nvidia-broadcast

Files (14)

• BENCHMARK.md
• SKILL.md
• skillspector-baseline.yaml · config/
• evals.json · evals/
• connection.md · references/
• effects.md · references/
• examples.md · references/
• file-processing.md · references/
• installation.md · references/
• mcp-tool-contract.md · references/
• troubleshooting.md · references/
• launch_broadcast.ps1 · scripts/
• skill-card.md
• skill.oms.sig

SKILL.md (first lines)

# NVIDIA Broadcast

## Hard rules

1. **Launching:** start Broadcast only by running
   `powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "<skill_dir>\scripts\launch_broadcast.ps1"`
   with the `terminal` tool. When running inside WSL, follow *Launch and version-check through
   interop* in `references/connection.md` instead. Except for the security-policy fallback below
   and that WSL interop procedure, never invoke
   `NVIDIA Broadcast.exe` directly — not via `terminal`, `execute_code`, `subprocess`, or
   `Start-Process`.

   **Security-policy fallback:** use this only if security policy blocks the launcher script.
   Confirm that `NVIDIA Broadcast.exe` is not already running, then run:
   `powershell.exe -NoProfile -Command "Start-Process -FilePath ([Environment]::ExpandEnvironmentVariables('%ProgramFiles%\NVIDIA Corporation\NVIDIA Broadcast\NVIDIA Broadcast.exe')) -ArgumentList '--launch-hidden' -WindowStyle Hidden"`
   with the `terminal` tool.

2. **Command tools:** follow *Which tool to run commands with* below.

3. **Never read effect state from disk** — not `AppSetting.json`, not the registry, not logs, not
   the UI. Those are saved settings, not live state. Exception: `gateway.json` may be read and
   decoded only to obtain the gateway `port` for rule 4; it is connection configuration, not effect
   state.

4. **Connecting to the gateway — exactly these steps, no other path:**
   1. Before launching or registering the gateway, check the standard executable path and read its
      `ProductVersion` without launching it. If the executable is missing or its version is 2.2.x
      or older, stop the connection sequence and follow *Installing or updating NVIDIA Broadcast*.
      Do not return the restart-only response below.
   2. Check Broadcast is running: `tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq NVIDIA Broadcast.exe"` via `terminal`.
      If Broadcast is installed but not running, launch it immediately (rule 1); do not ask the user
      to start it manually. A `gateway.json` left from an earlier run proves nothing about whether
      the gateway is live.
   3. Whether already running or just launched, retry for up to 60 seconds: reread and base64-decode
      `%APPDATA%\nvidia-broadcast\gateway.json` → `{"port": <number>}`. Use the port from the latest
      successful read. Decode `gateway.json` within the command and output only the port. Never print
      its base64 contents because credential redaction may mask them.
   4. Register `http://127.0.0.1:<port>/gateway` with your MCP client as a Streamable HTTP server.
      You are the MCP client — register it yourself.
   5. Verify the server reports its name as `nvidia-broadcast` via the MCP client's server info.
      If it does not, treat NVIDIA Broadcast as unavailable, use the restart response below, and stop.
   6. Check whether the NVIDIA Broadcast MCP tools required for the user's request are available.

   If the required tools are available, the connection is ready; proceed with the requested
   operation.

   **Stop if any of these occurs — report and go no further:**
   - Registration fails, or
   - the server name is not `nvidia-broadcast`, or
   - after registering, any required NVIDIA Broadcast MCP tool is not in your tool list.

   Reply only: *"NVIDIA Broadcast MCP tools are unavailable in this session. Please restart your MCP
   client and retry."* Then stop. Do not add rationale, gateway URLs, port details, configuration
   instructions, or post-restart steps. Do not substitute another source or guess which effects are on.

