Working with coding agents

Syntho is designed for a coding agent to handle most of the technical loop while you direct the product. Start with a working project, explain the sound and interaction you want, and judge each meaningful change in the development workbench.

You do not need to learn C++, JUCE, native plugin plumbing, or a separate DSP language before making something useful. Basic comfort opening a project and talking to a coding agent is enough to begin.

For hosted agent chat and the local Electron editor, start with the Studio workflow. This guide explains the collaboration loop and connecting an external coding agent to a local project.

Your part

You bring the decisions that make the tool worth using:

• the musical problem or creative idea;
• the few controls that should feel immediate;
• references for sound, movement, and visual character;
• listening feedback and the final call on what feels right.

The agent can handle graph assembly, parameter wiring, interface code, tests, validation errors, build commands, and supported release bundles.

A productive loop

1. Open the closest starter or example.
2. Ask the agent to read https://syntho.app/llms.txt and inspect the project.
3. Describe one musical outcome and a simple interface direction.
4. Let the agent make a small working pass, then listen in the workbench.
5. Respond in product language: darker, wider, less busy, faster to understand.
6. Ask the agent to run the project checks and bundle the supported outputs.

The workbench keeps this collaborative. You can hear the graph, move the real controls, inspect visual feedback, and send any error directly back to the agent. The code remains available when you want to inspect or change it, but code is not the only useful way to participate.

Connect your agent over MCP

The tool directory the agent chat uses is also a Model Context Protocol server, so the same tools work from Claude Code, an editor, or any MCP client — no browser involved:

npx @codex-music/mcp

The package exposes one canonical syntho-mcp executable, so the short npx @codex-music/mcp launch resolves without naming a second bin explicitly.

With Claude Code, register it once and it is available in every session:

claude mcp add syntho -- npx @codex-music/mcp

For any other agent that supports MCP, add the server to its MCP configuration instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "syntho": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@codex-music/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The server resolves your project from the client's workspace roots (falling back to the launch directory), so an editor pointed at a different checkout gets that checkout. Tools that write — builds, exports, scaffolding — carry the same annotations the chat's approval prompts are built from, so an MCP client that honors read-only hints asks before the same operations the chat would ask about.

A prompt that leaves room for judgment

Read https://syntho.app/llms.txt and inspect the starter already open.

Build a playable stereo delay that feels warm and immediate. Keep the main
interface to Time, Feedback, Tone, Width, and Mix. Add a clear tap visualization
and make the layout feel like a finished musical tool, not a settings panel.

Let me hear each meaningful pass in the workbench. Run the project checks and
bundle every target supported by this project before you finish.

Start with the Quickstart. The CLI overview explains the project tool the agent uses behind the scenes.