🎬 DaVinci Resolve MCP Bridge

The only MCP server for DaVinci Resolve that works on the Free version.

"Add a marker at 5 seconds." "Transcribe my timeline." "Remove the background from clip 1." "Render to MP4."

Just talk to your AI assistant. It controls Resolve for you.

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🤔 What Is This?

This project lets AI assistants like Cursor, Claude, or Windsurf control DaVinci Resolve through natural language. Instead of clicking through menus, you just tell the AI what to do — and it does it.

Think of it like giving your AI assistant a pair of hands inside DaVinci Resolve.

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⚡ What Makes This Different?

Every other DaVinci Resolve MCP server requires the $295 Studio version because they use "external scripting" — a feature Blackmagic locks behind the paywall.

This project works around that entirely.

Instead of calling Resolve from the outside, a small bridge script runs inside Resolve (through the Scripts menu, which is available to everyone). That bridge opens a local connection, and the MCP server talks to it. Simple — and it works on the Free version.

Your AI Assistant (Cursor, Claude, etc.)
         │
         │  talks MCP
         ▼
  resolve_mcp_bridge.py     ← runs on your machine
         │
         │  talks HTTP (localhost)
         ▼
  CursorBridge.py           ← runs INSIDE Resolve (Workspace > Scripts)
         │
         ▼
  DaVinci Resolve API       ← full read + write access

155 of 162 tools work on Free. The 7 that don't are Studio's Neural Engine features — and for each one, this project includes a free, local AI replacement that runs on your CPU.

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🧠 Built-In AI That Replaces $295 Studio Features

No API keys. No cloud. No subscriptions. These run locally on your machine using open-source models:

You'd normally need Studio for...	This gives you instead	Powered by
🎤 Voice Isolation	Separate vocals from music/noise	Demucs v4 by Meta
✂️ Background Removal	Remove backgrounds from images & video	rembg + BiRefNet
📝 Auto Subtitles	Transcribe audio with word-level timestamps	faster-whisper (OpenAI Whisper)

Models download automatically on first use. Everything runs on CPU — no GPU required.

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🎛️ 162 Tools Across Every Feature of Resolve

This isn't a demo with 5 tools. It covers the entire DaVinci Resolve experience:

Area	What you can do
Timeline	Create, rename, duplicate, switch timelines. Add/remove clips. Insert at specific frames. Delete with ripple.
Clips	Set color, opacity, zoom, pan, tilt, rotation, crop, flip, composite mode, scaling. Enable/disable.
Markers & Flags	Add/delete colored markers with notes on timelines and individual clips. Manage flags.
Media Pool	Import files, browse folders, move/delete/relink clips, auto-sync audio, export metadata.
Color Grading	Apply LUTs, set CDL values, copy grades between clips, manage color versions and groups, reset grades.
Fusion	List, add, import, export, delete, load, rename Fusion compositions on any clip.
Rendering	Configure settings, set format/codec, manage the render queue, start/stop rendering, quick export.
Titles	Insert Text+, generators, and Fusion compositions directly onto the timeline.
Audio	Apply Fairlight presets, insert audio at playhead, voice isolation (per-track and per-clip).
Gallery	Create albums, grab stills, export/import stills, set labels.
Tracks	Add, delete, rename, lock/unlock, enable/disable video/audio/subtitle tracks.
Project Management	List, create, load, delete, archive, export, import projects. Switch databases.
AI Tools	Transcribe audio, isolate vocals, remove backgrounds — all locally, no Studio required.

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🚀 Getting Started

What You Need

• DaVinci Resolve 18+ (Free or Studio — both work)
• Python 3.9+ on the same machine as Resolve
• Cursor, Claude Desktop, or any MCP-compatible AI assistant

Step 1 — Install the bridge script inside Resolve

Copy src/CursorBridge.py to your Resolve scripts folder:

Platform	Path
Windows	%APPDATA%\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Fusion\Scripts\Utility\
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Fusion/Scripts/Utility/
Linux	~/.local/share/DaVinciResolve/Fusion/Scripts/

Step 2 — Set up the MCP server

git clone https://github.com/MDizzleZA/davinci-resolve-mcp-free.git
cd davinci-resolve-mcp-free
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate   # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 3 — Tell your AI assistant about it

Add to your .cursor/mcp.json (or equivalent):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "davinci-resolve": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["path/to/davinci-resolve-mcp/src/resolve_mcp_bridge.py"]
    }
  }
}

<details> <summary><strong>Windows + WSL setup</strong> (Cursor in WSL, Resolve on Windows)</summary>

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "davinci-resolve": {
      "command": "cmd.exe",
      "args": ["/c", "C:\\path\\to\\venv\\Scripts\\python.exe", "C:\\path\\to\\src\\resolve_mcp_bridge.py"]
    }
  }
}

</details>

Step 4 — Start using it

1. Open DaVinci Resolve
2. Go to Workspace → Scripts → CursorBridge
3. Console shows: Bridge is running (read + write)
4. Talk to your AI assistant — it now controls Resolve

