An AI production assistant that works with your Ableton Live.
What it does · Getting started · Connections · Safety · Privacy
Live Smith helps you understand, arrange, and edit a Live Set through conversation. Select a track, Clip, device, or another supported Live object and choose Ask Live Smith. Your conversation starts with that musical context.
Note
Live Smith is beta software and requires an Ableton Live build with Extensions support. See the development guide for installation from source.
- Work with your Set. Inspect tracks, Clips, devices, and MIDI notes, then create or edit MIDI parts, organize tracks and Scenes, adjust mixer settings, and work with observed samples and native Live devices. Analyze isolated Arrangement audio ranges for level measurements. With a verified audio-input model, Live Smith can also render a requested Arrangement Clip range directly into the active request for listening or transcription. Return and Main tracks can be inspected and used for bounded device-chain and mixer-parameter edits. Existing Rack Chains, including empty Chains, expose their direct devices and Volume, Panning, and Sends; ordinary Racks can append new empty Chains.
- Keep conversations organized. Use separate Sessions for different parts of your Set, revisit their history, or collapse the Sessions panel for more space.
- Choose models in the composer. Save several models in one connection Profile, then switch models and supported reasoning levels below the message box. The context meter shows the active model context when reported. Each model can override its context-window size and auto-compaction threshold; a blank threshold defaults to 90% when the context window is known.
- Guide the musical approach. Enable arrangement Skills per Session or mention one for a single request. Open a built-in Skill to read its instructions before enabling it.
- Bring reference material. Paste or drag images, documents, or audio into the composer. Input support depends on the model and connection.
- Keep work moving. Queue a follow-up for the next turn, steer the response already in progress, or stop it. Long runs of tool and Apply activity collapse into one expandable timeline item so the conversation stays readable.
- Search when needed. Compatible Direct API connections can enable hosted Web Search, with search activity and citations visible in the conversation.
Try requests such as:
“Create a four-bar bass MIDI idea on this track.”
“Help the chorus stand out using the parts already in this Set.”
“Inspect this device and explain what its current settings are doing.”
Composer commands are recognized only at the start of a message:
/compact [instructions]compacts the current Session now and can name what the checkpoint should preserve. The Session must have no active request and new conversation activity since its latest checkpoint. While manual compaction is running, the composer’s Stop control requests cancellation; once checkpoint persistence has begun, a successfully saved checkpoint takes priority./steer <message>guides an active response immediately; while idle, it starts an ordinary request./queue <message>schedules a turn after the active response; while idle, it starts an ordinary request./clearswitches to a fresh Session. The previous Session and any work still running there remain available in History.
- Install and run the extension using the development guide.
- In Live, right-click a supported object and choose Ask Live Smith.
- Open Inspector → Agent, create a named Profile, and choose a connection.
- Use Load Models, choose a default model, and Save & Use the Profile. Direct API connections also allow entering a model ID manually.
- Ask for help. Review proposed edits according to the Session’s approval mode.
A Profile groups one connection and its model settings. Once it is saved, the composer lets you change the active Session’s model without returning to Inspector.
See model settings for catalog loading, generation options, and capability indicators.
Connect an OpenAI, Anthropic, or compatible API service using its endpoint and API key. Supported request formats are OpenAI Responses, OpenAI Chat Completions, and Anthropic Messages. API usage is billed by the provider.
Google Gemini works through its official OpenAI Chat Completions compatibility endpoint. See the Gemini setup for the connection fields and capability settings.
Hosted Web Search is available through supported OpenAI Responses and Anthropic Messages connections. It is off by default and configured per model.
Sign in inside Live Smith with ChatGPT, Claude, or Google Antigravity. Live Smith owns the OAuth session and calls the provider product backend directly; customers do not install Codex CLI, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Antigravity, or provide an API key. Each subscription Profile has its own sign-in state, even when another Profile uses the same provider. Creating a new Profile therefore starts signed out, and signing out affects only that Profile.
After the provider returns a pending authorization, the Extension Host opens the default system browser on macOS or Windows. ChatGPT displays its device code in the dialog. Claude completes browser PKCE through a local callback. Antigravity returns to Google's hosted callback page; copy the authorization code shown there into Live Smith to finish sign-in. Live Smith checks the account automatically after that submission. If Google requires an additional account verification before enabling Antigravity, the dialog shows the verified Google page and asks you to sign in again after completing it.
