Is anyone using this MCP for Dorico to connect, say, Claude Cowork to Dorico? GitHub - happycastle114/dorico-mcp-server: MCP Server for controlling Dorico via Claude Desktop - 작곡 전공자를 위한 AI 작곡 도우미 · GitHub
It looks like it could be useful — not for generative AI (I have no interest, personally) but for things like dictating to Dorico, layout, etc.
did you try it, RIchard?
If you try it, I would like to know your results. Interesting.
I had a look at that when the original post appeared. My impression was that someone tried to vibe-code something with which to vibe-use Dorico. I would be very surprised if it is able to achieve anything more than the basic server handshake, and not at all if it even fails to do that.
No. I’m reluctant to try third party mcps unless I can verify the developer
I tried to install it but the handshake failed, and claude code couldn’t solve the problem. that’s on the latest 6.2.3 version of dorico.
i paid $50 for the notation express pro package with iOS streamdeck, but tbh found it rather useless — there was nothing there that I couldn’t already assign keyboard shortcuts to, of course, and use faster via the keyboard. At least that was my personal experience… but I’d love to be shown its potential by some streamdeck users here. (… anyway, I am hopeful for an AI integration at some point!).
But… but… I hear it is so intelligent?!?
Yeah, that was my experience too.
Here’s my SD setup:
Almost all of these are macros rather than simple shortcuts. Since I could never figure out how to complete the API handshake with the StreamDeck, I just manually hacked in a bunch of shortcuts into my user keycommands_en.json file, so I could access shortcuts not available through the factory Dorico interface.
Is that a Sibelius page break icon I spot there in the left bottom corner?
(Also: what does the one with the glasses do?)
From my experience bulk assigning dynamics, tremolos etc. as well as changing voices and filtering by different parameters is faster with Stream Deck. For example pressing one key for sfz rather than pressing SHIFTDsfz is clearly faster. And the new Note Tools category (theSHIFT I equivalent) is very powerful when you do things repeating.
It’s just a Wingdings glyph. That’s one of my most used SD buttons. I always put a System Break on the very first system, even though that’s technically unnecessary, as it then allows for easy copying and pasting of system breaks. I don’t like Propagate Part Formatting because it converts breaks to Frame Breaks at pages, even though they aren’t in the source, so I use this:
I honestly don’t use that one as much right now, but was working on a large project a while back where it was handy. It creates an Instrument Filter to only show staves that have music on them.
That’s a very nice idea. It should be upgraded to a feature request.
The feature for creating an instrument filter from selection exists already (though it’s named differently in the key commands preferences). The only extra step is filtering for notes and rests first, to include only sounding instruments.
wow ok i’m learning a lot here… maybe i need to try again with the streamdeck. or at least these macros.. these screenshots are from the streamdeck macro builder? tbh i didn’t really get into it.
Yeah, from the SD software. The big catch is that because these are all shortcut based instead of API, you might need to hack in shortcuts if Dorico doesn’t provide an option for that shortcut through the interface.
For example, my “Play 1st x only” SD button not only adds the text, but mutes the playback on the 2nd pass:
Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut for that, so I had to hack it in as below:
Basically it means my SD setup is definitely going to be unique to my system, as many of these buttons won’t work at all on another system that hasn’t had these shortcuts added.
Now, if I could figure out how to do it with the API it would be a different story, but I can’t figure out how to complete the handshake with a Stream Deck. I know the Notation Express team wrote a plug-in to accomplish that, but that’s way beyond my skill level.
For me, it saves not having to remember all the keyboard shortcuts! Having said that, I tend to use the Jump Bar more than navigating the StreamDeck. What I have recently, done, however, is create a StreamDeck page that has my most often-used buttons so I don’t have to navigate different pages. There are some things that I just tend to do on StreamDeck always – swap staff contents, duplicate/move to staff above/below, next/previous layout, etc.
But yeah, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to most of them (or they already exist), but REMEMBERING all the keyboard shortcuts can be difficult for me, at least
It seems that this has morphed from a discussion of the third-party Dorico MCP into one on SD shortcuts. I love my (3) Stream Decks and am constantly using a mixture of Notation Express shortcuts and my own. Many of them are quite temporary, to solve tedious tasks in one specific score or as a stopgap when memorizing key commands.
But getting back to MCP’s, it would be very useful to have an official MCP for Dorico which would allow Dorico to interact with Claude, etc regarding the layout of scores, the setup of the mixer, etc. Not — repeat not — to write our music for us but simply to take care of humdrum tasks — what David Sparks calls the “donkey work” that so much computer work entails, even with great programs like Dorico — that have nothing to do with composition or orchestration and very little to do even with the creative aspects of notation and score layout.
Yesterday I got interested in the MCP for Dorico and found a version that many people who were interested had already tried. But since I have the new version, they’re not compatible. I spent the whole day adapting it to the new version. I set this challenge for myself. Claude helped me. I was learning reverse engineering. MCP is now working with the latest version—I can enter notes—but I still need to fine-tune the other features. I’m just sharing my progress. To reiterate, I’m not a professional programmer, but I am a professional musician. I’ll write in a few days to let you know how everything’s working. 
