Creative coding, MCP-native

An MCP-native creative coding app.

Vivid is a macOS app where a DAW-style Session View and a rewireable visual node graph live in one project — and everything is controllable over MCP, so you (and AI agents) can author, inspect and verify whole pieces in code, not just nudge knobs. Sound drives picture, picture drives sound, and the whole thing is yours to fork.

Download for macOS Start Here →

A signed macOS build, published via GitHub Releases.

What it is

Session ViewA DAW-style timeline of tracks, clips, scenes, instruments, effects and a mixer — the musical half of the graph.
Visual node graphA rewireable graph of visual operators — real geometry, shaders and compositing — that you build and fork like code.
The mapping bridgeA bidirectional bridge: musical and control signals drive visual parameters, and visual state can drive audio back.
MCP-native controlEvery operation is exposed over MCP, so agents (and scripts) author, inspect and verify whole projects — not just nudge knobs.

Showcase

All showcases →

Type 1 · Session View + visual graph + mappings

Your first project

The beginner project: a Surge XT track and a project-local shader whose rings pulse from four audio-to-visual mappings — the notes drive the picture, saved as a portable project.

View the builder →

Type 2 · Session View scenes + reactive geometry

Pulse

A techno scene driving a per-note geometry graph — hexagons for the bassline, wireframe octahedra for the lead, particle bursts on every drum hit.

View the builder →

Type 3 · The bidirectional bridge

Mirror

The bridge runs both ways: the music drives the picture, and the picture's feedback and blur drive a filter on the sound back.

View the builder →

Type 4 · Creative-coding a project-local shader

Live shader edit

A woven interference field authored as a project-local WGSL shader — edited, broken and recovered live over MCP.

View the builder →

Type 5 · The curated free-plugin path

Neon

A synthwave track built entirely on free plugins (Surge XT + Cassette Drums) with a Tron-glow vector visual.

View the builder →

Type 3 · Composable value-lane graph

Spectrum

A live 3D FFT equaliser assembled from separate lane nodes — an AudioSpectrum node feeds per-band bar heights, a LanePalette node the colour gradient, through the new value-lane transport. Each bar is one frequency of the sound Vivid is making.

View the builder →

Type 3 · SDF raymarch, bass-driven

Blob

A raymarched SDF metaball that swells, melds and glows to the kick — the bass drives its size, its smooth-union blend and its emission through the audio→visual bridge, fast-attack then glide.

View the builder →

Type 3 · Animated audio deformer

Crystal

A sphere churned by an animated noise deformer into shifting crystalline spikes — the kick grows the spikes and swells the form, the hats sharpen the facets.

View the builder →

Type 3 · GPU curl-noise particles

Storm

A GPU curl-noise particle storm — transients burst new embers into the field, the kick churns the turbulence and swells the particles.

View the builder →

Start with a tutorial

All tutorials →

Start Here · Beginner

First MCP-native project

A Surge XT track, a project-local shader, and audio mapped to visuals — saved as one portable, reloadable project.

Needs: Surge XT

Open the tutorial →

Creative coding · Beginner

Live shader edit

Discover a shader node's backing file, edit the WGSL and reload live, then deliberately break it and recover using Vivid's own diagnostics.

Needs: None

Open the tutorial →

C++

Creative coding · Advanced

Project C++ operator

Scaffold a project-local C++ visual operator, compile it with clang++, and hot-swap it live after an edit.

Needs: Xcode Command Line Tools

Open the tutorial →