Max Ultra MCP

The in-Max controller, transport and owned windows now use embedded Python and Qt; the Node.js MCP server, protocol and MZP entry point are preserved.

A responsive interface with compact icon-only actions, larger controls above 1250 and at 1800 logical pixels, native window shadows, SVG icons and rounded journal and progress surfaces.

Seven editable JSON color themes, including the user's 3ds Max colorMan palette, applied immediately across open windows.

A paged, searchable and exportable full-session journal with colored categories, wide-window wrapping and preserved reading position.

Persistent 20-100% panel opacity, modal Settings with inactive-window overlays, monitor-constrained status mini-panel and a Skills loading overlay.

Familiar AI setup and Skills layouts, inline help with copy feedback, protected built-in skills, navigation and scheduled support messages.

An in-app Community Skills catalog with verified downloads, explicit installation, publication dates, detail links, download progress and elapsed time.

Skills tables support sorting by name, description, author and date, plus context actions for information, opening folders and deleting custom skills.

Responsive Skills buttons retain readable help labels, and compact scene-status capsules preserve counts while showing only the scene filename.

Manual Setup uses compact fields, consistent spacing, aligned actions and runtime verification colors.

The Python bootstrap waits for confirmed MaxPkg installation before launching an updated package; pending updates retain visible retry status on failure.

Optional translucent category backgrounds in the journal, enabled by default with a persistent Settings switch.

Shared themed dropdowns, rounded text fields, consistent button labels and adaptive journal spacing.

A dedicated About window with product information, version, author and website links, available above Donate in the main panel.

The main refresh action reconnects the bridge before checking AI clients; redundant Reconnect and Stop / Exit buttons were removed.

Resizing during Skills HTML loading no longer duplicates the introductory metadata block.

Unmodified obsolete 1.4.7 PNG assets and the C# folder-picker source are removed by a bounded install hook; modified files and durable user data are preserved.

AI Client Setup installs missing Codex and Claude Code CLIs through confirmed official installers, verifies them, and keeps MCP connection setup as a separate action.

Desktop apps and setup CLIs are detected separately. Missing desktop apps open their official download pages for manual installation; Antigravity requires no extra CLI. Guidance explains Refresh status and Connect on the same client card.

CLI discovery supports PowerShell wrappers, refreshed user PATH, and standalone Codex locations; failed probes remain distinct from missing components.

Installation progress remains continuous during automatic work and stops and hides on completion, failure, or browser handoff. Cancellation and bounded timeouts preserve honest outcomes.

The setup log shows only the current action, with stable local timestamps, automatic scrolling, blue information, green verified success, red errors, and amber warnings. Unrelated client errors no longer color its guidance.

Thirteen core layer tools with scene-bound references, hierarchy and property reads, bulk assignment, selection, and state-bound preview/apply for deletion, merging and empty-layer cleanup. Native hierarchy Undo limitations are reported explicitly.

Semantic object producers return INode handles compatible with NodeRef consumers and layer assignment, instead of animation handles.

Orange Community Skills link between Submit Your Skill and Donate in the Skills window, opening the community ZIP download catalog.

Community Skills uses a left-aligned native text hyperlink without a WinForms background or button styling.

Missing Codex and Claude Code detection identifies the unavailable CLI, explains the command-line tool requirement, and links to each client's official installation instructions with a reminder to refresh status.

Downloaded updates use native MAXScript-compatible path validation at staging and installation, avoiding the `StartsWith` callback error. Update-processing errors are reported without stopping the MCP bridge timer.

Donate button from the restore mini-panel; the title now provides a wider drag area.

AI Client Setup opens after each startup check that confirms no supported client is configured, even if Setup was dismissed in an earlier run. Closing it still dismisses it for the current run.

AI Client Setup distinguishes missing runtime files, launch failures, timeouts, unsupported versions, and invalid version responses; local probe failures no longer erase saved client registration status.

Runtime checks wait for redirected output to finish and continue to available fallback runtimes after an individual probe timeout. Manual setup includes the checked path and diagnostic reason.

AI Client Setup has a third Manual setup tab with instructions, copyable STDIO settings, and runtime diagnostics. Setup shows complete, scrollable client statuses and directs users to manual setup when needed.

Skills previews use the existing timer for header scrolling and Back-link focus instead of HtmlWindow event subscriptions that can fail in 3ds Max 2027.

Windows PowerShell discovery checks executable file attributes instead of a trailing-slash directory probe, preserving native system-path selection and rejecting directories named powershell.exe.

Skills manager for browsing built-in workflows and importing instruction-only custom skill folders or multiple ZIPs, with independent validation and a persistent success/error report for each import.

Durable custom-skill storage and discovery adapters for Codex, Claude Code, and Antigravity; deleting a custom skill removes its owned copy and client entries while preserving the original source.

Offline max_skills_list and max_skill_read tools expose skill instructions, paged references, and image assets without requiring a connected 3ds Max instance.

Copy Skill Creation Prompt, local creation/import documentation, and a submission guide with explicit copy feedback help turn a successful AI conversation into a reusable skill.

Skills previews support reference navigation with Back and scroll restoration, passive themed Markdown and images, readable compact badges, and layouts sized to the display work area.

Skills selection responds to rapid changes without showing stale results; built-in/custom categories show counts and retain the selected category between openings.

Architectural detailing workflows cover floors, ceilings, openings, joinery, molding, and ornaments, with attributed source terms and synchronized client skill adapters.

