dcc-mcp-houdini

Pipeline skill — viewport capture/flipbook plus ROP render settings and render execution through typed, runtime-aware tools. Exports report written_files, elapsed time, and separate error/warning diagnostics without hanging the host. Pair with houdini-camera-light to set up cameras and lights first.

Scene skill — read-only inspection of the active Houdini hip file and node graphs. Use when you need frame range, hip path, object-level nodes, or node details. Not for creating geometry, sims, or exports — use authoring or interchange skills.

Authoring skill — inspect and edit Houdini node parameters, parameter templates, spare parameters, and channel expressions through typed atomic tools. Use instead of arbitrary Python for reading/setting parms, adding spare parms, and managing expressions. For node connections use houdini-node-graph.

Pipeline skill — generic, adapter-owned project and shot/package automation: set/query the project root, tag and read portable asset metadata, validate a scene for missing files / bad output dirs / dirty state / cook errors, collect file dependencies into a manifest (no copying), and export a shot/package manifest (frame range, cameras, output nodes, caches, written files). No dependency on private production services.

Scene-management skill — typed Houdini scene lifecycle (new/open/save with dirty-scene safeguards), selection (get/set/find), camera discovery, and bounding-box queries. Use these atomic tools instead of arbitrary Python for everyday scene navigation and file operations. Not for node authoring (use houdini-nodes) or geometry/transform edits (use houdini-object-ops).

Set up dcc-mcp-houdini for an agent or operator: install Houdini Python dependencies with hython, generate MCP host configuration, guide the user through the Houdini package / 123.py autostart load step, and run a first live-tool smoke prompt.

Pipeline skill — typed timeline, keyframe, channel, and cache-baking tools. Query/set time, FPS and ranges; set/get/delete/list keyframes; inspect channels and expressions; validate bounded transform-loop continuity; export/import channel JSON; bake channels and trigger bounded simulation/cache renders. The canonical timeline API.

Pipeline skill - run file-based Houdini Python automation, manage hip files, set timeline ranges, and build small node chains from structured specs. Use when orchestrating repeatable Houdini tasks. Not for inspecting a scene only.

Authoring skill — create and edit cameras and lights, frame the Scene Viewer, and report active camera/view state through typed tools. Pair with houdini-render for viewport capture and ROP render execution.

Pipeline skill — typed CHOP (Channel Operator) tools for motion FX, audio-driven animation, procedural filtering, and CHOP-to-keyframe export. Create and manage CHOP networks, motion clips, audio-driven channels, and filter effects.

Pipeline skill — typed animation constraint tools for object-level transform constraints. Create parent, blend, position, and orientation constraints using OBJ-level blend nodes and CHOP-driven channel referencing. List and delete existing constraints.

Pipeline skill — development workflow helpers for authoring Houdini Python tools in a live session: attach a local project to sys.path, hot-reload modules by prefix or name, run module entrypoints or scripts with captured stdout/stderr/traceback, start a debugpy listener, introspect HOM objects/signatures/node-type categories, and inspect or trigger safe UI actions (headless-safe). Not for scene editing — use domain skills first.

Interchange skill — save/load/list/delete reusable export presets as JSON library files capturing ROP node configurations (Alembic, FBX, USD, Geometry, and other ROP output drivers). Use to standardize export settings across a team or project. Pair with houdini-interchange for one-shot exports or houdini-pipeline for shot packaging.

Authoring skill — create common SOP primitives and inspect SOP geometry: point/prim/vertex counts, bounds, attributes, groups, and cook errors. Use these typed tools to query and seed geometry before falling back to custom scripts. For mesh edit operations (transform/merge/blast) use houdini-mesh-ops.

Pipeline skill — HDA library automation and PDG/ROP execution: scan loaded HDA libraries, inspect definitions (inputs, parm templates, sections, version), instantiate digital assets with inputs/parameters, validate cooked nodes, cook TOP/PDG networks, and execute ROP output-driver chains. Pair with houdini-hda for install/save and houdini-render for single-ROP captures.

HDA skill - install, inspect, create, author, publish, validate, cook, and synchronize Houdini Digital Assets with typed public parameters. Use when loading .hda/.otl assets, building reusable interfaces, or publishing an HDA library. Not for generic node edits.