5. **Only after completing rule 4, if any required NVIDIA Broadcast MCP tool is still not in your
   tool list, that is the final answer. Stop.** Its initial absence is not a reason to skip launch
   or registration.
   Do not try to make it work. Specifically, never:
   - Write, generate, or run any code that speaks MCP or HTTP to the gateway —
     `urllib`, `http.client`, `socket`, `requests`, `httpx`, `curl`,
     `Invoke-WebRequest`, or anything else. **A correct, spec-compliant client is
     still a violation.** The prohibition is on you speaking the protocol at all,
     not on which library you choose.
   - Search for, install, or run an MCP client binary — `which mcp`, `mcp exec`,
     `npx @modelcontextprotocol/cli`, `pip install mcp[cli]`.
   - Scan ports, hunt the filesystem for an endpoint, or delegate to another agent
     or session.
   Use exactly the restart response from rule 4, then stop. A state read obtained by any other
   route is not a valid substitute, and a guessed effect list is simply wrong.

6. **Recover from MCP connection failures.** If any NVIDIA Broadcast tool call fails because the
   MCP connection was closed, refused, reset, disconnected, or otherwise became unavailable, repeat
   the connection sequence in rule 4:
   1. Check whether `NVIDIA Broadcast.exe` is running.
   2. If it is not running, launch it using rule 1. If it is already running, do not launch another
      instance.
   3. Reread `gateway.json`, obtain the current port, and register the gateway again.
   4. Verify the server reports its name as `nvidia-broadcast`. If it does not, use the short
      restart response from rule 4 and stop.
   5. Check whether the NVIDIA Broadcast MCP tools required for the user's request are available.

   If the tools are still unavailable, use the short restart response from rule 4 and stop. After
   reconnecting, retry a read-only or idempotent tool call at most once. Do not automatically repeat
   a non-idempotent request when the connection closed after submission because it may already have
   been accepted.

   Do not run this recovery sequence for normal gateway or tool errors such as invalid arguments,
   `ambiguous_frame_rate`, `device_not_selected`, `file_not_found`, rate limiting, or an effect
   operation failure.

## Purpose

NVIDIA Broadcast applies AI effects to your camera, microphone, and speaker, and can apply the same effects to local media files. You drive it over a local MCP gateway that NVIDIA Broadcast runs on loopback. It also lets you check and change AI effects, select Studio Voice microphone profiles, manage camera, microphone, and speaker devices, and change camera resolution.

## Prerequisites

- Windows host with NVIDIA Broadcast installed. **2.2.x and older have no MCP gateway** and cannot be driven by this skill at all. When it is missing or too old, you may **offer** to install it from NVIDIA's update service — see *Installing or updating NVIDIA Broadcast* below. Never install without asking.
- Standard executable path: `%ProgramFiles%\NVIDIA Corporation\NVIDIA Broadcast\NVIDIA Broadcast.exe`.
- MCP gateway config readable at `%APPDATA%\nvidia-broadcast\gateway.json`.
- The current agent runtime acts as the MCP client and connects through Streamable HTTP over loopback.
- **Running inside WSL:** the gateway lives on the Windows side, so both the endpoint and
  `gateway.json` are reached differently — see *If you are running inside WSL* below.

## Inputs

- `set_effects`: either `effects[]` with 1-32 unique effect IDs (each `effectId` + `enabled`, optional `params`), or `action: "restore_previous_live"`.
- `submit_file_processing`: `_version: 1`, absolute `inputPath`, 1-32 unique `effects[]`; optional `batchId`, `outputFolder`, `outputPath`. There is no overwrite input — a fresh collision is rejected, while resume/retry replaces only that job's own partial output.
- `list_devices`: optional `kind`. `set_active_device`: `kind` + fresh `deviceId`, plus optional camera `width`, `height`, `frameRate`. `set_camera_resolution`: fresh camera `deviceId`, `width`, `height`, optional `frameRate`.
- Do not reuse device IDs from earlier sessions, and do not guess frame rates. Supply `frameRate` only when the user explicitly specified or selected it; the camera's current frame rate is not the user's choice for a new request.

## Which tool to run commands with
Use `terminal` for shell commands and `execute_code` for Python. **Never call `browser_exec`** —
its `code` parameter makes it look like `execute_code`, but it runs that code inside a browser
session and opens Chrome. No task in this skill uses a browser.

## Connecting

### MCP client identity

From NVIDIA/skills, Apache-2.0.

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