Stream Deck MCP

Stream Deck MCP lets agents build and reconfigure real Elgato Stream Deck profiles.

Quick Start · Demo · Features · Tools · Development

Tell your AI what Stream Deck you want. Get back a polished profile with buttons, icons, colors, dials, touch-strip art, and the shell scripts behind it. Stream Deck MCP writes the same profile format the Elgato desktop app already uses, so agents can author real local decks without making you build a Stream Deck plugin first.

It works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and any MCP client that can launch a stdio server.

Quick Start

Claude Code:

claude mcp add streamdeck -- uvx streamdeck-mcp

Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, and other MCP clients can use the same command:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "streamdeck": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["streamdeck-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Then ask your agent for a deck:

Make me a Slack control board for my Stream Deck + XL.

For Claude Code, install the bundled designer skill for better layout, palette, hardware, and plugin-action guidance:

uvx --from streamdeck-mcp streamdeck-mcp-install-skill

Demo

_{Product trailer generated with Remotion, showing hardware inventory, plugin discovery, configured action reuse, and a final Stream Deck + XL reveal.}

Features

• Profile-native authoring - reads and writes Elgato ProfilesV3 files directly, with ProfilesV2 fallback for older installs.
• Hardware inventory - discovers profile pages, device model names, key geometry, dials, and touch-strip support before writing.
• Installed plugin discovery - scans readable Stream Deck plugin manifests with streamdeck_read_plugins so agents can find plugin and action UUIDs.
• Configured plugin action reuse - reads existing buttons with streamdeck_read_page and preserves plugin-specific settings by copying button.raw; it does not infer private property-inspector settings.
• Offline icon generation - renders button and touch-strip PNGs from about 7,400 bundled Material Design Icons, or from short text labels.
• Script-backed automations - creates executable shell scripts in ~/StreamDeckScripts/ and wires them to Stream Deck Open actions.
• Dial and touch-strip support - installs a minimal bundled Stream Deck plugin when needed so encoder imagery survives app restarts.
• Safe write cycle - guards against the Elgato app overwriting manifest edits by enforcing a quit, write, relaunch workflow.

Agentic Workflows

The point is not generic buttons. When your agent also has Slack, Home Assistant, OBS, GitHub, Hue, Spotify, or other MCP servers loaded, it can query those systems first and build around what is actually in your environment.

Try prompts like:

• "Make me a control board for Slack." Query channels, status, and unread state; create channel jumps, status toggles, read-all controls, and dials.
• "A hello-kitty-themed Home Assistant dashboard for the living room." Discover living-room entities, then lay out scenes, lights, and media controls in a matching visual style.
• "OBS control panel based on my actual scenes and audio inputs." Read scenes, sources, and devices; write scene switches, source toggles, and per-input dial controls.
• "A dev deck for this repo in Nordic colors." Read project scripts and GitHub context; create local command buttons, PR links, and CI shortcuts.
• "A Friday demo deck." Compose across Zoom, Slack, Hue, and screen recording by generating local scripts and wiring them to one page.

Iteration is cheap: change the prompt, rerun the authoring flow, and get a new profile.

Install

The packaged entrypoint is streamdeck-mcp, run through uvx.

Cursor

Or paste into ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "streamdeck": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["streamdeck-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows, then restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "streamdeck": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["streamdeck-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add streamdeck -- uvx streamdeck-mcp

OpenAI Codex

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.streamdeck]
command = "uvx"
args = ["streamdeck-mcp"]

Other MCP Clients

Anything that speaks MCP over stdio works the same way: point it at uvx streamdeck-mcp.

