AbletonMCP — Ableton Live Model Context Protocol Server

Control Ableton Live from Claude (or any MCP client): build tracks, write and read back MIDI, load instruments, mix, arrange, and run whole Python scripts against the Live API in a single call.

This is an actively maintained fork of ahujasid/ableton-mcp (which is no longer maintained). Full credit to Siddharth Ahuja for the original architecture. What this fork adds is driven by daily use in real music-production sessions — see the CHANGELOG.

Highlights over upstream:

• execute_live_code — run a bounded Python script against the Live Object Model in one call, instead of paying a round trip per operation. Syntax-validated before it's sent, wrapped in a single Live undo step (one Ctrl+Z reverts everything), returns result/stdout/tracebacks as data. Ships with a curated LOM reference written for LLM consumption.
• get_clip_notes — read a clip's MIDI notes back (pitch, timing, velocity, mute). Upstream could write notes but never verify them.
• set_track_mixer — set volume, pan, mute, solo per track.
• Telemetry is opt-in (off by default). Upstream phones home on startup; this fork never sends anything unless you set ABLETON_MCP_ENABLE_TELEMETRY=true.
• Bug fixes: load_drum_kit no longer half-mutates your track on failure, device loads report the devices actually added, docstrings document URI formats that actually resolve.

How it works

MCP client (Claude Desktop / Claude Code / Cursor)
   │  MCP over stdio
   ▼
MCP_Server/server.py          ← this package, run via uvx
   │  JSON over TCP localhost:9877
   ▼
AbletonMCP_Remote_Script/     ← Python remote script running inside Live
   │  Live Object Model
   ▼
Ableton Live

Two components must be installed: the remote script (inside Live, once) and the MCP server (registered with your MCP client).

Installation

Prerequisites

• Ableton Live 10 or newer (Live 12.0.5+ for audio-clip import)
• uv

1. Install the Ableton Remote Script

1. Copy the AbletonMCP_Remote_Script folder into Ableton's MIDI Remote Scripts directory, renamed to AbletonMCP (so you end up with .../MIDI Remote Scripts/AbletonMCP/__init__.py). Common locations:

   macOS:

   • Applications → right-click Ableton Live → Show Package Contents → Contents/App-Resources/MIDI Remote Scripts/
   • or ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live XX/User Remote Scripts/

   Windows:

   • C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live XX\Resources\MIDI Remote Scripts\
   • or C:\Users\[You]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\User Remote Scripts\
   • or C:\Program Files\Ableton\Live XX\Resources\MIDI Remote Scripts\

2. Launch Live → Settings/Preferences → Link, Tempo & MIDI

3. Control Surface dropdown → select AbletonMCP; set Input and Output to None. Live's status bar should show AbletonMCP: Listening for commands on port 9877.

2. Register the MCP server

Straight from GitHub (recommended — always current):

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "AbletonMCP": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/aarx0/ableton-mcp", "ableton-mcp"]
        }
    }
}

• Claude Desktop: Settings → Developer → Edit Config → claude_desktop_config.json
• Claude Code: claude mcp add AbletonMCP -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/aarx0/ableton-mcp ableton-mcp
• Cursor: Settings → MCP → paste the same uvx command

From a local clone (for development): replace the --from value with the clone's path.

Run only one MCP client against Live at a time per session; multiple clients work but share the same Live instance.

Tools

Tool	What it does
get_session_info	Tempo, signature, track count, transport state
get_track_info	Track details: clips, devices, mixer values
get_clip_notes	Read back a clip's MIDI notes
create_midi_track, set_track_name	Track management
create_clip, add_notes_to_clip, set_clip_name	MIDI clip authoring
create_audio_clip	Import an audio file into a clip slot (Live ≥ 12.0.5)
set_track_mixer	Volume / pan / mute / solo
set_tempo	Session tempo
fire_clip, stop_clip, start_playback, stop_playback	Transport
get_browser_tree, get_browser_items_at_path	Browse Live's library
load_instrument_or_effect, load_drum_kit	Load devices by browser URI
switch_to_arrangement_view, set_arrangement_time, get_arrangement_clips, duplicate_to_arrangement	Arrangement view
execute_live_code	Run a Python script against the Live API in one call

execute_live_code in 30 seconds

# One call builds a four-on-the-floor kick pattern and reads it back:
track = song.tracks[0]
clip = track.clip_slots[0].clip
clip.set_notes(tuple((36, float(beat), 0.25, 100, False) for beat in range(4)))
result = [(n.pitch, n.start_time) for n in clip.get_notes_extended(0, 128, 0.0, 4.0)]

Scripts run on Live's main thread inside one undo step. Read LOM.md before writing nontrivial scripts — it documents the exact signatures, the argument-order traps, and what the Live API cannot do.

Example prompts

• "Create an 80s synthwave track"
• "Build a 4-bar drum loop, then read the notes back and check the timing"
• "Load a 909 kit on track 1 and write a house pattern"
• "Balance the mix: drums at 0 dB, bass slightly down, pan the hats right"
• "Copy the session clips into an arrangement with intro, drop, and outro"

Troubleshooting

• "Could not connect to Ableton" — Live isn't running, or the remote script isn't enabled as a Control Surface. Check for the port message in Live's status bar.
• Timeouts on state-changing commands — Live's main thread is busy (or a modal dialog is open). Dismiss dialogs; break big operations into smaller ones.
• Changed the remote script? — Live only loads remote scripts at startup; restart Live.
• Still stuck — restart both Live and your MCP client, in that order.

Telemetry

Off by default. Nothing is ever sent unless you explicitly set ABLETON_MCP_ENABLE_TELEMETRY=true in the server's environment. (The upstream project's endpoint receives that data, not this fork's maintainers.)

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome — especially reports from real production sessions. This fork's development is itself largely done by LLMs working against real Ableton sessions, with every change reviewed and dogfooded before merge.

License & credit

MIT. Original project by Siddharth Ahuja; fork maintained at aarx0/ableton-mcp.

This is a third-party integration, not made or endorsed by Ableton.