phase8-mcp

MCP server for the Korg Phase 8 acoustic synthesizer. Wraps the MIDI implementation documented in the phase 8 owner's manual v1.00 (2025-11-20) so a Model Context Protocol client (Claude Code, Cursor, Continue, etc.) can trigger resonators, drive per-resonator knobs, and modulate globals over USB MIDI.

Written by Ziforge as part of the superclean-collaboration livecoding rig at EMS Stockholm. Companion to the other Ziforge MCPs for Eurorack + hardware synths — see Related MCPs below.

MIDI implementation covered

Direct from section 12.0 (MIDI Implementation Chart) of the phase 8 owner's manual:

Not implemented (Phase 8 doesn't respond to them):

• Aftertouch (Key's or Channel)

• Pitch Bend

Related MCP server: osc-bridge

Tools

Install

From PyPI (once published) or directly from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/Ziforge/phase8-mcp

Or in a checkout:

git clone https://github.com/Ziforge/phase8-mcp
cd phase8-mcp
pip install -e .

Auto-connects on startup to any MIDI port whose name contains phase8. Override with connect_phase8(port_pattern="...", channel=N).

Wiring it into Claude Code

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "phase8": {
      "command": "phase8-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts (for the MCP client)

• "Play a slow strum across all 8 resonators, 100 ms per note"

• "Set resonator 5's envelope knob to 80 and its velocity to 60"

• "Change to patch 3, then trigger resonator 1 for 2 seconds"

• "Enable vibrato mod at depth 90, rate 40"

Related MCPs

Ziforge maintains several MCP servers for the hardware in the same livecoding rig — all follow the same shape (FastMCP + python-rtmidi, auto-connect by port-name substring, typed helpers for the top of the MIDI chart plus escape hatches for the rest):

Contributing

Pull requests welcome. Suggested workflow:

1. Fork + branch.

2. pip install -e .[dev] (once dev extras land) or just install the base deps and run against a physical Phase 8 or via a virtual MIDI port for smoke testing.

3. If you're adding a Korg SysEx opcode or an undocumented CC that the manual doesn't cover, cite the source (community wiki, forum thread, sniffed capture) so future maintainers can reproduce.

4. Keep the style consistent with the other Ziforge MCPs — one server.py with FastMCP tools, a pyproject.toml, a README with the MIDI table + tools table.

Attribution

MIDI implementation chart transcribed from the phase 8 owner's manual v1.00 (Korg, 2025-11-20), section 12.0. Manual PDF available from Korg's support page for the Phase 8.

License

GPL v2. See LICENSE.