Open the USB serial connection to the M8. Other tools connect automatically, so this is only needed to reconnect explicitly or to check that the M8 is reachable.

Close the USB serial connection so other apps (m8c, TyUploader for firmware updates, etc.) can use the M8. The next M8 tool call reconnects automatically.

Returns the current M8 screen as text with inline color tags. A Palette section maps slot letters to fg/bg colors. In the Screen section, "{x}" switches the color to slot x until the next tag; each line starts in slot "a". Spaces do not trigger tags. The Cursor section gives the line (1-based within the Screen section), the columns (1-based, not counting {x} tags) and the text inside the cursor frame.

Returns hardware model, firmware version, and font mode of the connected M8.

Press one or more M8 buttons simultaneously for a short duration (default 50ms), then release, optionally several times. Use arrays to combine modifier-style inputs; names match the M8 hardware labels. E.g. ["shift","right"] for SHIFT+RIGHT (move to the next screen), ["edit","up"] with repeat 3 to raise a hex value by 0x30.

Press a note key as if on a keyboard for duration_ms, then release it. The M8 uses the current instrument (the instrument number last set in a phrase), not the instrument on the cursor row. On the PHRASE screen with the cursor on the note column, this enters the note and the current instrument into that row; elsewhere it only plays the note. Move the cursor off the note column to only listen. Note numbers: 36 is C-4, 48 is C-5.

Run several button presses in order in one call, each like press_buttons (pressed together, released, optionally repeated). Use it for multi-step edits, e.g. setting the three RGB values of a theme row. The user may move the cursor on the device between calls, so read the screen right before running a sequence to confirm where the cursor is, and read it again afterwards to confirm the result.