resolume-cowork-helper-mcp-automation

# resolume-cowork-helper-mcp-automation **An AI agent can build your Resolume compositions and your customized controller shortcut layouts.** This kit proves it: FFT-reactive comps built scene by scene, a complete APC40 mkII shortcut layout authored and validated (91 mappings, grid colors and all), even custom FFGL plugins - plus the exact copy-paste prompts to make it happen on YOUR machine with YOUR clips. Nothing to buy; bring Resolume Avenue/Arena 7, a controller, and an agent (Claude Code / Cowork) with a Resolume MCP. > Tested on Resolume Avenue 7.27 + Resolume MCP 7.26, Windows 11. > Version drift is real; pin your expectations here. <!-- TODO before publish: 3 GIFs - (1) the APC grid lighting up in column colors, (2) a deck playing with FFT response, (3) an agent building the layout live. Screenshots sell this better than any paragraph. --> ## What this is Three things, in Resolume's own terms: 1. **A complete Resolume composition, delivered as buildable specs.** "Res Fable Orbit" is a full Avenue/Arena composition: 5 decks x 4 layers x 9 columns - 180 clip slots of named scenes, layer blend modes set (Alpha/Screen/Screen/Add), a Bloom on the top layer, a bypassed 7-effect composition rack, and every Pulse-row clip a native generative source with its opacity FFT-linked (band, gain, fallback, floor all specified). The `manifests/` JSON is that composition cell by cell; prompt 07 has an agent rebuild the .avc on your machine. The theme is exact science - every column is a real phenomenon with a cited placard, and column 9 of each deck is the TRANSIT to the next. 2. **A customized controller shortcut layout.** A working "APC 40 MK II" MIDI preset XML mapped to that composition: 91 shortcuts - clip launch pads with per-column color feedback, layer opacity faders, effect bypass punches, transit and deck-switch on the scene-launch buttons. 3. **The prompts and protocols that made both.** Nine copy-paste prompts so an agent does the same against YOUR composition and YOUR hardware, plus the crash-tested rules for letting an agent drive Avenue at all. Zero clip files ship - the composition is 100% generative sources, so it opens on any machine, and the manifests mark exactly where your own footage plugs in. Your clips, your rights, your set. ## Repo tree ``` resolume-cowork-helper-mcp-automation/ manifests/ orbit_gen_O1..O5.json - the five decks as machine-readable specs: per cell source, FFT band/gain/fallback/floor, mood notes, user slots, native fallbacks for custom sources prompts/ 01-first-contact - verify the agent<->Resolume loop (5 min) 02-fft-starter-comp - build a 4-layer reactive instrument 03-apc40-layout - agent WRITES your controller preset 04-apc-mini-painter - dual-surface rig + grid painter script 05-your-clips - curate + wire YOUR library, safely 06-custom-ffgl - build a plugin from the FFGL SDK 07-orbit-gen-rebuild - rebuild this whole set from manifests/ 08-your-topic-pack - ANY topic -> full 4x8-bank-optimized set 09-any-controller - bring your own hardware; agent researches its banks/colors and maps to it compositions/ TWO ready-to-load all-generative .avc files, every cell filled and playable out of the box: Res Fable Live Gen.avc - 6 decks x 4x8, the simpler start Res Fable Orbit Gen.avc - 5 decks x 4x9, the space journey controllers/ APC 40 MK II - Orbit v1.xml (91 shortcuts, validated) + LAYOUT_CARD.md (printable, every control explained) docs/ fft-recipe-card.md - the wiring convention and why it feels alive stability-protocol.md - how not to crash Avenue while an agent drives orbit-placards.md - the science, scene by scene, read-aloud ready LICENSE MIT ``` ## Just want to play? -> [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md) One page, four copy-paste steps: composition, plugins, controller preset, audio. No AI, no coding, ~10 minutes to a lit grid. ## Installing the APC40 mkII shortcuts (never done this before? read this) The preset is just an XML file you copy into one folder, then pick from a menu. Step by step: 1. Download a preset from this repo's `controllers/` folder: `APC 40 MK II - Orbit v1.xml` (for the Orbit comp) or `APC 40 MK II - Fable v4.2.xml` (for the Live comp). 2. Close Resolume if it is running. 3. Open File Explorer (Finder on Mac) and go to your Documents folder, then into `Resolume Avenue` > `Shortcuts` > `MIDI`. Notes: if you run Arena the folder says `Resolume Arena`; if Windows keeps your Documents in OneDrive, it is OneDrive's Documents folder; if `Shortcuts\MIDI` does not exist yet, start Resolume once, press Ctrl+M then Escape, and the folder appears. 4. Copy the XML file into that `MIDI` folder. That is the whole install. 5. Plug in the APC40 mkII BEFORE starting Resolume, then start Resolume and open the matching composition from `compositions/`. 6. In Resolume: Avenue (or Arena) menu > Preferences > MIDI. You will see "APC40 mkII" listed as a device. Turn it ON as an input AND as an output - both checkboxes. Output is what makes the pads light up. 7. Still in that MIDI preferences panel, next to the device there is a preset dropdown - choose the preset you copied in ("APC 40 MK II - Orbit v1" or "- Fable v4.2"). 