Ableton Live MCP Server

Control Ableton Live with AI agents using natural language. This server connects AI tools like Claude to your Ableton Live session, letting you say things like "prepare a set for recording a rock band" and have it actually happen.

How It Works

This project acts as a bridge between AI assistants and Ableton Live. Here's the big picture:

AI Agent (Claude, etc.)
        ↕
  MCP Server (this project)
        ↕
    OSC Daemon
        ↕
  Ableton Live (via AbletonOSC)

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard that lets AI agents use tools and talk to external software.
OSC (Open Sound Control) is how software talks to Ableton Live.
AbletonOSC is a free Ableton control surface that enables OSC communication.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

Ableton Live installed and running
Python 3.8 or newer — download here
Git — download here
uv (a fast Python package manager) — install it by running this in your terminal:

Mac / Linux:
```
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
```
Windows (in PowerShell):
```
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
```
What's a terminal? On Mac, open Terminal (press Cmd+Space and type "Terminal"). On Windows, open PowerShell (press Win+S and type "PowerShell").

Step 1: Install AbletonOSC in Ableton Live

AbletonOSC is a free plugin that lets software communicate with Ableton. You need to install it once.

Go to the AbletonOSC releases page and download the latest .zip file.
Unzip it. Inside you'll find a folder called AbletonOSC.
Copy that folder to your Ableton MIDI Remote Scripts directory:
- Mac: ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/User Remote Scripts/
- Windows: C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x.x\User Remote Scripts\
Tip: On Mac, the Library folder is hidden. In Finder, hold Option and click the Go menu — you'll see "Library" appear.
Open Ableton Live (or restart it if it was already open).
In Ableton, go to Preferences → Link, Tempo & MIDI.
Under Control Surface, select AbletonOSC from the dropdown. Leave Input and Output as None.
You should see a message in the Ableton status bar confirming AbletonOSC is active.

Step 2: Download This Project

Open your terminal and run:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/ableton-live-mcp-server.git
cd ableton-live-mcp-server

Then install the dependencies:

uv sync

This may take a minute the first time. It's downloading all the required Python packages.

Step 3: Start the OSC Daemon

The OSC daemon is a background process that handles communication between the MCP server and Ableton Live. You need to keep it running in a terminal window whenever you're using this.

uv run osc_daemon.py

Leave this terminal window open. You should see it waiting for connections — that's normal.

Step 4: Choose Your Setup

There are two ways to connect an AI agent to this server. Pick the one that fits your situation:

Option A: Claude Desktop (Same Computer)

Use this if you're running Claude Desktop on the same computer as Ableton Live. This is the easiest setup for personal use.

What is Claude Desktop? It's the free downloadable Claude app from Anthropic. Download it here.

NOTE: You will need a Claude subscription (Pro is fine, Max will give you more usage. Try with Pro first to see if this is a good solution before shelling out $100/mo (in this economy!?)) to do this.

Configure Claude Desktop

Open Claude Desktop.
Go to Settings (the gear icon or Claude menu).
Click Developer → Edit Config. This opens a file called claude_desktop_config.json.

If it doesn't open automatically, find it yourself:
- Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
- Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add the following inside the file. Replace /Users/bjunya/code/ableton-live-mcp-server with the actual path to where you downloaded this project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ableton-live": {
      "command": "/bin/sh",
      "args": [
        "-c",
        "cd /path/to/this/git/repo/ableton-live-mcp-server && uv run mcp_ableton_server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

How do I find my project path? In your terminal, navigate to the project folder and run pwd (Mac/Linux) or cd (Windows). Copy the output — that's your path.

Windows users: Use cmd /c instead of /bin/sh -c, and use backslashes in your path, e.g.:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ableton-live": {
      "command": "cmd",
      "args": ["/c", "cd C:\\Users\\YourName\\path\\to\\this\\repo\\ableton-live-mcp-server && uv run mcp_ableton_server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Save the file and restart Claude Desktop.
In Claude Desktop, you should now see a small hammer icon (🔨) near the chat input, indicating MCP tools are available. If you click it, you'll see Ableton Live tools listed.

Try It Out

Make sure both Ableton Live and the OSC daemon are running, then ask Claude:

"What tracks do I have in my current Ableton set?"
"Prepare a set for recording a rock band with drums, bass, guitar, and vocals"
"Set the BPM to 120"
"Mute the drum track"

Option B: SSE Server (Remote Agents / Same Network)

Use this if you want an AI agent running on a different device (like a server, another computer, or a cloud agent) to connect to this MCP server over your local network. This uses SSE (Server-Sent Events) over HTTP.

Examples of when you'd use this:

Running an agent framework like OpenClaw, LangChain, or AutoGen on a separate machine
Building a custom AI workflow that connects to your Ableton setup remotely
Testing the MCP server from another device on your network

Start the SSE Server

In a new terminal window (keep the OSC daemon running in the other one):

uv run run_sse_server.py --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8765

You'll see:

Starting Ableton Live MCP server (SSE) on http://0.0.0.0:8765/sse
Connect via: http://0.0.0.0:8765/sse
Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Find Your Computer's Local IP Address

The remote agent needs to know your computer's IP address on the local network.

