DaVinci Resolve MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI assistants control DaVinci Resolve Studio through the official Scripting API. It provides full API coverage plus guarded workflow helpers for editing, media pool organization, render setup, review markers, grading, Fusion, Fairlight, project lifecycle tasks, extension authoring, and source-safe media analysis.

A local browser control panel ships with the server for inspecting Resolve state, running source-safe analysis, drilling into analyzed clips and shots, and editing analysis output inline. See the Control Panel Guide for the full tour.

Quick Start

npx davinci-resolve-mcp setup

Before connecting, open DaVinci Resolve Studio and set Preferences > General > External scripting using to Local. (On the free edition that preference does not help — see Free edition below.) The npm launcher installs a managed copy under your user application-data directory, then runs the universal Python installer. The installer creates a virtual environment, detects Resolve paths, and can configure Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Zed, Continue, Cline, Roo Code, OpenCode, and JetBrains IDEs.

For source installs:

git clone https://github.com/samuelgursky/davinci-resolve-mcp.git
cd davinci-resolve-mcp
python install.py

For platform paths, client-specific config, and manual setup, see Installation and Configuration.

The installer and server check the latest GitHub release for MCP updates. Checks are best-effort and throttled; the server never blocks MCP startup for a prompt. The installer can prompt, snooze, ignore a release, disable checks, or apply an opt-in safe auto-update for clean git checkouts.

Free edition (in-app bridge)

Blackmagic gates external scripting to Studio: on the free edition scriptapp("Resolve") refuses a foreign process, whatever the preference says. The Workspace ▸ Scripts menu is not gated — a script launched from it is handed the live resolve object on any edition — so the server can reach the free edition through a small script that runs inside Resolve and re-exports it over an authenticated loopback listener.

python scripts/install_resolve_bridge.py
# restart Resolve, open a project, then: Workspace > Scripts > resolve_bridge
export DAVINCI_RESOLVE_BRIDGE=1      # opt-in; unset changes nothing

On macOS, this requires a framework Python (python.org). Resolve enumerates .py scripts only when it finds one — Homebrew, pyenv and conda interpreters are not detected, and the script silently never appears in the menu. A Lua canary is installed alongside so you can tell that apart from a wrong folder.

Validated on free 21.0.3.7 and Studio 19.1.3.7, both macOS. The Windows paths added in v2.70.1 (issue #106) shipped unverified; reports on free 21.0.1.11 (issue #109) and free 21.0.3.7 (issue #112) have since shown the bridge installing, listing and serving from both %PROGRAMDATA% and %APPDATA% on Windows 11, so those paths are now confirmed rather than assumed.

Note that the bridge holds its port for as long as it serves. Before v2.70.3 a Windows bridge could outlive Resolve and block the next session's listener; if you are on an older build and a bridge stops answering, check for a stale fuscript.exe still holding the port.

This is the documented in-app path, not a licence circumvention, but Blackmagic could close it — treat it as a supported-until-it-is-not tier. Loopback only, HMAC-signed requests, one-use nonces.

Local Control Panel

Launch the single-user local control panel from the repository root:

venv/bin/python -m src.control_panel

The command starts a localhost server and opens the control panel in your browser. To have an AI coding agent do this, ask: "Open the Resolve MCP control panel for this repo." Agents should use venv/bin/python -m src.control_panel unless your Python environment is already active. Persisted analysis jobs refresh the local search index automatically after successful slices; the manual Build Index action is for rebuilding from existing reports.

Server Modes

Mode	Entry point	Tools	Best for
Compound	src/server.py	34	Default mode for most assistants. Related Resolve operations are grouped behind action parameters to keep context usage low.
Full / granular	src/server.py --full or src/resolve_mcp_server.py	341	Power users who want one MCP tool per Resolve API method.

The compound server is recommended unless you specifically need the granular one-tool-per-method surface.

Advanced server — beyond the scripting API (optional, Node)

