AI-powered audio editing in Audacity through the Model Context Protocol
AudacityMCP
AI-powered audio editing in Audacity through the Model Context Protocol
Quick Start • Why AudacityMCP? • Pipelines • Tool Reference • Troubleshooting
AudacityMCP connects any MCP-compatible AI assistant to Audacity, giving it full control over audio editing through 131 tools spanning effects, cleanup, mastering, transcription, and more. Talk to your AI assistant and it edits your audio in real-time.
No cloud. No API keys for audio processing. Everything runs locally through Audacity's named pipe interface.
Compatibility: AudacityMCP currently works with Audacity 3.x only. Audacity 4.x is not yet supported — we hope to add support in the future.
Works With
AudacityMCP works with any AI client that supports the Model Context Protocol:
- Claude Desktop — Anthropic's desktop app
- Claude Code — CLI agent
- Cursor — AI code editor with MCP support
- Any other MCP-compatible client
Quick Start
1. Get AudacityMCP
Option A: Click the green Code button above → Download ZIP → extract to a folder
Option B: Clone with git:
git clone https://github.com/xDarkzx/Audacity-MCP.git
2. Run the installer (sets up everything else automatically)
Open the folder and run:
- Windows: Double-click
install.bat - macOS / Linux: Open terminal in the folder and run
bash install.sh
The installer does 3 things: installs
audacity-mcpfrom PyPI, enables mod-script-pipe in Audacity, and configures Claude Desktop — no manual JSON editing needed.
Other MCP clients (Cursor, Claude Code, etc.)
If you're not using Claude Desktop, install manually with pip install audacity-mcp and add to your client's MCP config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"audacity": {
"command": "audacity-mcp"
}
}
}
Check your client's MCP documentation for the config file location.
3. Start editing
Open Audacity, load some audio, then talk to your AI:
"Clean up this podcast recording"
"Master this track for Spotify, it's EDM"
"Transcribe this and add labels at each sentence"
"Add reverb with a large room, then export as FLAC"
Audacity must be open first. AudacityMCP communicates through Audacity's named pipe — it can't launch Audacity for you.
See the full Installation Guide for detailed setup on all platforms and MCP clients.
Why AudacityMCP?
Without AudacityMCP: You manually navigate menus, tweak effect parameters by ear, apply effects one at a time, look up ACX specs, and repeat until it sounds right.
With AudacityMCP: You describe what you want in plain English and the AI handles the rest — picking the right effects, setting industry-standard parameters, and chaining operations together.
| Manual Audacity | With AudacityMCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Podcast cleanup | 5+ steps across different menus, guessing compressor settings | "Clean up this podcast" — one sentence |
| Music mastering | Research genre-appropriate EQ/compression, apply each manually | "Master this for Spotify, it's hip-hop" — genre-tuned presets |
| Noise removal | Effect → Noise Reduction → Get Profile → select all → apply | "Remove the background noise" — automatic profiling |
| Batch operations | Repetitive menu navigation for each operation | Describe the full chain and watch it happen |
| Transcription | Export audio, use external tool, import results back | "Transcribe this and add labels" — stays in Audacity |
| Learning curve | Know which effects exist and what parameters to use | Just describe the result you want |
AudacityMCP is especially useful for:
- Podcasters who want consistent, professional sound without audio engineering knowledge
- Musicians who need quick mastering with genre-appropriate settings
- Content creators working with interviews, voiceovers, or field recordings
- Anyone wh
Tools (1)
audio_processing_toolsProvides access to over 131 tools for effects, cleanup, mastering, and transcription within Audacity.Configuration
{"mcpServers": {"audacity": {"command": "audacity-mcp"}}}