Linux and Headless Setups

The default profile writer targets the Elgato Stream Deck desktop app, which is available on macOS and Windows. On Linux, headless machines, or setups where you want the MCP server to own the hardware directly, use the legacy USB server:

uvx --from streamdeck-mcp streamdeck-mcp-usb

Client config shape:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "streamdeck": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "streamdeck-mcp", "streamdeck-mcp-usb"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

Tool	What it does
streamdeck_read_plugins	Lists installed Stream Deck plugins and declared actions from readable plugin manifests. Protected or binary manifests are reported with diagnostics instead of failing the whole catalog.
streamdeck_read_profiles	Lists desktop profiles, device metadata, page directories, and active profile roots from ProfilesV3 or ProfilesV2.
streamdeck_read_page	Reads a page manifest and returns simplified button details plus raw native action objects.
streamdeck_write_page	Creates or rewrites a page manifest. Use copied button.raw values when reusing configured third-party plugin actions.
streamdeck_create_icon	Generates button or touch-strip PNGs from Material Design Icons or text. Icons are bundled offline; unknown names return close-match suggestions.
streamdeck_create_action	Creates an executable shell script in ~/StreamDeckScripts/ and returns an Open action block.
streamdeck_restart_app	Restarts the macOS Stream Deck desktop app after profile changes.
streamdeck_install_mcp_plugin	Installs the bundled streamdeck-mcp Stream Deck plugin used for durable encoder imagery. Usually auto-installed by streamdeck_write_page.

Prompt support:

Prompt	What it does
design_streamdeck_deck	Gives non-skill-aware MCP clients a condensed deck-design briefing before the user describes the deck they want.

streamdeck-designer Skill

Stream Deck MCP ships with an Agent Skill for Claude Code that teaches the agent how to plan, theme, and author full decks end to end.

Install it with:

uvx --from streamdeck-mcp streamdeck-mcp-install-skill

The skill is copied to ~/.claude/skills/streamdeck-designer/. Restart Claude Code or start a new session after installing it. Re-run with --force to upgrade after a package update.

The skill covers:

• Hardware inventory and model-specific layout planning.
• Theme palettes, typography strategy, and icon-color guidance.
• Dial and touch-strip authoring for Stream Deck + and + XL devices.
• Integration recipes for Hue, OBS, Spotify, Home Assistant, Twitch, shell commands, and browser workflows.
• Existing plugin action reuse through streamdeck_read_page and button.raw.

Clients that do not load Claude Code skills can invoke the design_streamdeck_deck MCP prompt instead.

Development

git clone https://github.com/verygoodplugins/streamdeck-mcp.git
cd streamdeck-mcp
uv venv && uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
uv run pytest tests/ -v
uv run ruff check .

To audit this repo against the shared Very Good Plugins MCP standards:

../mcp-ecosystem/scripts/audit-server.sh .

Authoring Notes

• ProfilesV3 is preferred when present. ProfilesV2 is still supported, but existing pages should be targeted by directory_id or page_index because Elgato uses opaque directory names there.
• The Elgato desktop app keeps profiles in memory and can overwrite on-disk manifest edits when it quits. streamdeck_write_page raises StreamDeckAppRunningError when the app is running and auto_quit_app is not set.
• On macOS, pass auto_quit_app: true to quit the app before writing, then call streamdeck_restart_app when done. On Windows, quit and relaunch the Elgato app manually.
• Set STREAMDECK_APP_PATH if your Elgato app is not installed at /Applications/Elgato Stream Deck.app.
• Generated icons live in ~/.streamdeck-mcp/generated-icons/. Generated shell scripts live in ~/StreamDeckScripts/.

Legacy USB Mode

The original USB-direct server is preserved for backwards compatibility. It exposes direct hardware tools:

streamdeck_list_devices, streamdeck_connect, streamdeck_info, streamdeck_set_button, streamdeck_set_buttons, streamdeck_clear_button, streamdeck_get_button, streamdeck_clear_all, streamdeck_set_brightness, streamdeck_create_page, streamdeck_switch_page, streamdeck_list_pages, streamdeck_delete_page, streamdeck_disconnect.

When multiple decks are attached, call streamdeck_list_devices first, then pass the desired serial to streamdeck_connect. Omitting serial preserves the legacy behavior of opening the first enumerated deck.

Run it with:

uvx --from streamdeck-mcp streamdeck-mcp-usb

Support

• Open an issue on GitHub
• Contact Very Good Plugins

Built by Very Good Plugins.