Metal Shader MCP - Claude's Shader Development Playground

A complete system for AI-assisted Metal shader development where Claude can write, modify, and visually iterate on shaders in real-time.

Project overview

New: Optional Core ML post-processing on exported frames. See section below for configuration.

Note: The legacy file-bridge (writing commands to Resources/communication) is being deprecated in favor of a strict MCP client. See Deprecation notice below. Metal Shader MCP is a macOS SwiftUI + Metal playground with a disciplined workflow for shader iteration, visual evidence, and CI. An MCP layer is planned to let AI assistants interact with the app (compile, preview, snapshot), but today the primary entry point is the macOS app you can compile and run locally.

Current state (as of 2025-10-02)

• macOS app (SwiftUI + Metal) builds and runs locally and in CI.
• Live shader editing with a simple renderer and screenshot/export helpers.
• Session Browser (History tab) captures per-session snapshots (code + image + meta).
• CI enforces: build, tests, visual-evidence capture, WARP workflow compliance, UI smoke (tab selection/status), docs checks.
• Branch protection & merge policy: All CI checks must pass before merging to main. Direct pushes to main are rejected. Changes must go through PRs with green checks. Overriding requires explicit user decision and is discouraged.
• Single-flight PR policy: One active (non-draft) core PR at a time; others remain draft until the active one merges.

Roadmap

• MCP server integration to drive the macOS app (compile/preview/snapshot) from tools.
• Visual regression tests with baselines across multiple resolutions.
• Shader library with names, descriptions, and persistent metadata (see WARP/metadata rules).
• Export pipelines (PNG/video) with parameter sweeps and performance profiling.
• Xcode project or Swift Package targets for automatic file discovery in CI.

Quick start (macOS app)

• Prereqs: macOS with Xcode (latest stable), Metal-capable device.
• Build and run locally:

swiftc -o MetalShaderStudio \
  ShaderPlayground.swift AppShellView.swift HistoryTabView.swift SessionRecorder.swift \
  Sources/MetalShaderCore/MCPClient.swift \
  -framework SwiftUI -framework MetalKit -framework AppKit -framework UniformTypeIdentifiers \
  -parse-as-library

./MetalShaderStudio --tab history

Features

• Live Compilation:

... View full README on GitHub