ChatGPT uses the Codex backend API, Claude uses OAuth-authenticated Anthropic Messages, and Google uses the Antigravity product backend. Anthropic currently assigns third-party OAuth traffic to Claude Extra Usage when it is enabled. Antigravity uses the account's default entitlement and region; Live Smith does not import CLI-local license-tier or project-region overrides. Hosted Web Search is not exposed through subscription Profiles. If an account check is unavailable, use Sign out to clear its saved OAuth session before signing in again.
See model connections for setup requirements and provider-specific limitations.
Inspector → App → Network Proxy provides three global modes: No proxy, System proxy, and Manual proxy. The selected route applies consistently to Direct API requests and to subscription sign-in, token refresh, model catalog, and model traffic. Loopback endpoints remain direct so local model servers keep working.
System proxy discovery follows static macOS HTTP, HTTPS, or SOCKS settings and
the current Windows user's static Internet Settings. It uses a fixed, read-only
Windows registry query; it does not run a shell or modify the registry.
Automatic PAC/WPAD configuration is not evaluated. An automatic setting found
in this static key is rejected; connection-specific or machine-scoped settings
are not read and provide no static route. PAC/WPAD URLs cannot be entered in
Manual mode; enter the concrete proxy URL instead. Windows System mode supports
static HTTP and HTTPS destination entries through ordinary HTTP proxies; use
Manual mode for an HTTPS proxy transport or SOCKS5.
Manual proxy accepts an http://, https://, socks://, or socks5:// URL
without embedded credentials. Existing installs remain on No proxy until this
setting is changed.
Proxy modes are strict: Live Smith does not silently fall back to a different route. If the selected Manual or System proxy cannot be reached, provider requests stop with an actionable proxy message so you can start the proxy, correct the setting, or choose another mode.
Each Session has separate Approval and Edit Scope controls in the composer, initially labelled Manual and All scopes. Changes save immediately. The ? hints inside Scope explain the less obvious category boundaries.
| Edit Scope | Allowed changes |
|---|---|
| MIDI | MIDI Clips, notes, and Clip properties. |
| Audio | Audio Clips, Warp, and Clip properties. |
| Devices | Instruments, effects, Racks, Drum Pads, and Simpler samples. |
| Mixer | Mixer parameters, mute, solo, and arm. |
| Structure | Tracks, Scenes, Cue Points, Take Lanes, and tempo. |
Scopes can be combined. The All checkbox selects or clears every category; clearing all makes the Session Read only while keeping inspection available. New and historical Sessions without a saved scope selection use All. The scope controls edits, not which Live information the assistant can read. Instruments and effects share Devices because the current SDK cannot reliably classify every device.
Live Smith can write MIDI or audio Clips into an existing Take Lane after it has inspected that lane. Take Lane Clip content uses the MIDI or Audio scope; creating or renaming the lane itself uses Structure. A newly created lane must be inspected before a later request writes into it, and Live Smith refuses to create over an occupied range whose overlap behavior cannot be verified.
Rack Chain creation uses the Devices and Mixer scopes because each new Chain owns both a device container and a Chain mixer. Existing Chain mixer parameter edits use Mixer. Drum Rack pad creation remains the dedicated Drum Pad workflow, which verifies the receiving note and reports partial completion. The current SDK does not expose Chain names, deletion, duplication, or reordering.
Plans outside the selected scope are rejected before any action runs. Container operations also need permissions for their contents: deleting or duplicating a track requires structure and mixer permissions, plus the scopes of its Clips and devices. Approval cannot grant a missing scope.
Within the selected scope, the approval mode controls confirmation:
- Manual asks before every proposed edit plan.
- Low Risk applies lower-risk plans automatically and asks before protected actions such as deletes, Clip writes, and sample replacements.
- Accept Everything automatically approves all authorized, validated plans, including deletes and replacement writes within the selected scope.
All modes still inspect the relevant Live state, validate actions, and check that the Set has not changed before applying an edit. One approved plan may create more than one Live Undo step.
Scope changes are saved per Session and synchronized across open dialogs. You can change them during a request; queued plans and subsequent actions recheck the saved permissions. An action already in progress may finish, and completed changes are not rolled back when permissions are narrowed.