8. Close Preferences. Within a couple of seconds the pad grid lights up in the comp's column colors. Press the bottom-left pad: it should launch the bottom-left clip (layer 1, column 1). Faders move layer opacities; the bottom-right scene-launch button jumps to the next deck. If something misbehaves: no lights means output was not enabled (step 6); wrong clips launching means another app (like Ableton) grabbed the controller first - close it and power-cycle the APC; the preset missing from the dropdown means the XML landed in the wrong folder (step 3). Full troubleshooting and the every-button map: `controllers/INSTALL.md` and `controllers/LAYOUT_CARD.md`. ## Never coded? Start here (the from-zero path) You do not need to program anything. You type sentences; the agent does the clicking. Five installs-and-pastes: 1. **Resolume Avenue or Arena 7** - resolume.com (the trial works; it watermarks output but everything in this kit functions). 2. **Claude** - either the Claude desktop app (Cowork mode) or Claude Code (the terminal version) from claude.com. If a terminal scares you, use the desktop app - same brain. 3. **A Resolume MCP server** - this is the adapter that lets the agent see and drive Resolume. Search "Resolume MCP" on GitHub or the Resolume forum and follow its install steps; in Claude you then add it under Settings > Connectors (desktop) or `claude mcp add` (Code). One-time setup, roughly ten minutes. 4. Start Resolume with any composition open, even an empty one. 5. Open `prompts/01-first-contact.md` from this kit, copy everything below the line, paste it to Claude, and watch it read your rig out loud. That is the whole skill. Every other prompt works exactly the same way: open file, copy, paste. The agent will ask before it saves anything. ## Quickstart (10 minutes to first light, if you are already set up) 1. Connect your agent to a Resolume MCP; open any comp in Avenue/Arena 7. 2. Run `prompts/01-first-contact.md`. If the reads match your screen, go. 3. Or skip the agent entirely: open a comp from `compositions/` - both ship complete. Agent roads: `prompts/07-orbit-gen-rebuild.md` (rebuild the five-deck set) or `prompts/02-fft-starter-comp.md` (build a simpler single-deck instrument from scratch). 4. Drop `controllers/APC 40 MK II - Orbit v1.xml` into Resolume's MIDI preset folder; Preferences > MIDI: enable the APC40 mkII as input AND output; select the preset. The grid lights in your column colors. 5. Set your audio input device (the set reacts to external FFT - the room, not the clips) and play. ## Who this is for VJs who want a controller layout without hand-mapping 91 shortcuts. Agent users who want a real-world rig project. Skeptics: the preset XML and the manifests work with zero AI involved - the prompts just automate what they document. This kit ships TOOLS, not output; the taste stays yours. ## Custom sources and what ships later Three Pulse cells reference sources that are not stock Avenue: Fable Pulsar (a custom FFGL source - CP1919 pulsar ridgelines, stateless, 7 scalar params) and two Wire patches (Golden Flicker Reel, Geometry Pattern Maker). Every such cell is marked `custom_source` with a native `fallback` - the set plays complete without them. Roadmap: ready-to-load generative `.avc` comps and the Fable Optics plugin pack land after license review of the Resolume FFGL SDK terms (source-only if redistribution requires it). Prompt 06 builds you the plugin either way. ## Make your OWN pack (the actual point) Orbit is one theme: space, told in five physics regimes. The format is the reusable part - a pack is just five things: themed deck manifests (steal the JSON schema in `manifests/`, it is self-explanatory), an energy-contour column order, placards that tell the truth, a matching controller preset, and the discipline in `docs/`. `prompts/08-your-topic-pack.md` is the one-paste version: fill in your topic ([deep sea, fungi, Detroit techno history, the Roman aqueducts...]) and your agent designs, builds, FFT-wires, and controller-maps the whole set - shaped to the APC40's 4x8 pad bank from the first design decision, placards cited, energy contour enforced. Not an APC40 owner? `prompts/09-any-controller.md` has the agent research YOUR hardware's actual banks, buttons, and color system, derive the grid rule for it, and author the preset to match - plus your own stated requirements. Claude is what this kit was built and tested with, but the prompts are plain text and the manifests are plain JSON - any agent that can drive a Resolume MCP can play. If you make a pack, publish it the same way this one shipped: manifests + prompts + preset + placards, no clip files, no personal paths. That is the whole tradition. Send a link. ## Safety, support, license The stability protocol in `docs/` is not optional reading - every rule in it was paid for with a real crash. Saves always require the human's explicit confirmation; the prompts are written that way on purpose. As-is, PRs welcome, no support promised. Kit text, manifests, prompts: MIT (see LICENSE). Placard facts carry their citations inline - corrections are the most welcome PR of all.