Bring AI directly into your Houdini workflow.
NodeArchitect is a Houdini plugin that gives you an AI agent which actually understands your scene. Select nodes, ask a question, and get answers grounded in your real node graph — not generic advice from a chatbot that’s never seen your file.
What It Does
Scene Understanding — Select any nodes and ask “what does this do?” NodeArchitect reads your parameters, connections, and data flow, then explains it in plain english. Leave all nodes unselected to analyse your entire scene at once.
Debugging — Paste an error or just ask “why is this broken?” and the agent traces the problem through your node graph to the root cause, with exact fixes.
Code Generation — Need VEX or Python? Describe what you want and get working code that references your actual nodes and parameters.
Documentation — Generate structured technical documentation for any network, ready for handoff to other artists or future you.
HDA Building — Describe a tool in plain english and get a Python build script that creates it. “Make me a procedural staircase HDA with step count, height, and width parameters” — done. The HDA Composer pipeline plans the build first and validates the result before finalizing it.
Performance Profiling — Ask “what’s slowing this down?” and NodeArchitect profiles the network, ranks nodes by cook time, and points you straight at the bottleneck instead of you digging through Performance Monitor manually.
Key Features
- Works with your scene — Context is collected automatically from your selection. Every response is grounded in your actual nodes, not generic examples.
- Multi-provider LLM support — Use OpenRouter (100+ models, free tier available), OpenAI, Anthropic, GitHub Copilot, Ollama, or any custom endpoint. Bring your own API key — no vendor lock-in.
- Sign in with ChatGPT Codex (beta) — Authenticate via the Codex CLI’s OAuth device flow — no API key needed, works off your existing Codex CLI login.
- GitHub Copilot sign-in — Connect with your existing Copilot subscription (including Copilot Free) via OAuth.
- 119 MCP tools covering every major Houdini context — Built-in MCP server with dedicated tools for SOPs, DOPs, PDG/TOP, CHOPs, COPs, VEX, USD/Solaris, and VOP shader graphs. No extra setup required. External clients like Claude Desktop and Cursor can also connect to your live Houdini session.
- Per-tool consent — The agent pauses and asks before anything mutates your scene.
- Persistent chat sessions — Conversations are saved with AI-generated titles. Pick up where you left off.
- 4K / HiDPI support — UI scales automatically, with appearance settings for font, font size, and display scaling.
- Image upload — Attach images to chat messages or paste from clipboard; disabled automatically for non-vision models.
- Project memory — Context is scoped to the project file, not just your session. Come back to a scene days later, or hand it to another artist, and NodeArchitect picks up where things left off instead of starting cold.
139 Tools Across Every Houdini Context
Geometry (SOPs) — 18 tools
Create, query, modify points/prims/attributes; layout, wiring, flags
Animation — 15 tools
Keyframes, expressions, playback control, parameter I/O
Dynamics (DOP) — 8 tools
Inspect sims, step/reset, one-call Pyro/FLIP/RBD/Vellum recipes
USD / Solaris (LOPs) — 25 tools
Prims, attributes, references, sublayers, variants, lights, materials, stage traversal, Karma rendering, .usdz export
Procedural (PDG/TOP) — 5 tools
Cook networks, inspect work items, manage schedulers
Channels (CHOP) — 4 tools
Read channel data, export to parameters, inspect errors
Compositing (Copernicus/COP) — 23 tools
Inspect planes, list components, export images
VEX Authoring — 3 tools
Write, read, and validate wrangle snippets live
VOP Shader Graphs — 5 tools
Build and wire material networks node by node
HDAs & Assets — 8 tools
Create, install, save, and manage digital assets
Rendering — 6 tools
Viewport capture, render nodes, flipbooks, turntables
Scene & Workflow — 10 tools
Open/save/import, selection, scene summary, take management
Code Execution — 4 tools
Python, HScript, expressions, environment variables
Performance — 2 tools
Profile network cook time, get a ranked bottleneck report
Project Memory — 3 tools
Read/write project-scoped context, plus automatic session-start injection
Why 139 and not 180+? Every tool earns its place in the context window. A bloated toolbox costs tokens, slows the agent, and dilutes accuracy. NodeArchitect’s tools are curated, not padded — each one is a high-value verb that does real work. The agent picks the right tool faster, makes fewer mistakes, and costs less per task.
