mcp-music-studio

MCP Music Studio

Two-mode creative music studio for AI: scored composition (ABC notation with sheet music) and live performance (Strudel live coding with TidalCycles). Interactive UI renders inline in Claude Desktop, claude.ai, and other MCP clients.

Quick Start — No Install Required

Paste this URL into any MCP client that supports remote servers:

https://mcp-music-studio.linxule.workers.dev/mcp

Claude Desktop / claude.ai: Settings → Connectors → Add Connector → paste the URL above → done.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http music-studio https://mcp-music-studio.linxule.workers.dev/mcp

That's it — ask Claude to play a song or create a beat.

What You Get

Scored Composition (ABC Notation)

Write sheet music → see it rendered → hear it played with multi-instrument audio.

• 8 style presets — rock, jazz, bossa, waltz, march, reggae, folk, classical — one parameter adds drums + bass + chord accompaniment
• 30 instruments — piano, strings, brass, woodwinds, synths — selectable by name
• Visual sheet music — notes highlight as they play
• Streaming render — sheet music appears as the AI types
• WAV download — export audio as WAV files directly from the UI
• get-music-guide — 7 reference topics (instruments, drums, ABC syntax, arrangements, genres, styles, MIDI directives)

Live Performance (Strudel)

Write code → hear it play → edit in a live REPL.

• TidalCycles mini-notation in JavaScript
• 72 drum machine banks + 128 GM instruments + built-in synths
• Full effects chain — filters, reverb, delay, FM synthesis
• Editable REPL — users can tweak the code and hear changes instantly
• Live visuals — add .pianoroll() / .scope() / .spectrum() to animate behind the code (native strudel.cc overlay)
• Record & download — capture live audio and export as WAV
• get-strudel-guide — 7 reference topics (mini-notation, sounds, effects, patterns, genres, tips, advanced)

Shared

• search-music-docs — semantic search over strudel.cc and ABCJS documentation

Local Install (Optional)

The remote URL above works without any local setup. If you prefer running locally (offline use, lower latency), install via npm:

CLI One-Liners

# Claude Code
claude mcp add music-studio -- npx -y mcp-music-studio --stdio

# Codex CLI
codex mcp add -- npx -y mcp-music-studio --stdio

# Gemini CLI
gemini mcp add -- npx -y mcp-music-studio --stdio

# OpenCode
opencode mcp add music-studio -- npx -y mcp-music-studio --stdio

JSON Config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)

Claude Desktop — edit config file

OS	Path
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows	%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux	~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Trae / PearAI

Add to .vscode/mcp.json — note: uses "servers" not "mcpServers":

{
  "servers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Windows

On Windows, npx is a .cmd file and requires a shell wrapper:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "cmd",
      "args": ["/c", "npx", "-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Render modes (for non-ext-apps clients)

Clients that support ext-apps render the interactive UI inline automatically (auto mode). For clients that don't (Cherry Studio, CLI environments), use --render-mode:

Mode	Behavior
auto (default)	Inline UI for Claude Desktop, VS Code
browser	Saves HTML and opens in system browser
html	Returns HTML as embedded resource

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "music-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-music-studio", "--stdio", "--render-mode", "browser"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

Tool	Description
play-sheet-music	ABC notation → visual sheet music + multi-instrument audio
play-live-pattern	Strudel code → live-coded patterns with synthesis + effects
get-music-guide	ABC reference (7 topics: instruments, drums, syntax, genres...)
get-strudel-guide	Strudel reference (7 topics: sounds, effects, patterns, genres...)
search-music-docs	Semantic search over strudel.cc and ABCJS docs

Prompts

Slash-command / menu entry points, in clients that surface MCP prompts:

Prompt	What it does
compose-beat	Generate + play a Strudel pattern in a genre (args: genre, mood?)
harmonize-melody	Add chords/accompaniment to an ABC melody and play it (args: melody, style?)
arrange-tune	Turn a melody/idea into a multi-voice arrangement (args: tune, instrumentation?)

Development

bun install
bun run dev      # watch + serve (hot reload)
bun run build    # production build
bun run test     # run tests

Attribution

Forked from the Sheet Music Server example from MCP ext-apps by Anthropic, licensed under MIT.

License

MIT