The same package ships a second, optional MCP server: davinci-resolve-advanced-mcp (bin bin/davinci-resolve-advanced-mcp.mjs). Where the Python server drives a live Resolve over the sanctioned scripting API, the advanced server does what the API can't — it reads and edits Resolve files (.drp / .drt / .drx) and applies DB/XML-level changes with no Resolve running, so it runs cloud or local. 18 tools: drp, drt, drx (per-clip grade codec plus a deterministic, offline grading/QC catalog — within-camera + cross-camera skin (v2 skin-line metric) + b-roll + neutral-patch WB matching, match-to-reference, saturation/black-balance, contrast-normalize, ASC CDL import, lossless grade-transfer + season-look authoring, named-LUT attach, scope reads + intent tags, verify-grade, display-referred frame extraction, broadcast-legal QC), offline_ref, conform (frame-oracle conform/relink QC + lineage), color_trace (carry grades across a re-conform), fusion, audio_plan, fairlight (bus routing), audio, project_read, project_db, pipeline (a DB-as-truth pipeline: compile YAML project specs into a canonical SQLite DB, then run stages with gates, provenance, and intent↔actual drift detection), capabilities, deliverable (deliverable QC / compliance), media (media front-end / AE ingest), editorial (editorial integrity / changelist), provenance (provenance / audit / episode report). It can also be consumed as a library (importable engine API), not just spawned as a server.

DRX grade writes are live-calibrated against Resolve Studio: grade params take Resolve's on-screen panel units by default (space: 'ui' | 'drx'), and the structural writes (power windows, qualifiers, HDR zones, HSL curves, ColorSlice, blur/key/motion-effects) are panel-readback-verified — per-control status in resolve-advanced/vendor/drx-parameters/CALIBRATION-STATUS.md. It also closes a UI-only gap: programmatic "Cleanup Node Graph" (drx relayout for one clip, project_db relayout_node_graphs for a whole project) — node layout tidied, grade content byte-preserved.

Add it alongside the live server (both ship in one npm install):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "davinci-resolve": { "command": "<python>", "args": ["<path>/src/server.py"] },
    "davinci-resolve-advanced": { "command": "node", "args": ["<path>/bin/davinci-resolve-advanced-mcp.mjs"] }
  }
}

install.py prints both entries. The core is pure-JS/MIT with no required native modules; a few features need user-installed tools (ffmpeg for audio, sharp/better-sqlite3 for some paths) — call the capabilities tool for live status and install hints.

Bradford Post Assistant — managed application (closed beta)

The maintainers also build Bradford Post Assistant, a desktop application on top of this open foundation. Where the MCP servers give an agent hands, Post Assistant is the working copilot around them — an on-device AI assistant for post-production where client material never leaves the workstation:

• A post-production copilot — a desktop app that sits alongside DaVinci Resolve and watches the session live (timeline, grades, and frames — not just API calls), with an embedded AI assistant and agent runtime, local media analysis (transcription, frame analysis, editorial intelligence), and in-app conform QC.
• Memory — persistent, encrypted on-device assistant memory plus cross-episode learning mined from your pipeline's decoded facts (season-look drift, per-camera correction priors, hero-frame libraries, conform path-map reuse), with accumulation managed for you and a reviewed-insight workflow.
• Self-contained by design — Post Assistant wires everything itself: this MCP for Resolve control, the Bradford API for its extended services, and your choice of LLM provider. Nothing to configure by hand, no separate clients to manage, and the app keeps itself (and its bundled MCP) current with signed auto-updates.
• An extended professional toolset — grade surgery on live projects, 22+ adaptive grade families, a curated looks library, delivery-spec validation, editorial pacing/cleanup analysis, natural-language color direction, and Fusion composition authoring — delivered through the managed Bradford API.
• Production workflows — the raw tools composed into finished, real-world flows (turnover → conform → QC → delivery, season-look carry, episode reporting) with the guardrails and approvals a client-facing shop expects.

It is currently in closed beta — you can request access at bradfordoperations.com/software/post-assistant. The open-source servers are complete and fully functional on their own.

What You Can Do

"List all projects and open the one called 'My Film'"
"Create a timeline called 'Assembly Cut' from all clips in the current bin"
"Build a multicam prep timeline from selected camera angles and preserve source media"
"Detect 2-pops or slate claps and suggest record offsets for sync prep"
"Publish analysis summaries, keywords, people, and slate hints into Resolve clip metadata"
"Probe this timeline for gaps, overlaps, missing media, and source frame ranges"
"Safely import this image sequence, organize it into bins, and normalize clip metadata"
"Build a ProRes 422 HQ render plan, validate the settings, and queue the job"
"Copy review markers from the timeline to the selected clip and export a review report"
"Snapshot this clip's grade, validate a CDL update, and export a temp LUT"
"Create a Fusion TextPlus overlay on the selected clip and verify graph connections"
"Report audio channel mappings, voice isolation availability, and subtitle support"
"Install this MCP-marked DCTL or script, classify refresh/restart needs, then remove it"

