validate-vst3

validate-vst3 is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from iPlug3/audio-plugin-dev-skills. It costs 71 tokens per session (937 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A validation tool for VST3 plugins, which are audio plugins that follow Steinberg's VST3 format. It runs Steinberg's official validator against a built .vst3 plugin bundle and reports failed checks.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to locate a VST3 build, run basic or thorough validation, and investigate failed validator tests.
Why use it?
It provides a format-specific check for plugin compatibility and can reveal problems before the plugin is distributed or loaded in audio software.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Part of the audio-plugin-validators plugin — 6 skills shipped together

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/iplug3/audio-plugin-dev-skills/validate-vst3
Any agent
npx skills add iPlug3/audio-plugin-dev-skills --skill validate-vst3
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/iPlug3/audio-plugin-dev-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install audio-plugin-validators, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 6 skills.

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 validate-vst3

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/iplug3/audio-plugin-dev-skills/validate-vst3.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/iplug3/audio-plugin-dev-skills/validate-vst3)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/iplug3/audio-plugin-dev-skills/validate-vst3"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/iplug3/audio-plugin-dev-skills/validate-vst3.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 71 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 937 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
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 $0.00071 $0.00937
Opus 5 $0.00036 $0.00468
Sonnet 5 $0.00014 $0.00187
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00094

Measured 4d ago against content hash 59e3348fca64, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

validate-vst3 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 4d ago.

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.

plugins/audio-plugin-validators/skills/validate-vst3/SKILL.md · 115 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 115 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

VST3 Validator

Plugin Install Locations

The validator accepts a direct path, but validator -list only scans standard locations.

Platform User Location System Location
macOS ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/ /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\VST3\ C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
Linux ~/.vst3/ /usr/lib/vst3/ or /usr/local/lib/vst3/

Instructions

  1. Locate the built .vst3 bundle (in your build output directory or one of the standard locations above)
  2. Locate the validator binary (see Common Binary Locations below)
  3. Run: validator /path/to/plugin.vst3
  4. For thorough testing add -e: validator -e /path/to/plugin.vst3
  5. Check output for FAILED lines — see Common Issues below for fixes

Basic Usage

# Validate a VST3 plugin (validator location depends on your VST3 SDK build)
validator /path/to/plugin.vst3

Common Binary Locations

Platform Path
macOS <vst3sdk>/build/bin/Release/validator or /usr/local/bin/validator
Windows <vst3sdk>\build\bin\Release\validator.exe
Linux <vst3sdk>/build/bin/Release/validator

Options

# Run extensive tests (takes longer but more thorough)
validator -e /path/to/plugin.vst3

# Quiet mode - only print errors
validator -q /path/to/plugin.vst3

# Run only a specific test suite
validator -suite "General Tests" /path/to/plugin.vst3

# Test only a specific processor class ID
validator -cid "ABCD1234..." /path/to/plugin.vst3

# Use local instance per test (isolates tests)
validator -l /path/to/plugin.vst3

Listing Plugins

# List all installed VST3 plugins
validator -list

# List snapshots from all installed plugins
validator -snapshots

Test Suites

Suite Description
General Tests Basic plugin loading and info
Single Precision 32-bit audio processing
Double Precision 64-bit audio processing
Bus Activation Bus enable/disable handling
Bus Arrangement Channel configuration
Parameters Parameter handling and automation
State Preset save/restore
Editor UI creation/destruction
Process Context Transport and tempo handling

Read the full file on GitHub · 115 lines

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. 4d ago First seen · 115 lines · 71 tokens per session scan A 59e3348fca64

Subscribe to this mod's changes

validate-vst3 is a skill published in the GitHub repository iPlug3/audio-plugin-dev-skills (89 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 71 tokens to every session and 937 once invoked, about $0.0004 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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