PROTIP: Use Tailscale and make your own network across the internet for remote access. You can use your Tailscale IP address between your Ableton host and your agent's machine

Mac: Go to System Settings → Network and look for your IP address (usually starts with 192.168.x.x or 10.0.x.x).
Windows: Open PowerShell and run ipconfig. Look for "IPv4 Address".
Terminal (any OS): Run ipconfig getifaddr en0 (Mac Wi-Fi) or hostname -I (Linux).

Connect Your Agent

Have your remote agent (OpenClaw, custom script, etc.) connect to:

http://YOUR_COMPUTER_IP:8765/sse

For example, if your Mac's IP is 192.168.1.42:

http://192.168.1.42:8765/sse

Firewall note: If the connection fails, you may need to allow port 8765 through your firewall. On Mac, go to System Settings → Network → Firewall. On Windows, search for "Windows Firewall" and add an inbound rule for port 8765.

Custom Host and Port

You can change the port if 8765 is already in use:

uv run run_sse_server.py --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9000

Port Reference

Here's a summary of all the ports this project uses internally:

Port	What it's for
65432	Internal socket between MCP server and OSC daemon
11000	OSC messages sent to Ableton Live
11001	OSC responses received from Ableton Live
8765	HTTP/SSE port for remote agents (Option B only)

Troubleshooting

Claude Desktop doesn't show the hammer icon / Ableton tools

Make sure you saved claude_desktop_config.json correctly (valid JSON — no missing commas or brackets).
Restart Claude Desktop completely.
Make sure the path in the config actually points to where you downloaded the project.

"Failed to connect to daemon" errors

Make sure uv run osc_daemon.py is running in a terminal.
Don't close that terminal window while using the server.

Ableton doesn't respond to commands

Make sure AbletonOSC is selected as a Control Surface in Ableton's preferences.
Make sure Ableton Live is open and has a project loaded.
Restart Ableton after installing AbletonOSC if you haven't already.

Remote agent can't connect (Option B)

Double-check your computer's local IP address.
Make sure you used --host 0.0.0.0 (not 127.0.0.1) when starting the SSE server.
Check your firewall settings.

Example Prompts to Try

Once everything is set up, here are some things you can ask the AI:

"List all the tracks in my Ableton set"
"Create 4 MIDI tracks: Drums, Bass, Chords, Lead"
"Set the tempo to 140 BPM"
"Prepare a set to record a rock band"
"Set the input routing of all tracks with 'voice' in the name to Ext. In 2"
"Solo the bass track and mute everything else"
"What devices are on the drum track?"

While these prompts are nice and show off the basic functions of what you can do, I think there's potential to do way cooler stuff

More Advanced Prompting Techniques

Generating MIDI in Context

When I'm producing music, sometimes I'll need MIDI generated with a starter chord progression. In session view, I'll throw my melody on a particular scene and track and have Claude generate a basic chord progression that follows the melody and harmonizes with it

I have a melody on Scene 2, Track "MELODY" - in the "CHORDS" track on Scene 2, generate a basic chord progression that follows the melody and harmonizes. Use basic counterpoint rules. Go for "artist name" vibes and increase the harmonic tension over 4 bars, but make sure this is loopable and can still resolve to tonic

Revoice Chord Progressions

I have a chord progression I wrote on a track named "track_name", scene "x" - revoice this chord progression and play with inversions to get it to sound "vibeszzzzz here"

^TIP: You can totally drop in some music theory and Claude will handle the rest. I use this tool to generate starter harmonies just as a jumping off point. 9/10 times they will be total ass - you yourself as a producer need to push the notes around. The notes should not push you around to "play it safe". Remember, you are the one in creative control here. Fully generated by AI music is ass and will always be ass

Contributing

Found a bug or have an idea? Feel free to open an issue or pull request on GitHub.

License

MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Model Context Protocol (MCP)
AbletonOSC by Daniel John Jones
python-osc for OSC handling
Julien Bayle at Structure Void for endless inspiration and resources

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 28 Commits
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
mcp_ableton_server.py		mcp_ableton_server.py
osc_daemon.py		osc_daemon.py
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
run_sse_server.py		run_sse_server.py
run_tests.sh		run_tests.sh
uv.lock		uv.lock

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Ableton Live MCP Server

How It Works

Prerequisites

Step 1: Install AbletonOSC in Ableton Live

Step 2: Download This Project

Step 3: Start the OSC Daemon

Step 4: Choose Your Setup

Option A: Claude Desktop (Same Computer)

Configure Claude Desktop

Try It Out

Option B: SSE Server (Remote Agents / Same Network)

Start the SSE Server

Find Your Computer's Local IP Address

Connect Your Agent

Custom Host and Port

Port Reference

Troubleshooting

Example Prompts to Try

More Advanced Prompting Techniques

Generating MIDI in Context

Revoice Chord Progressions

Contributing

License

Acknowledgments

About

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Contributors

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Repository files navigation

Ableton Live MCP Server

How It Works

Prerequisites

Step 1: Install AbletonOSC in Ableton Live

Step 2: Download This Project

Step 3: Start the OSC Daemon

Step 4: Choose Your Setup

Option A: Claude Desktop (Same Computer)

Configure Claude Desktop

Try It Out

Option B: SSE Server (Remote Agents / Same Network)

Start the SSE Server

Find Your Computer's Local IP Address

Connect Your Agent

Custom Host and Port

Port Reference

Troubleshooting

Example Prompts to Try

More Advanced Prompting Techniques

Generating MIDI in Context

Revoice Chord Progressions

Contributing

License

Acknowledgments

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