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💬 Things You Can Say

"What's on my timeline right now?"
"Import these files into the media pool"
"Add a green marker at 5 seconds called 'intro ends'"
"Insert a Text+ title at the playhead"
"Set the first clip on track 2 to 70% opacity"
"Zoom in clip 1 to 120% and shift it left"
"Transcribe my timeline audio"
"Isolate the vocals from my timeline"
"Remove the background from clip 1 on video track 1"
"Apply this LUT to node 1 of the current clip"
"Set up an MP4 H.265 render and start it"
"Export the timeline as FCPXML"
"Grab a still from the current frame"

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🔁 Works With the Full Pipeline

This is one piece of a three-server video production setup:

Server	What it does
This (DaVinci Resolve MCP)	Controls Resolve — timelines, clips, color, rendering, local AI
mcp-image-gen	Generates images locally (backgrounds, textures, overlays) — no API keys
Video Editor MCP	File-based video processing (ffmpeg, overlays, transitions) — no Resolve needed

The AI assistant orchestrates across all three automatically. Generate an image → import into Resolve → place on timeline → adjust properties — all from a single conversation.

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📋 Free vs Studio Compatibility

Feature	Studio	Free + This Project
Timeline editing, clips, markers	✅	✅
Color grading, LUTs, CDL	✅	✅
Rendering, export	✅	✅
Media pool, project management	✅	✅
Fusion compositions	✅	✅
Gallery & stills	✅	✅
Voice Isolation	✅ Neural Engine	✅ Demucs v4 (local)
Background Removal	✅ Magic Mask	✅ rembg/BiRefNet (local)
Auto Subtitles	✅ Neural Engine	✅ faster-whisper (local)
Smart Reframe	✅	❌
Stabilization	✅	❌

155/162 tools work on Free. The 5 that don't have local AI replacements. Only 2 have no alternative (Smart Reframe, Stabilization).

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⚠️ Limitations

• Keyframe animations — the scripting API only supports static property values, not animated keyframes
• Fusion node parameters — text content and effect values inside compositions need the Fusion page UI
• Transitions — must be added manually from the Effects Library
• Background removal on video — CPU-bound, can be slow for long clips
• Gallery stills — require being on the Color page

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🛠️ Developer notes (v2.1.0)

Version pairing

CursorBridge.BRIDGE_VERSION and resolve_mcp_bridge.EXPECTED_BRIDGE_VERSION must match. Bump both together on every wire-protocol change. resolve(action="status") reports the bridge version, the ffmpeg path, and a versionMismatch warning if they drift. Fix drift by re-running install.ps1 and re-launching the bridge in Resolve.

Install / update

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1

Copies src/CursorBridge.py into Resolve's Fusion Scripts\Utility folders. Re-run after every bridge change (stale copies are the #1 source of version drift), then Workspace > Scripts > Utility > CursorBridge.

Consolidated tools (context saving)

By default the MCP server exposes 17 grouped tools (resolve, project, media_pool, timeline, timeline_edit, tracks, clip, markers, takes, color, color_groups, gallery, fusion, fairlight, render, ai_local, metadata) instead of ~160 flat ones — each takes an action selector plus the params that action needs. Set RESOLVE_MCP_LEGACY_TOOLS=1 to also register the original flat tools (transition/debug).

Async jobs

Long local-AI ops (ai_local transcribe / voice_isolate / remove_background_video) default to async_job=true: they return a job_id immediately and run in a background thread. Poll with ai_local(action="job_status", job_id=...) or ai_local(action="list_jobs"). This avoids tripping the MCP client's tool-call timeout.

Configurable port

Set RESOLVE_BRIDGE_PORT on both sides (bridge + MCP server env) to move off 9876. RESOLVE_BRIDGE_LOG overrides the bridge's rotating log path.

Tests

venv\Scripts\python.exe -m unittest discover -s tests

Covers GET param encoding, connection-error tailoring, the version handshake, the async job state machine, and grouped-tool → endpoint routing.

Workflow skills

The grouped tools are designed to be driven by AI assistants directly, so you can build your own repeatable workflows (social clips, ad variants, podcast cleanup, timeline linting, render babysitting, project archiving) as prompts or Claude Code skills on top of them — no extra runtime needed.

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🙏 Credits

This is a fork that extends earlier work by the DaVinci Resolve MCP community:

• hiteshK03/davinci-resolve-mcp — the base this fork builds on (Free-version support, local AI features).
• samuelgursky/davinci-resolve-mcp — the original DaVinci Resolve MCP project.

This fork adds: a consolidated 17-tool grouped API (from 160+ flat tools), an async job system for long-running local-AI operations, a version handshake, and a Windows installer.

📄 License

MIT. Original copyright © Hitesh Kandala (see LICENSE); fork modifications © 2026 Marcos Diez. Use it however you want.