Assistants

Connecting Claude, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Code to RDMBench's MCP server, which runs on the bench computer, and what it can and cannot do.

Server: rdmbench-mcp, inside RDMBench.app
Transport: stdio, started by the assistant
Runs on: macOS 15 Sequoia or later, Apple silicon
Needs: An Enttec DMX USB Pro with its DMX/RDM firmware (major version 2)
Price: Free

RDMBench carries an MCP server, so an AI assistant can scan the bench, read the reports and compare visits for you. It runs on the bench computer. There is no hosted RDMBench server, no account, and no API key: you bring the assistant and the model.

Connecting

In RDMBench, open Settings → AI Assistant and click Connect next to the assistant. Each one is a single click:

Claude Desktop opens the extension that comes with the app, and Claude Desktop asks you to install it.
Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code get the server added to their own configuration.
Other gives you the configuration to paste.

By hand

The server is a program inside the app. Every assistant starts it the same way:

/Applications/RDMBench.app/Contents/MacOS/rdmbench-mcp

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --scope user rdmbench -- /Applications/RDMBench.app/Contents/MacOS/rdmbench-mcp

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json) and most other clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rdmbench": {
      "command": "/Applications/RDMBench.app/Contents/MacOS/rdmbench-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

VS Code (~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/mcp.json) uses servers instead of mcpServers, with the same entry.

What it can do

The assistant gets twelve tools. All but load read; load drives a fixture only to measure it.

Tool	What it does
`scan`	Reads fixtures now and returns full reports, which are saved
`monitor`	Watches one fixture for up to ten minutes: per-sensor minimum, maximum and average, and timestamped events
`monitor_line`	Watches every fixture on the line, to find the one that drops out
`load`	Holds the fixture’s channels up for up to ten minutes and reads its sensors before and after, for faults that only show while it works
`list_snapshots`	Every report on disk, newest first, with its rating
`list_sessions`	Every monitoring session on disk
`read_snapshot`	One full report
`session_summary`	What a saved monitoring session saw
`compare`	What changed between two reports, or a unit’s two latest
`history`	One unit across every visit, with repair notes and recurring issues
`templates`	The settings standards filed for a model, to read
`desk_mode`	What a lighting desk calls the fixture’s current mode, from its GDTF file

The server also offers the assistant the JSON schemas the reports follow, and the app’s help.

What it cannot do

Change a fixture. No address, personality or label changes, and it does not apply templates. Those are done in RDMBench, by you.
Run a load test over you. It refuses while you are sending DMX or monitoring from the app.
Drive a fixture that reports no sensors. load refuses it rather than drive something it cannot measure.
See light. load reads sensors; it cannot see colour or position.

Where it runs

The assistant starts the server, and they talk over stdio. While RDMBench is connected to a widget, the server asks the app to do the reading, over a loopback address on the same computer. With RDMBench closed, the assistant can still read every saved report; a scan says that RDMBench needs to be open.

Connecting sends nothing anywhere. What the assistant reads goes to its provider as part of your conversation, like anything else you show it.

An assistant on another computer can connect only if you turn on Settings → AI Assistant → Advanced → Also let assistants on other computers connect. Anyone on that network can then use the bench, load tests included, with no password, so leave it off unless the network is the shop’s own.