleased plugin removed, paths made configurable, deploy script generalised). After the cleanup it was checked with the test suite only, not again against a running Live.

Credits and license

MIT – see LICENSE. Based on ahujasid/ableton-mcp by Siddharth Ahuja. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Ableton.