Live Smith does not run arbitrary model-generated code. It does not inspect or edit Automation, browse installed presets, or load a VST by plug-in identifier. Existing devices can be inspected and edited where Live exposes their parameters. Return and Main tracks intentionally exclude Clip, Take Lane, Arm, mute/solo, rename, duplicate, and delete-track actions.
Sessions keep conversation and action history with their Live context. Opening the dialog or choosing New Session does not save an untouched empty conversation. Messages, Session settings, and attachments are saved when used; the Sessions list keeps empty entries that were active in the current window and hides unvisited empty entries across tracks and History. Closing the window clears that temporary visibility. Conversations and unsent drafts remain visible; hiding empty entries does not delete existing data. Previous Sessions can be restored explicitly; matching names alone do not make an old conversation the same Live object.
Hover over a message, or focus its controls with the keyboard, to copy its original text. Use as draft puts a user message back in the composer; it does not change history or undo Live edits. Choose Send after editing. Paused failed requests also offer Edit and resend. Editing their restored draft replaces that pending request instead of sending its old text again. Existing drafts require confirmation before replacement; historical attachments are not reattached automatically.
Skills provide musical workflow guidance. Three built-ins cover section
energy, musical variation, and instrument roles. They start disabled; View
opens the full instructions without enabling them. You can import a local
SKILL.md, enable up to four Skills
per Session, or use $skill-id for one request.
Skills do not grant additional permissions or tools.
Attachments support PNG, JPEG, WebP, PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, WAV, and MP3.
Office documents are read as text. Image, native PDF, and audio use depends on
the selected model and connection; attaching a file does not guarantee it can be
sent to every model. Model loading consumes provider-returned input modalities
and MIME support for both Direct API and subscription Profiles. Raw provider
evidence remains visible, while a usable input is marked Supported only when the
provider covers Live Smith's concrete formats and the selected protocol can
encode them; missing or coarse-only evidence stays unverified. Provider-reported
video capability is shown, but Live Smith does not yet accept video attachments.
Use paste or drag-and-drop rather than a system file picker.
The Extensions SDK does not expose selected Audio Clip, Sample, or Simpler source
bytes to extensions, so export or locate the source file and drop it into the
composer when you need the original file as an attachment.
During that send, a compatible audio attachment can also be used as the source
for an Arrangement, Session, or Take Lane Audio Clip, a Simpler sample, or a
Drum Rack pad. When a confirmed plan first uses it, Live Smith copies the file
into the Live Project and uses Live's managed copy. The source locator expires
when the send ends.
For compatible audio models, the agent can instead call read_arrangement_audio
to read an isolated Arrangement Audio Clip range without creating a saved
attachment. This sends a temporary pre-effects render for the current request;
Session View Clips and the track device chain are not included. That temporary
render is model input only and is not an attachment SampleSource.
Deleting a Session removes its private chat attachments, but it does not remove audio already imported into the Live Project. If import succeeds and post-import validation or a later Live action stops the plan, an unused project copy may remain because the beta SDK does not expose deletion or rollback for imported files.
Queue and Steer are configured under Inspector → App → Conversation & Display. The same section can show or hide the compact context-window indicator in the composer. Queued follow-ups belong to the open window; Live Smith warns before closing with pending work.
Profiles, Sessions, attachments, and imported Skills are stored locally. Prompts, relevant Live context, selected Skill guidance, supported attachment content, and any Arrangement audio range read by the agent are sent to the model provider you choose.
Direct API keys are stored in local Profile settings as plain text. A separate private local credential file stores OAuth credentials under exact Profile and provider identities. Saving a connection keeps only the provider selected by that Profile; Direct API and Profile deletion clear that Profile's OAuth credentials. Do not commit, share, or cloud-sync either storage location.
The selected proxy mode and credential-free Manual proxy URL are stored in the same private local settings file. Proxy usernames and passwords are not accepted in that URL.
- Development guide: prerequisites, local setup, validation, packaging, and development data.
- Model connections: connection requirements, model settings, capability evidence, and protocol limits.
- Architecture: module responsibilities, data flow, and safety boundaries.
- Contributor guide: working conventions and required checks.
- Third-party notices.