DaVinci Resolve MCP — Free / Community edition

Drive DaVinci Resolve from Claude Code (or any MCP client) to edit videos — on the free Community edition, which blocks normal external scripting.

Why this is different

DaVinci Resolve Free does not allow an external process to connect via the scripting API (scriptapp("Resolve") returns nil); the permission toggle that Studio exposes is absent. Verified on Resolve 21.0.0.48 across Python 3.9–3.14.

However, scripts running inside Resolve have full API access. So this project uses a bridge:

Claude Code ──MCP──► server.py (this repo) ──files──► resolve_bridge.lua (inside Resolve) ──► live `resolve` object

• bridge/resolve_bridge.lua — runs inside Resolve, polls a request file, executes against the resolve object, writes a JSON response.

• davinci_mcp/ — the external MCP server; each tool sends one RPC to the bridge.

Request/response are exchanged via files in ~/.davinci-mcp-bridge/.

Related MCP server: DaVinci MCP Professional

Setup

1. Install deps and the bridge helper:

   uv sync
   python3 scripts/install_bridge.py

   The installer copies the bridge into Resolve's Scripts folder and prints the exact start/registration commands for your machine.

2. Start the bridge inside Resolve (it must be running for any tool to work):

   • Workspace ▸ Scripts ▸ Comp ▸ MCP_Bridge (after restarting Resolve once), or

   • Workspace ▸ Console, switch to Lua, and run dofile("<repo>/bridge/resolve_bridge.lua").

   You should see [bridge] UP and ops registered=.... It keeps running and does not freeze the Resolve UI.

3. Register the MCP server with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add davinci-resolve -- uv run --directory <repo> davinci-resolve-mcp

   Then in Claude Code, call bridge_status to confirm the connection.

Tools

resolve_info, list_projects, current_project, open_project, create_project, save_project, import_media, list_media, list_timelines, current_timeline, create_timeline, append_all_to_timeline, add_marker, and resolve_eval (run arbitrary Lua — escape hatch for anything not yet wrapped).

Limitations (Free edition)

• Studio-only API calls return errors: transcription, subtitles-from-audio, AutoSync, Magic Mask, IntelliSearch, motion-deblur, speech gen, Dolby Vision.

• Render limits: 8-bit, ≤ UHD 3840×2160, ≤ 60 fps. Applying a Studio-only effect watermarks the export.

Credits

Architecture and Studio-edition tool designs informed by samuelgursky/davinci-resolve-mcp (MIT). This project is a from-scratch Free-edition rework using the bridge approach.