External Agent Access

Connect ACE Studio to AI assistants and agents through MCP and CLI.

Experimental Status

External agent access in ACE Studio is currently experimental and under active development.

Please note:

• Breaking changes: Tool commands, formats, and conventions may change between updates.

• Work in progress: Not all ACE Studio features are fully accessible to agents yet.

• Rough edges: You may encounter bugs, unexpected edge cases, or unnatural behavior as we refine agent interactions.

If you run into issues or have suggestions, please let us know at [e-mail].

Connect AI assistants and agents (such as Claude, ChatGPT, OpenClaw, or Hermes Agent) directly to ACE Studio to understand and edit your music projects in real time.

What Your Agent Can Do

Once connected, an agent can inspect and edit your project across most of what ACE Studio does:

• Arrangement & Composition — Manage tracks, clips, notes, lyrics, chords, and the playhead.

• Vocals & Instruments — Adjust voice models, sound sources, multi-singer choir layers, and vocal parameters (pitch, breath, tension).

• Timing & Structure — Set BPM, time signatures, loop markers, and transport.

• Production & AI Tools — Trigger Add a Layer, Vocal to MIDI, Stem Splitter, Music Enhancer, and load FX chains or presets.

• Session Control & Delivery — Spin up and save projects, import audio and MIDI, and export full mixdowns, individual stems, video, and more.

Just describe what you want in plain language, and your assistant will inspect the project and make the changes.

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Connecting Your Assistant

Choose the setup method that fits your workflow:

Path A: Let Your AI Agent Configure It for You

If you use an agent with local environment or computer access (such as Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, or Hermes Agent), it can configure itself automatically.

This path requires an agent running on the same computer as ACE Studio with permissions to execute commands and edit its configuration files.

Copy and paste this prompt into your agent and hit Send:

Connect to ACE Studio for me using acestudio-cli or MCP.

Default locations:
- macOS MCP: "/Applications/ACE Studio.app/Contents/Helpers/ace-mcp-server"
- macOS CLI: "/Applications/ACE Studio.app/Contents/Helpers/acestudio-cli"
- Windows MCP: "C:\Program Files\ACE Studio\ace-mcp-server.exe"
- Windows CLI: "C:\Program Files\ACE Studio\acestudio-cli.exe"

Try using the CLI first and remember the tool path in your instructions/memory. If CLI access is restricted by sandboxing or permissions, register the MCP server (under the name "ace-studio" with user/global scope). If not found at the default location, ask me for the path from ACE Studio's Preferences → General → External Agent Access.

If you need more context on ACE Studio and its agent integration, refer to the documentation at https://docs.acestudio.ai/llms.txt. If your harness cannot configure itself or execute local commands, please guide me through the manual setup steps for your platform.

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Path B: Configure Manually in Your Harness

If your agent harness cannot configure itself automatically, you will need to add ACE Studio's MCP server to its configuration manually.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that connects AI assistants to external applications. ACE Studio runs as a local STDIO server, allowing any MCP-compatible client to connect directly using the launch command.

Configure via Terminal

If you use Claude or Codex and prefer configuring directly from your terminal:

Claude

Run in your terminal:

macOS:

claude mcp add --scope user ace-studio -- "/Applications/ACE Studio.app/Contents/Helpers/ace-mcp-server"

Windows:

claude mcp add --scope user ace-studio -- "C:\Program Files\ACE Studio\ace-mcp-server.exe"

Codex

Run in your terminal:

macOS:

codex mcp add ace-studio -- "/Applications/ACE Studio.app/Contents/Helpers/ace-mcp-server"

Windows:

codex mcp add ace-studio -- "C:\Program Files\ACE Studio\ace-mcp-server.exe"

Desktop Chat Apps

For full step-by-step guides with configuration walkthroughs:

• Claude Desktop & Cowork — Step-by-step configuration for Claude Desktop with configuration file walkthroughs.

• ChatGPT for desktop — Step-by-step setup for ChatGPT Work and Codex modes.

Other Harnesses & IDEs (VS Code, Cursor, Custom Clients)

Most MCP clients and IDEs ask for the same configuration parameters:

• Transport type: STDIO (sometimes labeled "Local" or "Command")

• Command: The launch command copied from ACE Studio

• Arguments / Environment: None

For harnesses configured via JSON files:

Standard MCP Config (Cursor, etc.)

Used by Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json or .cursor/mcp.json) and most standard MCP harnesses:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ace-studio": {
      "command": "/Applications/ACE Studio.app/Contents/Helpers/ace-mcp-server"
    }
  }
}

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "ace-studio": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "/Applications/ACE Studio.app/Contents/Helpers/ace-mcp-server"
    }
  }
}

Windows Path Escaping in JSON: If you manually write Windows paths using backslashes in JSON files, escape each backslash as a double backslash (\\), or use forward slashes (/).

Browser-based AI Assistants: ACE Studio's MCP server runs locally on your machine over STDIO. Web-only interfaces (such as ChatGPT or Claude in a web browser) cannot connect to local STDIO servers directly. Use their respective desktop applications or terminal clients instead.

Custom Installation Paths: If you installed ACE Studio to a custom directory, open Preferences → General → External Agent Access in ACE Studio:

• Click Copy command next to MCP Server (stdio) for the MCP server path.

• Click Copy next to acestudio-cli binary path for the CLI path.

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Verifying the Connection

Make sure ACE Studio is open and running, then ask your assistant:

Please check the current ACE Studio project information

If your assistant responds with your project's tempo, key signature, and track list, your setup is complete and ready.

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Creative Prompt Examples

Here are some real-world examples of how you can collaborate with your AI assistant in ACE Studio:

1. Vocal Production & Multi-Singer Harmonies

Turn on Choir mode on the lead vocal track (Track 1), add two backing singer
voices, widen the stereo spread, and lower their level by -3 dB for a lush background harmony.

2. Custom Voice Blending

Create a custom blended voice on Track 2: mix 70% of a warm acoustic pop seed
with 30% of an airy, breathy voice seed, then name the blend "Velvet Air".

3. Chords & Song Drafting

In bars 1–8 of the chord track, insert a Neo-Soul progression:
Ebmaj9 — G7#9 — Cm9 — F13 (2 bars each).
Then add a Rhodes piano track and a groovy bassline following the root notes.

4. AI Accompaniment & Audio Extraction

Split the imported audio clip on Track 1 into vocal, drum, bass, and other stems.
Then run Vocal to MIDI on the extracted vocal stem to create an editable Sing track.

5. Generative Song Ideas & Layers

Listen to the arrangement from bar 9 to 25 and use Add a Layer to generate
a matching cinematic string pad accompaniment layer at the current project tempo.

6. Expressive Vocal Tuning & Dynamics

Inspect the chorus vocal notes on Track 1: smooth out the pitch transitions,
increase breathiness on the entry notes, and add a subtle vibrato curve on sustained notes.

7. FX Chains & Stem Delivery

Load a vintage vocal compressor and warm plate reverb onto the lead vocal FX chain,
then export all individual tracks as 24-bit 48kHz WAV stems to a "Stems" folder on my Desktop.