Play Sheet Music
Official MCP demo server that renders ABC notation as sheet music with audio playback inside the chat. 1 tool, no sign-in, an MCP Apps widget — a reference implementation, not a product.
Verified connector
Listed by Anthropic as a partner connector in its Connectors Directory.
Connection checked by Agentman on .
Anthropic states this reflects the level of review a connector received, not a security audit.
Connect Play Sheet Music via MCP
https://example-server.modelcontextprotocol.io/sheet-music/mcpWorks in any MCP-compatible client. In Agentman Studio it is one click — no config file to edit.
Play Sheet Music Tools & Capabilities (1)
Plays music from ABC notation with audio playback and visual sheet music. Use this to compose original songs (for birthdays, holidays, or any occasion) or perform well-known tunes (folk songs, nursery rhymes, hymns, classical melodies). For accurate renditions of well-known tunes, look up the ABC notation from abcnotation.com or thesession.org rather than recalling from memory.
Read from the server on 2026-08-18, including each tool's own safety annotations.
Limits
- No support guarantee. The only channel Anthropic lists is the
ext-appsissue tracker, which serves every example in the repository rather than this one. - One tool, no persistence. Scores are not saved, addressable or shareable. There is no library, no export and no piece identifier.
- ABC notation only. The tool accepts no MIDI file, no MusicXML, no audio and no URL. The sole input is an ABC string, so anything else has to be converted before you start.
- Notation accuracy is your problem, and the tool says so. Its description directs the model to
abcnotation.comorthesession.orgfor well-known tunes instead of recalling them, which is an explicit warning that a model-written score may be wrong. - Invalid notation fails, it does not degrade. The published handler runs the abcjs parser and returns an error result listing the parse warnings rather than rendering an approximation.
- No long-running task mode. The tool declares
taskSupportasforbidden. - Widget-dependent. Without MCP Apps support in the client you get a short text confirmation and no staves, no player and no sound.
- Audio needs an outbound fetch. The widget's declared content-security-policy allows connections to
paulrosen.github.iofor soundfonts, so a client blocking that host renders the music silently. - Claude only, per the listing. Anthropic records
works_withas["claude"]. - No safety annotations. The tool declares neither
readOnlyHintnordestructiveHint. - Listing metadata is unreliable here. Zero tool names against a live tool, plus an auth posture contradicted by the wire — verify against the server, not the entry.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Play Sheet Music connector a product I can rely on?
No. It is a demonstration server the Model Context Protocol project publishes to show how MCP Apps work, hosted on example-server.modelcontextprotocol.io and shipped as one example directory inside the ext-apps repository. It carries no availability commitment, no service level and no support desk beyond that repository's issue tracker. Read it, run it locally, learn the pattern — do not depend on it.
Does the Play Sheet Music MCP server need an account or an API key?
No. We opened an anonymous handshake against the endpoint on 2026-08-18 and the server returned its capability block, the tool definition and the resource listing with no credential at all. Anthropic's directory disagrees, recording is_authless as false and an auth posture of auth_required. Wire behaviour is what a client actually meets, so no sign-in is required.
Why does Anthropic's directory list no tools for this connector?
Because the listing is empty and the server is not. Anthropic's directory records tool_names as an empty array, while a live tools/list on 2026-08-18 returned one tool named play-sheet-music. This is total absence rather than a partial mismatch, so nothing in the listing describes the surface. Read the tool from the handshake, never from the directory entry.
What is ABC notation and where do I get it?
ABC notation is a plain-text format for writing music, using letters for pitches plus header lines for title, metre and key. The tool's own description tells the model to look up well-known tunes from abcnotation.com or thesession.org rather than recalling them from memory. That instruction is a candid admission that a model's remembered notation is often wrong.
Do I have to supply the ABC notation myself?
No. The single abcNotation parameter is optional and carries a default: a complete score of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star compiled into the server source. Call the tool with no arguments and that nursery rhyme renders and plays. The input schema declares no required array, so there is no parameter you are obliged to provide.
Where does the music actually play, and what runs the code?
In your own MCP client, not on the server. The server declares a resources capability and serves one HTML widget at ui://sheet-music/mcp-app.html with MIME type text/html;profile=mcp-app, the MCP Apps marker. That widget uses the abcjs library to draw the staves and synthesise audio locally. The server only parses your notation and reports errors.
Is the Play Sheet Music tool safe to call?
The tool ships no safety annotations at all, so the server asserts nothing either way. There is no annotations object on it, meaning readOnlyHint and destructiveHint are absent rather than set false. Reading the published source shows the handler validating notation and returning text, with no write anywhere — but that reading comes from the repository, not from a declaration on the wire.
Can I use the sheet music connector outside Claude?
The directory lists Claude only, and the picture needs MCP Apps support. Anthropic records works_with as claude alone, so nothing else is listed as compatible. Any MCP client can complete the handshake and call the tool, but a client without the MCP Apps extension receives the text string Input parsed successfully and neither hears nor sees anything.
Sources
- Sheet music example README,
modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps— https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps/tree/main/examples/sheet-music-server (the documentation URL Anthropic's directory publishes; read as raw files, 2026-08-18, HTTP 200) · retrieved 2026-08-18 - Sheet music example server source,
server.ts— https://raw.githubusercontent.com/modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps/main/examples/sheet-music-server/server.ts (fetched 2026-08-18, HTTP 200) · retrieved 2026-08-18 - Sheet music example widget source,
src/mcp-app.ts— https://raw.githubusercontent.com/modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps/main/examples/sheet-music-server/src/mcp-app.ts (fetched 2026-08-18, HTTP 200) · retrieved 2026-08-18 - Sheet music example
package.json, licence and npm package name — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps/main/examples/sheet-music-server/package.json (fetched 2026-08-18, HTTP 200) · retrieved 2026-08-18 - Live
initialize,tools/list,resources/list,resources/templates/listandprompts/listhandshake against the endpoint — 2026-08-18 · retrieved 2026-08-18 - Anthropic connector directory entry — https://claude.ai/directory/96a2cde3-0340-43e9-b293-055f293b346d (snapshot 2026-08-16; the live page returns HTTP 403 to non-browser clients) · retrieved 2026-08-16
- Support channel — https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps/issues (fetched 2026-08-18, HTTP 200) · retrieved 2026-08-18
- Privacy policy, The Linux Foundation projects — https://lfprojects.org/policies/privacy-policy/ (fetched 2026-08-18, HTTP 200) · retrieved 2026-08-18
- abcjs, the rendering and audio library the example uses — https://www.abcjs.net/ (fetched 2026-08-18, HTTP 200) · retrieved 2026-08-18
- ABC notation reference sites named in the tool's own description — https://abcnotation.com/ and https://thesession.org/ (both fetched 2026-08-18, HTTP 200) · retrieved 2026-08-18
Use in Agentman
Connect once and your agents call these tools on their own — on a schedule, in a workflow, with nobody at the keyboard.
Open in Agentman StudioServer Info
- Category
- Productivity
- Developer
- Play Sheet Music
- Tools
- 1
- Domain
- example-server.modelcontextprotocol.io
Using Claude Desktop or another MCP client? Setup docs — the connection URL above works anywhere.