Introduction

dcc-mcp-maya is the Maya-specific integration layer for the DCC-MCP ecosystem.

It makes Maya available through a standards-compliant MCP Streamable HTTP surface. Plugin deployments use the Rust dcc-mcp-server sidecar as the standard runtime: HTTP and gateway work stay outside Maya, while scene operations are dispatched back through the Maya-safe Qt bridge.

Who Is This For?

Audience	Use Case
Maya TD / TA	Write custom Action scripts that AI agents can call via MCP
AI Application Developers	Control Maya programmatically through MCP protocol from LLM hosts
DCC Integration Developers	Use this Maya implementation as a reference for other DCC integrations

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Maya (embedded Python)                                  │
│                                                          │
│  dcc_mcp_maya_plugin.py                                 │
│  Qt dispatcher + sidecar bridge                         │
│                                                          │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  DccServerBase + McpHttpServer                  │   │
│  │  POST /mcp  ──►  ToolRegistry / tools/call      │   │
│  │  GET  /mcp  ──►  SSE stream                     │   │
│  │  /v1/*       ─►  readiness, search, resources   │   │
│  └──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘   │
│                         │ HostExecutionBridge          │
│  ┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  MayaHost / dispatcher / skill executor         │   │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┘
                               │  http://127.0.0.1:9765/mcp
┌─────────────────────────────▼───────────────────────────┐
│  MCP Host  (Claude Desktop / OpenClaw / Cursor / …)      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key Concepts

Skills

Skills are directory-based packages containing Python action scripts and a SKILL.md manifest. Each script becomes an MCP tool automatically.

maya-scene/
├── SKILL.md          ← metadata: name, description, tags
└── scripts/
    ├── new_scene.py
    ├── save_scene.py
    └── list_objects.py

Action Naming

Actions follow the convention:

{skill_name.replace("-", "_")}__{script_stem}
# e.g.  maya_scene__new_scene
#       maya_primitives__create_sphere

Progressive Loading

The package ships 24 Maya skill packages. Minimal mode loads only the core bootstrap and scene tools, while unloaded skills remain discoverable through dcc_capability_manifest, search_skills, or search_tools.

Load a domain skill only when the task needs it:

load_skill("maya-primitives")

Skill Search Path

Paths are resolved in order (highest priority first):

1. extra_skill_paths argument
2. Built-in skills shipped with this package
3. DCC_MCP_MAYA_SKILL_PATHS environment variable
4. DCC_MCP_SKILL_PATHS environment variable
5. Platform default skills directory

Each environment entry is a skill search root: either the skill package itself or a parent directory whose immediate children are skill packages. Rez packages typically append {root}/skills from package.py, then Maya must restart or rerun registration for a changed environment to affect gateway search and load_skill.

Next Steps

• Quick Start — get Maya talking to Claude Desktop in 5 minutes
• Local MCP + debug — Cursor MCP URL, debugpy attach, gateway vs direct port
• MCP Tools Guide — user-facing examples and skill routing guidance
• Advanced Usage — custom skills, main-thread scheduling, defer=True long-running scripts
• Multi-instance Deployment — run multiple Maya instances on a single workstation
• Strict Skill-Only Regression — automated performance regression suite (PIP-481) that validates strict skill-only workflows