producer-pal

name	producer-pal
description	Control Ableton Live for music production via Producer Pal's local REST API — read and edit tracks, clips, devices, scenes, and the arrangement. Use when the user mentions Ableton Live, Producer Pal, music composition, MIDI editing, or asks to inspect or modify a Live Set.

Producer Pal

Producer Pal is a Max for Live device that exposes Ableton Live over a local REST API at http://localhost:3350. This skill lets you control Ableton Live without an MCP client.

Bootstrap (do this every session before other tool calls)

Use --notation midi-json on every call, starting with the first. It represents MIDI notes as a plain JSON array you can generate and parse directly in scripts (see the Notation section below), and it decides the note syntax baked into every tool description, every argument description, and the Skills — so the very first request that reads a schema already needs it.

1. List tools to see what's available and read each tool's input schema:

   node ppal.mjs --list-tools --notation midi-json
   

2. Call ppal-connect — its response includes the up-to-date Producer Pal Skills (MIDI note syntax for the notation you asked for, code transforms, conventions). Treat the returned content as authoritative instructions for using all other tools:

   node ppal.mjs ppal-connect --notation midi-json
   

   ppal-connect also confirms the device is running and reports the current Live Set state.

Narrowing the toolset (optional, saves context)

--disable-tools <names> withholds tools from a single request. A withheld tool disappears from --list-tools, 404s if called, and — the reason it's worth doing — drops the parts of the ppal-connect Skills blob that teach it. The full blob is large; a session that only reads a Live Set can cut most of it.

Decide once, then pass the same list on every call, including ppal-connect:

# Read-only session: no writers, so all the note-writing and transform
# instructions come off the Skills blob too
node ppal.mjs ppal-connect --disable-tools ppal-create-clip,ppal-update-clip,ppal-create-track,ppal-update-track,ppal-create-scene,ppal-update-scene,ppal-create-device,ppal-update-device,ppal-update-live-set,ppal-delete,ppal-duplicate,ppal-context,ppal-playback

Run --list-tools first if you need the exact names. Only skip tools you're sure the task won't need — while you keep passing the same list, a withheld tool stays unavailable, and you'd have to re-run ppal-connect without it to get its instructions back.

Like --notation, this changes nothing on the device: it never affects the chat UI or another client, and nothing is remembered between calls.

Notation

Producer Pal encodes MIDI notes in one of three notations. --notation determines the note syntax in every tool description and in the ppal-connect Skills, and it also decides how the notes you send are parsed and how the notes you read back are formatted:

• midi-json (recommended for coding agents) — a JSON array passed as a string, e.g. "notes":"[{p:60,t:0,d:4,v:100}]": p pitch, t start beat, d duration in beats, v velocity. Trivial to build and parse programmatically.
• barbeat (Producer Pal's default) — a compact human-readable text format (e.g. v100 n1/4 C3 1|1), tuned for models writing notes by hand.
• stark — a simpler literal per-line type: content format with event-based drum hits.

--notation applies to the one request that carries it and nothing is remembered between calls, so pass it on every call — otherwise that call falls back to whatever the device is set to, and you get note syntax you didn't ask for. Don't set notation with --set-config: that's a device-wide change that would move the chat UI and every connected MCP client onto your notation mid-session.

Bundled CLI

ppal.mjs (Node 18+, no dependencies) lives next to this file.

# Discovery — with the notation you'll be writing in
node ppal.mjs --list-tools --notation midi-json

# Withhold tools from one request (per request, not a device setting)
node ppal.mjs ppal-connect --disable-tools ppal-library,ppal-create-device

# Tool calls (args are a JSON object)
node ppal.mjs ppal-read-live-set
node ppal.mjs ppal-read-track '{"trackIndex": 0}'
node ppal.mjs ppal-create-clip '{"path":"t0/s0","length":"16bar","notes":"[{p:60,t:0,d:4,v:100}]"}' --notation midi-json

# Long-running calls — bump the timeout (1–55000 ms)
node ppal.mjs ppal-create-clip '{"path":"t0/s0","length":"16bar","notes":"..."}' --timeout-ms 10000

# Non-default URL (e.g. remote machine over a tunnel)
node ppal.mjs --url http://other-host:3350 --list-tools

The REST API returns JSON by default, so:

• result is a parsed JSON value (object, array, number, string)
• warnings (when present) is a string[] of non-fatal issues from the Live API
• isError: true indicates the tool reported an error; result is then a plain error string

Direct Live API access

ppal-live-api provides direct access to the Live Object Model for reads and writes that aren't covered by the higher-level tools. It's off by default and missing from --list-tools until enabled.

Enable it programmatically (global device setting) with:

node ppal.mjs --set-config '{"liveApiEnabled":true}'

Not recommended as a default — the higher-level tools are tuned for reliable results, while the raw Live API is low-level and easy to misuse. Reach for it for custom integrations, scripting, or debugging directly against the Live Object Model when the standard tools aren't enough. (The user can also toggle Direct Live API on the device's Setup tab.)

Prerequisites

• Ableton Live running with the Producer Pal Max for Live device loaded on a track. The device shows "Producer Pal Running" when ready.
• Default endpoint: http://localhost:3350. Override with --url if needed.

References

• REST API guide: https://producer-pal.org/guide/rest-api
• Feature list: https://producer-pal.org/features
• Tool reference at runtime: node ppal.mjs --list-tools