A free, open-source multitrack audio editor that AI agents can drive over MCP.
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Audionaut is a free, open-source desktop application for effortless audio editing and recording. Whether you're working on music, podcasts, or multitrack recordings, it gives you precise cutting, per-track playlists, flexible multi-channel support, and clean exports — without the weight and complexity of a full DAW. Audionaut is written in modern C++ on the JUCE framework and runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Audionaut speaks MCP, so Claude and other agents can edit your sessions. With the app and Node.js 18+ installed:
claude mcp add audionaut -- npx -y audionaut-mcp
Keep the project open in Audionaut and each edit arrives as one undo step. On macOS, keep projects in your Music folder. Claude Desktop setup and details: manual, chapter 11.
Make sure to clone with submodules:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/kvoltmer/Audionaut.git
or once cloned do:
git submodule update --init --recursive
The analysis features (BIC segmentation, onset detection, beat tracking) link against a static build of the Essentia submodule. Build it once after checking out the submodules:
./Audionaut/Builds/build_essentia.sh
The script builds Essentia's 3rd-party dependencies statically (slow, skipped on re-runs; force with FORCE_3RDPARTY=1), then configures and builds Essentia itself with its waf build system into Submodules/essentia/build. It patches Essentia's Linux-oriented 3rd-party build scripts in the working tree as needed for macOS/Apple Silicon, so the essentia submodule will show as dirty afterwards — don't commit those changes.
Prerequisites:
- Python ≤ 3.11 — Essentia's bundled waf needs distutils, removed in Python 3.12. The script picks a suitable interpreter automatically; override withPYTHON=... ./Audionaut/Builds/build_essentia.sh.
- pkg-config (e.g. brew install pkg-config)
- CMake 3.x recommended — some 3rd-party deps ship very old CMakeLists that CMake 4.x refuses (e.g. pip install "cmake~=3.31.0").
Building Essentia is optional: without it, ESSENTIA_ENABLED auto-detects off and the app and tests compile with the analysis features disabled.
Stem separation runs demucs.cpp, a C++ port of Meta's Demucs, compiled straight from the Submodules/demucs.cpp submodule — no separate build step. It needs the submodule's vendored Eigen (Submodules/demucs.cpp/vendor/eigen, a nested submodule that --recursive fetches); the CMake build detects it and sets AUDIONAUT_ENABLE_DEMUCS accordingly. The model weights are not in the repository: the app downloads them on first use into its Models folder, or point the CLI at a copy with --model.
Xcode — open the Xcode project located here:
Audionaut/Builds/MacOSX/Audionaut.xcodeproj
Visual Studio 2026 — open the Visual Studio solution located here:
Audionaut/Builds/VisualStudio2026/Audionaut.sln
Linux Makefile — install dependencies:
sudo apt install libasound2-dev libjack-jackd2-dev ladspa-sdk libcurl4-openssl-dev libfreetype-dev libfontconfig1-dev libx11-dev libxcomposite-dev libxcursor-dev libxext-dev libxinerama-dev libxrandr-dev libxrender-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libglu1-mesa-dev mesa-common-dev libxi-dev libegl-dev
then compile:
cd Audionaut/Builds/LinuxMakefile/
make CONFIG=Release -j8
See the Catch2 tests README.
audionaut-cli gives scripts, CI and AI agents headless access to .audium
projects — no GUI, no audio device. It builds alongside the tests:
cmake -B build -S Audionaut/Catch2Tests
cmake --build build -j8 --target AudionautCli
./build/AudionautCli_artefacts/AudionautCli --help
Every command takes --json to emit exactly one machine-readable result
envelope on stdout ({"ok": true, "result": ...} or {"ok": false, "error": ...}) with all logging on stderr, plus --quiet. Exit codes: 0 success,
1 operation failed, 2 usage error, 3 feature unavailable in this build
(e.g. analyze without Essentia). Option values may be given as --opt value
or --opt=value.
audionaut-cli create song.audium --channels 2
audionaut-cli import song.audium take1.wav take2.wav --position 4.5
audionaut-cli info song.audium --json
audionaut-cli analyze song.audium --types sbic,beat_degara
audionaut-cli auto-edit song.audium --track 0 --measures 4
audionaut-cli assemble song.audium --duration 60 --mode random
audionaut-cli split song.audium --at 23 # bar 23; --unit beats|seconds|clocks
audionaut-cli create-region song.audium --name chorus --start 17 --end 25
audionaut-cli set-region song.audium --region chorus --rename drop --length 8
audionaut-cli place-clip song.audium --region drop --at 33
audionaut-cli move-clip song.audium --region drop --to 41
audionaut-cli remove-clip song.audium --at 41 --track 0
audionaut-cli clip-gain song.audium --region drop --gain -6 --db
audionaut-cli clip-fades song.audium --region drop --fade-in 1 --fade-out 2 --unit beats
audionaut-cli separate song.audium --track 1 # Drums/Bass/Other/Vocals tracks; needs the Demucs model
audionaut-cli export song.audium -o mix.wav --sample-rate 48000 --bit-depth 24
A typical agent flow: create → import → analyze → auto-edit/assemble
→ export, checking ok in each --json envelope. Projects written by the
CLI open in the GUI app and vice versa.
End-user documentation lives in the User Manual.
CLI invocations report anonymous usage statistics under the same strictly
opt-in consent as the app (one cli_command event: verb and exit code) —
nothing is sent unless consent was granted in the app's settings. Set
AUDIONAUT_DISABLE_ANALYTICS=1 to switch the CLI's reporting off regardless
(CI environments, scripts).
The main Audionaut app also accepts the same verbs (Projucer-style): run the app binary with a verb and it executes headlessly and quits with the command's exit code, even while a GUI instance is open — a file argument or no arguments launches the GUI as usual.
./Audionaut.app/Contents/MacOS/Audionaut export ~/Music/song.audium -o ~/Music/mix.wav
Note: the macOS app is sandboxed, so its in-app CLI can only reach
entitlement-covered locations such as ~/Music; the standalone
audionaut-cli build has no such restriction. On Windows, the app is a GUI
program — the shell prompt returns immediately and output interleaves with
it; prefer audionaut-cli for scripting there.
Audionaut is dual-licensed under GPL3 (or later) and a commercial license — see LICENSE.md for details.
Contributions are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for how to get started and the required Contributor License Agreement (CLA.md).
If Audionaut is useful to you, consider sponsoring its development — sponsorship directly funds development time and keeps the project sustainable.