Automatic Antigravity 2.x detection and MCP setup using backed-up, verified settings updates that preserve other servers; repeated setup is idempotent and malformed or concurrently changed settings are rejected.

AI Client Setup uses individual Codex, Claude Code, and Antigravity logo buttons with clear availability, progress, configuration, and error statuses; repeated or conflicting installation actions are guarded.

Setup centers each logo/name pair with spacing and a lower vertical position, shows all manual STDIO values above Copy, and adjusts window height without overlapping controls.

Manual / Other STDIO clients starts collapsed on every fresh Setup opening; Refresh status, Test prompt, Donate, and manual copying remain available.

GitHub release notes include the complete reviewed changelog for the published version.

Automatic update checks run on bridge starts 1, 4, 7 and so on within each Max session; manual checks remain immediate.

Activity timestamps are bold italic; compact status badges use visually centered labels and aligned brackets while preserving the original palette.

Persistent transport reads complete frames without StreamReader read-ahead stalls, bounds connect/read/write waits and partial frames, and closes the shared socket on cancellation.

Nested timer dispatch is rejected; reload waits asynchronously for the current callback and worker to finish before replacing the facade.

Request admission and queue size limits, pre-dispatch deadlines, explicit unknown-outcome timeout wording, and isolated transport/lifecycle regression fixtures. Real-Max soak and native-crash validation remain required.

README and website setup guidance explain the required Codex mode in ChatGPT Desktop and clarify that automatic Claude registration targets Claude Code.

A small-house detailing skill adapts architectural guidance supplied by Yuriy Bobak for editable roofs, timber UVs, fitted furniture, import verification, and delivery checks while preserving the focused floor-plan workflow.

Camera composition guidance checks transform handedness before correcting an apparently mirrored architectural view.

Bootstrap, update, AI Setup, shutdown, uninstall, image/UI helpers, and batch launchers resolve Windows executables from checked system paths instead of relying on PATH. Missing system executables and unavailable package working directories have distinct diagnostics.

Read-only Max-owned UI diagnostics combine bounded UI Automation, native HWND trees, and WebBrowser layout, scroll, zoom, and DPI metrics.

A client-neutral diagnostics CLI discovers packaged skills, checks live health and capabilities, audits client registration, and prints setup commands without changing client configuration or scenes.

A ChatGPT and Codex plugin packages all eight workflow skills and routes natural 3ds Max requests in any language to the registered MCP tools.

A dedicated armchair workflow covers reference proportions, upholstery, seams, curvature-following subdivision topology, simple rails, clean contact joints, and stock-delivery checks.

Direct native HWND capture supports Max-owned child and MAXScriptDialog windows, with ownership validation and actionable recovery hints.

AI-client STDIO hosts survive same-port daemon replacement and reconnect through one bounded, verified attempt on the next tool call.

Interrupted calls are never replayed automatically; they report BRIDGE_DOWN with an unknown-outcome warning. Selection and jobs reset after reconnect, and a new scene-revision epoch rejects stale NodeRefs.

The fixed 720-by-621 main panel has compact toolbox chrome, four borderless zones, aggregate AI readiness, concise server context, and packaged 16-pixel Lucide icons.

Client readiness is checked once after startup and on manual refresh; inconclusive failures remain visible, and dismissing Setup suppresses only its automatic opening.

Hide and Expand preserve the live panel, position, connection, and reminder schedule; the compact restore panel keeps a reachable title strip near the taskbar.

Activity entries use aligned colored badges, six-pixel margins, compact spacing, and automatic scrolling that preserves the read-only caret and review position.

Rolling Activity-log trimming retains 30 entries through an empty RTF stream while preserving badge and link formatting and read-only protection.

Rooted fonts, reused icons, and theme-aware label backgrounds avoid invalid GDI+ painting in 3ds Max 2022; server labels avoid the unstable tooltip-notification path in 3ds Max 2027.

The footer rotates linked project promotions without retaining text-input focus. Clickable Donate reminders appear at bounded intervals, and Settings About uses a centered native layout.

Removed adaptive panel sizing, saved dimensions, the separate AI setup button, and the redundant Connect only action.

Release preparation synchronizes product and plugin versions, preserves the reviewed Donate metadata, and generates the complete production file list from the canonical allowlist.

Machine-local Packager INIs stay out of version control, and UI test fixtures stay out of production archives.

MaxScript tools now require an exact privacy-safe operation name and reject missing or generic activity labels instead of logging an ambiguous action.

Activity messages now use concise professional wording, with successful outcomes in green and ordinary system lifecycle events in a distinct system color.

GitHub release publication now uses a concise Y/N confirmation prompt.

Missing MaxPkg tooling now bootstraps from the current official revision while existing self-updated tooling is preserved.

Release preparation preserves the reviewed maxpkg-icon.svg instead of overwriting it from a secondary asset copy.

Release preparation no longer replaces an existing self-updated MaxPkg Packager.

Release tooling is pinned to the official MaxPkg Packager 1.2.0 revision and exact SHA-256.

MaxPkg-assisted builds now use the official automation API through MCP and retain UI automation only for older packager compatibility.

MaxScript results preserve valid large MaxPkg API responses up to 500,000 characters and report explicit truncation metadata.

Update checks preserve quoted package-root paths that end in a backslash, allowing the hidden helper to receive its result-file argument.

Update-check startup failures now report the helper exit code when no result file was produced.

Update and onboarding status labels now use the ColorMan rollout background instead of the rollout-title color.