Tool reference

MCP tools for Avid Media Composer.

The published avid-media-composer-mcp package exposes 27 Model Context Protocol tools. Every offline tool is read-only. The only mutating tool applies a previewed, token-confirmed plan through a compatible Avid Extension bridge and fails closed when that bridge is unavailable.

Tool discovery through tools/list is authoritative for the installed package. The development branch adds further local media intelligence, saved-snapshot and native Windows tools; see implementation status for the exact build.

Health, capabilities and compatibility

Discover what the server can do on this host before reading any project data.

Tool	Purpose	Mutation
`avid_ping`	Server health and mode	None
`avid_get_capabilities`	Authority, dependency, coverage and bridge report	None
`avid_get_bridge_status`	Validate bridge heartbeat and advertised support	None
`avid_get_compatibility_matrix`	Report the latest three release/platform contracts	None
`avid_check_compatibility`	Evaluate a Media Composer/OS/architecture combination	None
`avid_detect_installations`	Find standard Windows/macOS installations	None
`avid_diagnose_integrations`	Distinguish AMA, AMT, AVX, AAX, NEXIS and Distributed Processing prerequisites	None

Project discovery and inventory

Find Avid projects and classify every file in a project tree without opening Media Composer.

Tool	Purpose	Mutation
`avid_discover_projects`	Find directories containing .avp files	None
`avid_inventory_project_files`	Classify and optionally hash a project tree, including active or orphaned bin locks	None
`avid_analyze_project`	Aggregate project, configuration, bin, interchange and media report	None
`avid_analyze_configuration`	Decode or fingerprint AVP, AVS and configuration files	None

Bin and interchange analysis

Parse AVB, AAF, ALE, EDL and OTIO structures and flag missing, malformed, truncated or opaque data.

Tool	Purpose	Mutation
`avid_analyze_bin`	Deep .avb analysis through pyavb: mobs, tracks, clips, sequences, views and metadata	None
`avid_analyze_aaf`	Deep .aaf analysis through pyaaf2: mobs, slots, components, essence and descriptors	None
`avid_analyze_ale`	Parse ALE headings, columns and rows	None
`avid_analyze_edl`	Parse CMX-style EDL events, transitions, comments and motion lines	None
`avid_analyze_otio`	Validate bounded OTIO JSON structure and report interchange-fidelity risks	None
`avid_preview_otio_handoff`	Build a local-media manifest, checksums, blockers and manual-import readiness report	None
`avid_analyze_dnx_turnover`	Assess supplied DNx and DNx 4.0 turnover metadata and target-version risks	None

Media, markers and transcripts

Inspect media containers and validate editorial sidecar packages locally.

Tool	Purpose	Mutation
`avid_analyze_clip`	Full ffprobe metadata and editorial summary with optional frame counting and SHA-256 hashing	None
`avid_validate_marker_package`	Validate source markers and reject unsafe SVG overlays	None
`avid_compare_transcripts`	Compare transcript revisions locally and return aggregate timing and speaker QC without text	None

Guarded editing and bridge

Preview, tokenize and apply bounded edit plans only through a compatible Avid Extension bridge.

Tool	Purpose	Mutation
`avid_get_edit_operation_catalog`	Browse the 167 planned editing actions	None
`avid_get_extension_capability_manifest`	Report SDK, onboarding, implementation and host-evidence status for all catalog actions	None
`avid_get_live_state`	Read live state through an Extension bridge	Bridge request only
`avid_preview_edit_plan`	Validate, risk-label and tokenize a plan	None
`avid_apply_edit_plan`	Apply an exact confirmed plan through the bridge	Yes, guarded

Enterprise reads

Allowlisted, read-only access to MediaCentral when explicitly configured.

Tool	Purpose	Mutation
`avid_ctms_read`	Discover or follow one allowlisted read-only MediaCentral CTMS HAL relation	Network read

Resources and prompts

Alongside the tools, the server exposes one MCP resource and two prompts.

avid://catalog/edit-actions resource: the 167-action editing catalog. Catalog coverage is a design map, not live validation.
avid-project-audit prompt: audit a project before conform, turnover, migration or archive.
avid-safe-edit prompt: preview, confirm and apply a bounded edit through the bridge.

Bounded output limits

Large projects are bounded by explicit environment limits and every report identifies truncation.

AVID_MCP_MAX_FILES, default 10000
AVID_MCP_MAX_BINS, default 100
AVID_MCP_MAX_MEDIA_FILES, default 100
AVID_MCP_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MS, default 30000

A cataloged editing action is a planned protocol contract, not proof that Media Composer performed it. Read the capability matrix and source on GitHub for status vocabulary and evidence.