houdini-dev

houdini-dev is a skill for Claude Code from dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini. It costs 92 tokens per session (777 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A Houdini development workflow for attaching a local project, reloading Python modules, running scripts or entry points, inspecting Houdini's programming interface, and starting a debugger. Houdini is software for 3D scenes and visual effects.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to develop and reload Houdini Python tools, run them with captured diagnostics, inspect available node types and functions, start a local debug listener, and perform supported interface actions.
Why use it?
It shortens the edit-run-inspect cycle for Houdini tools and captures output and errors in a structured way. It also handles sessions without a graphical interface.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter.

Good fit Use it to develop and reload Houdini Python tools, run them with captured diagnostics, inspect available node types and functions, start a local debug listener, and perform supported interface actions.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini/houdini-dev
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini --skill houdini-dev
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for houdini-dev

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini/houdini-dev/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini/houdini-dev)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini/houdini-dev"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini/houdini-dev/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for houdini-dev

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini/houdini-dev"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini/houdini-dev.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 92 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 777 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00092 $0.00777
Opus 5 $0.00046 $0.00388
Sonnet 5 $0.00018 $0.00155
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00078

Measured 10d ago against content hash c7f4d0c7eab9, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

houdini-dev scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 10d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 9 executable files (scripts/_dev_common.py, scripts/attach_project.py, scripts/introspect_hom.py, …), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

src/dcc_mcp_houdini/skills/houdini-dev/SKILL.md · 66 lines

What it actually says

houdini-dev

Development workflow helpers for agents iterating on Houdini Python tools. Stays outside the minimal startup surface (load explicitly with load_skill("houdini-dev")). The intended loop:

  1. attach_project("/path/to/tool") once for the project root.
  2. Edit files in the normal workspace.
  3. reload_modules(prefix="mytool")run_entrypoint("mytool.cli:main").
  4. Inspect the concise stdout/stderr/traceback summary.

Set DCC_MCP_HOUDINI_DEV_ROOTS to a path-list of trusted roots to restrict which local projects attach_project / run_script will accept.

Tool groups

  • dev-project: attach_project, reload_modules.
  • dev-run: run_entrypoint, run_script (captured output).
  • dev-debug: start_debugpy (safe 127.0.0.1:5678 default, already-running detection).
  • dev-introspect (read-only): introspect_hom — members/signatures, node-type categories, and available node types.
  • dev-ui: ui_snapshot (read-only), ui_action.

Context limitations

  • Headless hython: ui_snapshot / ui_action return a clean supported=false result instead of failing when no UI is available.
  • Trusted roots: when DCC_MCP_HOUDINI_DEV_ROOTS is set, project and script paths outside those roots are refused with a structured error.
  • debugpy: requires debugpy installed in the Houdini Python env; a second call reports already_running=true rather than re-binding the port.
  • HOM only with hou: introspect_hom and the UI tools require hou; they degrade through skill_error when it cannot be imported.

Tracer-bullet flow

  1. attach_project("/projects/mytool")
  2. introspect_hom(category="Sop", name_filter="attrib") → discover node types
  3. reload_modules(prefix="mytool", reimport=true)
  4. run_entrypoint("mytool.build:run", kwargs={"dry_run": true})
  5. ui_snapshot() → confirm the active desktop when running interactively
Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 10d ago First seen · 66 lines · 92 tokens per session scan A c7f4d0c7eab9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

houdini-dev is a skill published in the GitHub repository dcc-mcp/dcc-mcp-houdini (12 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 92 tokens to every session and 777 once invoked, about $0.0005 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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