Pipeline skill — command-line USD/Hydra rendering via husk (Karma delegate), checkpoint/resume, scene snapshots, and husk option configuration. Pair with houdini-karma for renderer setup and houdini-render for viewport/ROP renders.

Interchange skill — load-on-demand import/export of Houdini geometry and scenes through production formats (native bgeo/geo, OBJ, Alembic, FBX, USD) plus filesystem probing. Use these typed tools instead of hand-building ROP/LOP/SOP networks with raw scripts.

Pipeline skill — configure Karma CPU/XPU render settings, material overrides, light mixer, and image output through typed tools. Pair with houdini-render for full render execution and houdini-camera-light for scene setup.

Pipeline skill — typed KineFX character animation tools. Create and configure rig skeletons, set rig poses, capture joint skinning weights, and apply motion capture data via SOP-level KineFX nodes.

Authoring skill — pre-configured lighting templates: three-point rigs, HDRI worlds, area softboxes, rig-level intensity controls, and view transform management. Builds on top of houdini-camera-light (individual light create/update) to provide higher-level lighting automation. Pair with houdini-camera-light for individual light control and houdini-render for render output.

Authoring skill — lookdev and shader-network operations: inspect materials, libraries, shader nodes and assignments; get/set shader parameters with type-aware validation; inspect and rewire shader connections; reset assignments; and manage adapter-owned material presets. Pair with houdini-materials for material creation/assignment.

Authoring skill — manage reusable material presets as JSON library files, handle texture assignment (image nodes / file paths), reload textures from disk, configure OCIO color management and list available color spaces, inspect material/shader connections and assignments. Pair with houdini-materials (create/assign) and houdini-lookdev (shader-network editing, adapter-owned presets).

Authoring skill - create and assign Houdini materials, including typed MaterialX PBR networks for Karma. Use when building lookdev/material workflows from color, roughness, metallic, normal, or displacement maps. Not for generic node graph edits.

Authoring skill — lightweight SOP mesh operations that append standard SOPs downstream of an input: transform, merge, blast/delete, group create, normals, triangulate, and convert. Each tool wires the new node into the network and returns its path for chaining. Use with houdini-geometry for inspection.

Authoring skill — inspect and edit Houdini node-graph relationships: list inputs/outputs/dependents and connect or disconnect inputs by explicit index. Use instead of arbitrary Python for wiring nodes. For parameters/expressions use houdini-parameters; for creating nodes use houdini-nodes.

Authoring skill - create, connect, configure, cook, lay out, and delete Houdini nodes through typed HOM operations. Use when building SOP/OBJ/ROP networks or automating graph edits. Not for arbitrary Python snippets.

Authoring skill — object-level Houdini mutations: rename, duplicate, reparent, set display/render/template/bypass flags, hard-lock/unlock, and read/set translate-rotate-scale transforms. Use these typed tools instead of arbitrary Python for editing existing nodes. Not for creating nodes (use houdini-nodes) or scene lifecycle/selection (use houdini-scene-edit).

Pipeline stage — bake ambient occlusion, lighting, texture maps (diffuse, normals, cavity, curvature etc.) from geometry to image files, list bake-compatible geometry with UV info, and transfer maps from high-res source to low-res target. Pair with houdini-render for render output and houdini-materials for shader assignment.

Solaris/USD query skill — read-only inspection of a LOP node's composed Stage. Use it to list prims, inspect one prim, or read bounded attribute values. Not for USD authoring, import, or export.

Houdini cross-DCC asset import skill — consumes an AssetDescriptor, imports the asset file into a geo container via a File SOP, and returns an ImportToSceneResult. Use as the receiving end of the asset import pipeline after an asset-source skill resolves the descriptor.

Bootstrap skill — controlled Python execution inside Houdini's hython interpreter. Use when no typed Houdini skill covers the task or you need session diagnostics. Not for routine scene edits — prefer houdini-scene or future domain skills.

Infrastructure skill - guide agents through designing, implementing, testing, and reviewing DCC-MCP adapter skill packages for Maya, Blender, 3ds Max, Houdini, Photoshop, ZBrush, Unreal, Unity, and custom studio hosts. Use when adding or changing SKILL.md, tools.yaml, scripts, server wiring, or adapter skill taxonomy in dcc-mcp-* repositories. Not for driving a live DCC scene - use domain skills or dcc-cli-gateway for that.