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Ableton Extensions

Scaffold, write, build and package Ableton Live extensions with the Ableton Extensions SDK (TypeScript) to manipulate tracks, clips, MIDI…

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Install this skill Read the source first Free Written by Ronvaknins · unverified publisher
Context cost
9.8k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
5 files · 39.4 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
free to use
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Scaffold, write, build, and package Ableton Live extensions with the Ableton Extensions SDK (@ableton-extensions/sdk, TypeScript). Use when creating or editing an Ableton Live extension — adding context-menu actions, modal/progress dialogs, or code that manipulates tracks, clips, MIDI notes, devices, tempo, audio rendering, or selections in a Live Set.

Installed, it changes the agent in these ways.

What this skill changes about the agent is not written down here yet. The listing was collected from its source, and the description is in its own SKILL.md.

Expertise

Domain judgement the base model does not have.

abletonmusicmidiaudio
Filed under

Gaming & Entertainment

The skill itself

This is the whole product. A skill is instructions the model reads, so there is nothing behind the listing you cannot see first — the front matter loads with every session, and the body below it loads when the skill triggers.

SKILL.md7.4 kB · 83 lines
--- name: ableton-extensions description: Scaffold, write, build, and package Ableton Live extensions with the Ableton Extensions SDK (@ableton-extensions/sdk, TypeScript). Use when creating or editing an Ableton Live extension — adding context-menu actions, modal/progress dialogs, or code that manipulates tracks, clips, MIDI notes, devices, tempo, audio rendering, or selections in a Live Set. ---
6# Ableton Extensions SDK
7
8Build tools that run inside Ableton Live. An extension is a Node/TypeScript module bundled to a single CommonJS file that Live's **Extension Host** loads. It registers **commands** and wires them to **context-menu actions**, then reads and mutates the Live Set through a typed object model (tracks, clips, notes, devices, tempo, scenes).
9
10Extensions are an **offline editing / automation** layer. They are **not** real-time processors and **not** devices in the signal chain: they cannot process the live audio **or MIDI** stream. The SDK has no note-on/off, MIDI-input, or stream callbacks (the only on* callbacks are dialog/registration lifecycle internals) — an extension only acts when the user triggers a command, then mutates the data model. For **real-time MIDI/audio transformation** (e.g. "play one key, hear a chord"), the right tool is a **MIDI/audio effect device** in the track chain: Live's built-in MIDI effects (the **Chord** device does exactly one-note→chord — set Shift voices to e.g. +4, +7) or a **Max for Live** device — *not* an Extension. Extensions complement those by transforming clips/notes at edit time, batch-editing the Set, and adding context-menu tools, dialogs, and rendering.
11
12## Local SDK location
13
14The SDK distribution lives wherever you unpacked it — referred to below as <sdk-dir>. It contains:
15- docs/ — pre-built HTML documentation (getting-started, essentials, development, design)
16- api/ — TypeDoc HTML API reference
17- examples/ — 7 runnable examples (read these for canonical patterns)
18- ableton-create-extension-<version>.tgz — the scaffolding tool
19- ableton-extensions-cli-<version>.tgz — the build/run/package CLI
20- ableton-extensions-sdk-<version>.tgz — the SDK library
21
22This skill was written against SDK **1.0.0-beta.0** (API version **"1.0.0"**); newer builds may ship a different <version> — check the actual .tgz filenames in <sdk-dir> and substitute it wherever it appears below. Requires **Node.js >= 24.14.1**.
23
24## Reference files (load as needed)
25
26- **[reference/scaffolding.md](reference/scaffolding.md)** — create a project, the generated file layout, manifest.json / package.json / build.ts / tsconfig.json, the extensions-cli run|package commands, the .env / EXTENSION_HOST_PATH, debugging, log file locations, packaging to .ablx.
27- **[reference/api.md](reference/api.md)** — the full object model: ExtensionContext, handles, transactions, Song/Track/Clip/MidiClip/AudioClip/Device/Scene, MIDI NoteDescription, enums (WarpMode, GridQuantization), context-menu scopes, selection types.
28- **[reference/recipes.md](reference/recipes.md)** — copy-paste code for every common task: context menus, modal dialogs (with the WebView bridge + Ableton-themed CSS), progress dialogs with cancellation, creating/editing clips and notes, audio import/render, transactions.
29
30The examples/ folder is the source of truth for idiomatic code — prefer reading the closest example to the task over guessing.
31
32## The entry point — always this shape
33
34src/extension.ts exports activate. Call initialize once, then register commands and menu actions synchronously:
35
36```typescript
37import { initialize, type ActivationContext } from "@ableton-extensions/sdk";
38
39export function activate(activation: ActivationContext) {
40 const context = initialize(activation, "1.0.0"); // ExtensionContext
41
42 // 1. Register a command (the logic)
43 context.commands.registerCommand("myext.doThing", (arg: unknown) => {
44 // arg is a Handle, ArrangementSelection, or ClipSlotSelection
45 // depending on the scope the menu action was registered for
46 });
47
48 // 2. Surface it as a right-click menu item (the trigger)
49 context.ui.registerContextMenuAction("AudioClip", "Do Thing", "myext.doThing");
50}
51```
52
53context (the ExtensionContext) is the root of everything:
54- context.application.song — the Live Set (tempo, tracks, scenes, …)
55- context.commands — registerCommand(id, cb) / executeCommand(id, …)
56- context.ui — registerContextMenuAction, showModalDialog, withinProgressDialog
57- context.resources — importIntoProject(path), render audio from a track
58- context.environment — storageDirectory, tempDirectory, language
59- context.getObjectFromHandle(handle, Class) — turn a Handle into a typed object
60- context.withinTransaction(() => …) — group mutations into one undo step
61
62## Two concepts that trip people up
63
64**Handles are not objects.** Live passes commands lightweight Handles ({ id: bigint }). Resolve to a typed object with context.getObjectFromHandle(handle, Track). Handles go **invalid** when the object is deleted, moved in the arrangement, or the Set changes — never cache objects or handles across operations.
65
66**Commands receive scope-dependent args.** Object scopes ("AudioClip", "MidiTrack", "ClipSlot", "Scene", …) pass a single Handle. Selection scopes pass a structured object: "AudioTrack.ArrangementSelection" / "MidiTrack.ArrangementSelection" pass an ArrangementSelection (time_selection_start, time_selection_end, selected_lanes: Handle[]); "ClipSlotSelection" passes { selected_clip_slots }. Match the scope you register to the arg type you cast.
67
68## Standard workflow
69
701. **Scaffold** (new project): npx file:<sdk-dir>/ableton-create-extension-<version>.tgz <dir> — interactive prompts for name, author, Live path, UI support. See [reference/scaffolding.md](reference/scaffolding.md).
712. **Write** src/extension.ts — register commands + menu actions; see [reference/recipes.md](reference/recipes.md).
723. **Run in Live**: npm start (builds with esbuild, then extensions-cli run loads it into the Extension Host). Enable Developer Mode first in Live's *Preferences → Extensions*.
734. **Debug**: console.log/warn/error → ExtensionHost.txt (paths in [reference/scaffolding.md](reference/scaffolding.md)). In VS Code, F5 / "Debug Extension".
745. **Package**: npm run package → a distributable .ablx archive users drop into Live.
75
76## Conventions that matter
77
78- **TypeScript, ESM project, CJS bundle.** package.json is "type": "module"; build.ts bundles to format: "cjs", platform: "node". Keep it that way — the Extension Host loads CommonJS.
79- **Namespace command IDs** ("myext.action") to avoid collisions with other extensions.
80- **Most mutations are async** (Promise). Batch related edits in context.withinTransaction(() => promises) then await Promise.all(...) so the user gets one undo step and Live updates once.
81- **Narrow handle types defensively** with instanceof (e.g. resolve to Clip, then check clip instanceof AudioClip) — a menu scope can match objects the code must reject.
82- **HTML dialogs are inlined** by esbuild (loader: { ".html": "text" }) and passed as a data:text/html, URL — there's no web server.
83
In the file
SKILL.md920 words
Files5
Licence
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈100
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
9,750
on trigger
The instruction body and 4 supporting files, read only when the skill fires.
4.9%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 49% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