Core Capabilities

Area	What the compound server supports
App and project control	Launch/reconnect, page switching, project CRUD, project folders, databases, cloud project wrappers, settings, presets, archives
Media pool and ingest	Safe import, image sequences, multicam prep timelines, bin organization, metadata normalization, metadata field inventory, marks, annotations, relink/proxy/full-resolution guards
Media analysis	Source-safe file/clip/bin/project analysis, 2-pop/slate-clap sync-event detection, default Resolve metadata and Media Pool marker writeback, persisted analysis artifacts, existing-report reuse, host_chat_paths visual analysis (finalized per clip with commit_vision, works with any vision-capable MCP client) with opt-out, transcription with opt-out
Timeline editing and conform	Track/item probing, title text key scans/writes, copy/move/duplicate helpers, range operations, gaps/overlaps, source ranges, checked interchange exports/imports
Review annotations	Timeline/item/clip markers, custom data, flags, clip color, copy/move/sync cleanup, review reports, marker thumbnail review
Color and grading	Node graph probing, CDL validation, grade copy, DRX/LUT helpers, versions, Gallery stills, color groups
Fusion	Timeline-item comps, safe tool creation, input writes, port inspection, validated connections, scoped bulk writes
Audio and Fairlight	Track/item probes, source mapping, guarded audio property writes, voice isolation, auto-sync planning, transcription/subtitle probes
Render and deliver	Format/codec matrix probing, render settings validation, queued job lifecycle checks, guarded Quick Export
Extension authoring	Fuse, DCTL, ACES DCTL, and Resolve-page Lua/Python script lifecycle helpers with safe MCP-marked install/remove

Optional Extras

The core install is deliberately small: Python, ffmpeg, and the Resolve scripting API. Some features need more, and each one refuses honestly with its own install line rather than degrading into a guess — a fabricated tempo or an invented level produces confident, wrong output, which is worse than no feature.

Run python scripts/doctor.py to see which of these you have.

Extra	Unlocks	Licence
ffmpeg on PATH	Silence detection, dead-space markers, level measurement, audio analysis. The single most useful thing to install.	LGPL/GPL — invoked as a subprocess, never bundled
pip install numpy	Colour pre-balance, reference-still matching, sound-density audit	BSD
pip install librosa	Beat, bar and phrase detection for music-driven cutting	ISC
pip install -U openai-whisper	Transcription, and everything word-level built on it	MIT
pip install open_clip_torch	Visual similarity and find_similar	MIT
pip install transformers	CLAP audio embeddings	Apache-2.0
pip install opencv-python	Additional frame analysis	Apache-2.0

media_analysis action capabilities reports the analysis stack in detail and tells you what each missing piece would enable.

Nothing here is bundled. Model weights carry their own licences separate from the code that loads them; check them before commercial use.

What This Does Not Do

Knowing where a tool stops is worth as much as knowing what it does, and it is cheaper to read it here than to discover it mid-project.

Not supported	Why, and what you get instead
Choosing the best take	Performance is most of what makes a take right, and none of it is measurable from a waveform or a transcript. rank_takes ranks fluency — fillers, restarts, script coverage — and says so in every response. The take that plays is regularly the least fluent one, because the hesitation is often the acting. Use it to find the clean safety take, not to choose the read.
Cutting to music	No beat or downbeat detection yet. Speech-driven tools will read a music bed as one long region and are the wrong instrument for it.
Judging a cut	Nothing here has an opinion about whether an edit is good. Every destructive action is plan → review → confirm for that reason.
Replacing an editor	The output is a first-pass assembly, in the assistant-editor sense: ingest, sync, organize, string out, flag problems. It is a starting point you cut, not a finished cut. Defaults are deliberately generous — a first assembly is supposed to run long, because trimming is fast and visible while recovering discarded material is slow and invisible.
Modifying your source media	By design and without exception — see below.

Anything analyzed but unverifiable is reported as unverified, never folded into "fine". An empty result means "nothing found", never "nothing to find".

Source Media Safety

This project treats camera originals and source media as immutable. Analysis tools read source files and write reports only to sidecar, scratch, or project analysis directories; confirmed metadata publishing writes only to Resolve's project database. The server must not modify, transcode, proxy, or create derivatives of source media unless the user explicitly asks for that. See Media Analysis Guide for the detailed source-safe workflow.

Security Posture

The default server is a local stdio process launched by your MCP client; it does not expose a network listener or built-in multi-user auth surface. Tool metadata includes MCP client-safety hints for read-only, destructive, idempotent, and external-resource operations. See Security Policy for operational boundaries, confirmation guidance, and vulnerability reporting.

