Livecoding

Skill broomva/skills/skills/audio/livecoding

Broomva agent-skills monorepo — 48 Tier-2 skills compatible with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Goose, Copilot. Layout follows anthropics/skills (agentskills.io spec). Install: npx skills add broomva/skills --skill <name>.

Install

npx -y skills add broomva/skills --skill livecoding

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Algorave-grade livecoded music workflow — TidalCycles patterns (Haskell DSL driving SuperDirt over OSC) + Hydra-synth visuals (browser or VS Code Simple Browser via a local HTML page that loads hydra-synth from CDN). Wraps the boot ritual (SuperCollider → SuperDirt → Tidal → Hydra), a vibe-descriptor pattern generator (industrial, ambient, DnB, footwork, techno, algorave-glitch), and a reference tunnel-visuals page for the @lo.fi.sci.fi-projected aesthetic. Mac-first; ports to Linux with package-name swaps.

The file declares its own license as MIT. That is the author’s claim about this one file, and it is not the same thing as the license GitHub reports for the repository, which is listed with the other numbers below.

SKILL.md

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Livecoding — TidalCycles + Hydra workflow

A skill for the algorave / livecoded-electronic-music workflow. You write code in real time → patterns emit OSC messages → SuperDirt synthesizes the audio → Hydra renders matching visuals. Same lineage as #livecode #electronicmusic #algorave.

This is code-as-music, not AI-generated music. The aesthetic comes from polyrhythmic + cyclic structure idiomatic to the tool, not from a generative model. For AI-music generation (Suno / Udio / MusicGen), that's a separate stack — out of scope here.

When to invoke

User intent	Workflow	Quick command
"Get me set up" / fresh install / "is everything working?"	Boot	Walk prereq check + boot ritual
"Generate a pattern" / "make me a beat" / "give me an industrial pattern"	StarterPattern	Vibe descriptor → Tidal pattern
"Visuals" / "tunnel" / "kaleidoscope" / "open Hydra"	HydraVisuals	Open the Hydra page; offer pattern mutations

Default discipline: any livecoding-domain conversation opens with a state check — is SuperCollider running? Is SuperDirt.start; evaluated? Is Tidal booted in the editor? — before generating patterns. Dumping a pattern into a chat when the user's stack isn't running just produces frustration.

The stack

  Editor (VS Code + Tidal extension)     ← you write Haskell-ish patterns
        │
        ▼  OSC (UDP 57120)
   TidalCycles (Haskell, in ghci)        ← cycles + pattern combinators
        │
        ▼  OSC
   SuperDirt (SuperCollider quark)       ← sampler + synth router
        │
        ▼
   scsynth (SuperCollider server)        ← audio synthesis → speakers


   Browser / VS Code Simple Browser      ← visuals pane
        │
        ▼
   hydra-synth (WebGL)                   ← livecoded visuals, separate process

Prereqs (Mac)

Component	How to verify	Install
Homebrew	`brew --version`	https://brew.sh
SuperCollider	`ls /Applications/SuperCollider.app`	`brew install --cask supercollider`
SuperDirt	open SC → `Quarks.installed.do(\|q\| q.name.postln)`	In SC: `Quarks.install("SuperDirt", "v1.7.3");`
Haskell	`ghc --version && cabal --version`	`curl -sSf https://get-ghcup.haskell.org \| sh`
TidalCycles	`ghci -e 'import Sound.Tidal.Context'`	`cabal install tidal --lib`
VS Code	`ls /Applications/Visual\ Studio\ Code.app`	https://code.visualstudio.com
VS Code Tidal extension	`code --list-extensions \| grep tidal`	install `tidalcycles.vscode-tidalcycles`

See Boot workflow for the full sequence with troubleshooting.

First sound (the boot ritual, short form)

SuperCollider.app → evaluate SuperDirt.start; (Cmd-Return on the line)
VS Code → open a .tidal file → command palette → TidalCycles: Boot Tidal
In the .tidal file:
```
d1 $ s "bd*4"
```
Shift-Enter on that line. Kick drum every quarter beat.
To stop: hush then Shift-Enter.

If you hear nothing → SuperDirt isn't running. Re-run SuperDirt.start; in SC.

Visuals (short form)

Open References/hydra-tunnel.html in your browser (or VS Code's Simple Browser pane next to your .tidal file). Starter pattern: industrial kaleidoscopic tunnel. Edit in the floating editor → Cmd-Enter to re-eval. See the HydraVisuals workflow for audio-reactive setup (via BlackHole virtual audio cable) and the full @lo.fi.sci.fi-aesthetic toolkit.

Composes with

persist (P12) — persist iterate livecoding-session.md for self-rebooting long sessions where the agent rotates through pattern mutations across hours
bookkeeping (P6) — high-signal patterns/textures discovered in a session promote into research/entities/concept/livecoding-*.md via Nous gate ≥ 5/9

Out of scope (for now)

AI-generated music (Suno / Udio / MusicGen). Separate stack, separate skill.
Foxdot, Sonic Pi. Siblings of Tidal, not yet covered.
Strudel (strudel.cc) — browser-only Tidal sibling; obvious next add since patterns mostly port directly. Roadmap.
Hardware MIDI / Eurorack integration. Workflow exists (SuperDirt → MIDI out) but isn't documented here.

References

Workflows/Boot.md — full boot ritual with troubleshooting
Workflows/StarterPattern.md — vibe→pattern generator
Workflows/HydraVisuals.md — Hydra setup + tunnel primitives
References/tidal-cheatsheet.md — Tidal mini-notation + effects + combinators
References/hydra-cheatsheet.md — Hydra source/transform/blend API
References/hydra-tunnel.html — self-contained Hydra page (CDN-loaded, no install)

Provenance

Substance ported from ~/broomva/research/notes/2026-05-23-tidalcycles-mac-setup.md written 2026-05-23 in response to a user request to learn the @_switch_angel / @_polymatters / @lo.fi.sci.fi algorave style. Validated against:

SuperCollider 3.13+, SuperDirt 1.7.3
TidalCycles 1.9+, GHC 9.6.6 LTS
hydra-synth 1.4.0 (npm, CDN-served via unpkg)
vercel-labs/skills CLI install semantics (verified 2026-05-23)