9.8k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

Adoption
Installsnone yet
Ratingno reviews yet

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been published here. It is in the skill’s own SKILL.md, which its author has not sent to the marketplace yet.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

It writes no files and reaches no network. All it changes is how the model reasons and writes.

What it asks for
Writes filesno
Network accessno

Read from the allowed-tools line of this skill’s own SKILL.md. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

5 files, 39.4 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • README.md8.0 kB
  • SKILL.md7.4 kB
  • reference/api.md7.2 kB
  • reference/recipes.md8.5 kB
  • reference/scaffolding.md8.3 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 5 files you can review in full before installing.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Ableton Extensions · 9.8k tokens when loaded npx mcprush@latest skill add ronvaknins/ableton-extensions

Writes to .claude/skills/ableton-extensions/ in the current project. Add --global to put it in your home directory instead, for every project.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. A client with a skills folder reads it without being told; everywhere else the same text works, it is just handed to the model rather than found.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude Desktop
ChatGPT
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok.grok/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Windsurf.windsurf/skills/
Agent SDK.claude/skills/
HTTP / API
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referenceronvaknins/ableton-extensions

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

Reviews

—no reviews yet · no installs yet

Nobody has reviewed this skill yet. The rating is the mean of the reviews written here, so there is none until somebody writes the first.

Who can post

Only accounts that have had the skill installed for fourteen days, so a review is written after living with it rather than after reading it. Publishers may reply once.

Who wrote it

RO
Ronvaknins

Publishes on mcprush.

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