Key Stats

Metric	Value
MCP Tools	34 compound / 341 granular (live server)
Advanced (offline) tools	18 — .drp/.drt/.drx + DB authoring, no Resolve running
Kernel Actions	136 guarded workflow actions across 9 compound tools
API Methods Covered	349/349 (100%)
Methods Live Tested	338/349 (96.8%)
Live Test Pass Rate	338/338 (100%)
Tested Against	DaVinci Resolve 19.1.3 Studio + Resolve 20.3.2 Studio + Resolve 21.0.2 Studio

For method-by-method status, see API Coverage and Test Results. For current workflow support, see Kernel Action Coverage.

analyze_media executes directly by default, persists inspectable reports/artifacts under the analysis root, requests host-chat visual analysis via the host_chat_paths protocol (analyze returns absolute frame paths + a JSON schema; the host chat reads each frame as an image and calls media_analysis(action="commit_vision", ...) to finalize), runs transcription through the configured local backend, and writes analysis summaries plus source-time Media Pool clip markers back to the Resolve project. Pass include_visuals=false, include_transcription=false, publish_metadata=false, timed_markers=no, or dry_run=true only when you want to opt out of those default behaviors. Skipping commit_vision leaves the run in pending_host_vision_analysis — surfaced as a failure mode, not silently downgraded.

Documentation

Document	Use it for
Installation and Configuration	Requirements, installer options, supported clients, server modes, manual config
API Coverage and Test Results	Key stats, API coverage table, live-test status, full method reference
Kernel Action Coverage	Current guarded workflow action map
AI Skill Reference	Operational context for AI assistants using the compound server
Control Panel Guide	Local browser panel tour: Overview, Review (bin/clip/shot), Analyze, Setup, Preferences
Media Analysis Guide	Source-safe FFprobe, FFmpeg, Whisper, sidecar, and analysis-root workflows
Multicam Setup Helper Guide	Stacked timeline prep, helper/API boundary, and Resolve UI conversion steps
Editorial Decision Guide	Project-owned editorial craft guidance for analysis and timeline decisions
Color Decision Guide	Project-owned color correction guidance and Resolve color API boundaries
Contributing and Project Layout	Contribution workflow, platform support, security notes, repository structure
Security Policy	Local stdio trust boundary, tool metadata, confirmation guidance, reporting
Release Process	Maintainer release checklist, version surfaces, validation, tags, and release notes
Changelog	Historical release notes

Extension authoring references live in docs/authoring. Resolve developer-package notes live in docs/notes and docs/integrations. Prompt recipes live in examples.

Requirements

• DaVinci Resolve 18.5+ on macOS, Windows, or Linux. Studio supports external scripting directly. The free edition does not — Blackmagic gates external scripting to Studio — but it is still reachable through the in-app bridge, which runs inside Resolve from the ungated Workspace ▸ Scripts menu.
• Python 3.10+ (3.10-3.12 is the lowest-risk range). Python 3.13/3.14 also work on recent Resolve builds (verified on Studio 20.3.2); older builds may fail to connect on 3.13+, in which case use 3.10-3.12.
• Resolve external scripting set to Local (Studio). On the free edition this preference has no effect — use the in-app bridge instead.

Resolve 19.1.3 remains the compatibility baseline. Resolve 20.x scripting calls are additive, version-guarded, and live-tested on 20.3.2. Resolve 21.0 scripting additions (audio classification, speaker-detection transcription, IntelliSearch, slate analysis, motion-deblur, speech generation, session background-task control) are exposed behind runtime capability detection, so they stay inert on older builds and activate automatically on Resolve 21+. They are live-tested on Studio 21.0.2.4 — see the Resolve 21 delta. Note that AnalyzeForIntellisearch, AnalyzeForSlate and GenerateSpeech each require a separately-downloaded AI Extras pack, and Resolve reports a missing pack inconsistently (some return False, others an error string), so these actions report success: false with the Resolve-supplied reason rather than guessing.

Development

python src/server.py          # Compound server
python src/server.py --full   # Granular server
venv/bin/python tests/test_import.py
venv/bin/python scripts/audit_api_parity.py

Release and validation rules are in docs/process/release-process.md. AI agents working in this repository should start with AGENTS.md; Claude Code users can also read CLAUDE.md, which points to the same canonical instructions.

License

MIT

Author

Samuel Gursky (samgursky@gmail.com)

• GitHub: github.com/samuelgursky

Acknowledgments

• Blackmagic Design for DaVinci Resolve and its scripting API
• The Model Context Protocol team for enabling AI assistant integration