Ableton Vibe

🚀 Ableton-Vibe Setup and Usage Guide

This project provides a way to interact with Ableton using the Ableton-Vibe server and integrate it with Claude. It allows users to perform certain operations in Ableton through Claude.

🚀 Quick Start

✨ Features

• Interact with Ableton using the Ableton-Vibe server.
• Integrate with Claude to perform operations in Ableton.
• Support for Ableton 11 (testing for Ableton 12 pending).
• Only tested on macOS (potential modifications needed for Windows).

📦 Installation

Install Dependencies

1. Install yarn as ableton-js uses it to run some build scripts:

   npm install --global yarn
   

2. Install pnpm:

   brew install pnpm
   

Clone and Run the Ableton-Vibe Server

1. Clone and install midi-script to Ableton:

   git clone https://github.com/leolabs/ableton-js.git && cd ableton-js && yarn ableton11:start
   

2. If not already cloned, clone the ableton-vibe server:

   git clone https://github.com/androidStern/ableton-vibe.git && cd ableton-vibe && pnpm i
   

Build and Watch for Changes

npm run build

Configure MCP to Claude

On your machine, the Claude configuration file is usually located at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Add the following content to the file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ableton-vibe": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["<path-to-repo>/ableton-vibe/ableton-mcp.js"]
    }
  }
}

Here, <path-to-repo> is the path where you cloned ableton-vibe.

💻 Usage Examples

Basic Usage

1. Make sure Ableton is running.
2. Restart Claude before using the server.
3. Try asking Claude: "Create a MIDI track at index 0". Currently, it can only perform this operation lol.

Supported Ableton Versions

• Tested and compatible with Ableton 11. Ableton 12 has not been tried yet.

Supported Operating Systems

• Only tested on macOS.
• For Windows, you may need to modify line 9 of ablton-mcp.ts to get the temporary directory logic. The relevant code is as follows:

  const userTempDir = execSync('getconf DARWIN_USER_TEMP_DIR').toString().trim()
  

📚 Documentation

Debugging

Run the MCP inspector tool to quickly debug the server:

npm run inspect

Then open the URL in the output. For instructions on using the inspector, refer to here.

Testing the Add Device Script

test-browser.js is an example script for programmatically adding devices to your Ableton session. When running, make sure:

• Ableton is running.
• The MIDI remote control script of ableton-js is installed and running.

Run the command:

node test-browser.js

Contribution Guidelines

Currently, all the code is in ablton-mcp.ts. If you want to add tools or resources, please add them to this file. Please do not edit the _JS_ files; instead, edit the corresponding _TS_ files.

Next Steps

• Set up the correct build and release process. In the future, all installations should be completed with a single command.
• Complete the remaining Ableton API implementation to expose it automatically through the MCP tool.
• Support Ableton 12.
• Add test cases.
• Support other operating systems (Windows).
• Add voice control functionality.