What You Need
- Houdini 20.0+ (Python 3.10+, PySide2 or PySide6)
- An API key from any supported provider (OpenRouter’s free tier is enough to get started), or a GitHub Copilot subscription
Installation
Copy three things into your Houdini user preferences folder and restart. Full instructions included. Takes about 2 minutes.
Licensing
Free tier Free for non-commercial and personal use — learn, experiment, and use it on personal projects at no cost.
Commercial license Required if you’re using NodeArchitect in a production environment, studio pipeline, paid tutorials, or any revenue-generating work. Licenses are billed annually. If you choose not to renew, you retain permanent access to the last version available at the time your subscription ends — you’ll never lose access to software you’ve paid for.
Educational use Individual students and researchers using NodeArchitect for non-commercial academic work are covered under the free tier. Institutional or departmental deployment — such as a university integrating NodeArchitect into a course or shared pipeline — requires a commercial license.
Source code access Available at additional cost for studios and individuals. A source code licence permits modification and integration into your own internal pipelines. It does not grant rights to redistribute, sublicense, or incorporate NodeArchitect into a product sold to third parties. Contact for details.
Refunds Refunds are not offered as standard. Requests are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Contact for any further commercial licensing enquiries.
Data & Privacy NodeArchitect reads node graph, parameter, and connection data from your Houdini session and sends it to your chosen LLM provider for processing. This data is not stored or retained by Joseph Bishop. You are responsible for reviewing the privacy policy of your chosen LLM provider before use.
Third-Party Services You are solely responsible for your own API provider accounts and compliance with those providers’ terms of service. GitHub Copilot integration requires an active, valid Copilot subscription and must comply with GitHub’s terms of service.
MCP Server & Network Security NodeArchitect’s built-in MCP server allows external clients such as Claude Desktop and Cursor to connect to your live Houdini session. Only enable external MCP connections on trusted private networks. You assume all risk associated with enabling this feature.
Disclaimer NodeArchitect is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Joseph Bishop is not liable for any damages arising from its use, including scene corruption, data loss, pipeline disruption, or outputs generated by connected LLM providers. All AI-generated code and suggestions should be reviewed before being applied to your scene.
Changelog
2.3.1
- Agent Plan Mode — Ask the agent to plan a task first. Refine or discard freely; once approved, only authorized tools can execute.
- HDA Composer — Full HDA creation, modification, and validation through the agent.
- Copernicus (COP) support — 23 tools now cover compositor node inspection, image plane queries, error diagnostics, and exporting comps to disk. First full Copernicus integration in NodeArchitect.
- Undo-safe AI mutations — Every mutating tool call now records a before/after checkpoint automatically. Browse, inspect, and roll back from any checkpoint directly in the NodeArchitect panel.
- Compact conversations — Long sessions auto-summarize older turns as you approach your model’s context limit, preserving decisions and exact Houdini paths. Manual override for custom/unknown models.
- Sign in with ChatGPT Codex (beta) — Authenticate via the Codex CLI’s OAuth device flow, no API key required.
- Bug fixes
2.3
- Project memory – NodeArchitect now retains context scoped to the project file rather than just the user session. Returning to a scene, picks up prior context instead of starting cold.
- Cook-time performance profiling – new tool profiles the network and ranks nodes by cook time, surfacing bottlenecks directly without manually digging through Performance Monitor.
- Cook deadlock prevention – Fixed an issue that could cause a deadlock when NodeArchitect’s actions overlapped with an active cook. Heavier networks should now run more reliably.
2.2
- 113 MCP tools — nearly doubles the toolset; now covers every major Houdini context
- Dynamics (DOP) — inspect/step/reset live sims + one-call setup recipes for Pyro, FLIP, RBD, and Vellum
- Procedural (PDG/TOP) — cook networks, inspect work items, manage schedulers
- Channels (CHOP) — read channel data and drive parameters from motion
- Compositing (COP) — inspect planes, export images (Copernicus + legacy)
- VEX authoring — write, read & validate wrangle code directly
- USD / Solaris — prims, references, variants, lights, materials, stage traversal, composition inspection,
.usd/.usdc/.usdzexport, and Karma rendering - VOP shader graphs — build and wire material networks node by node
2.1.1
- Parameter & animation — read/write channel expressions, full keyframe I/O
- Node organisation — create network boxes and sticky notes; control display, render, bypass, and selectable flags
- Geometry I/O — read/write point, prim, and vertex attributes; bounding box query
- HDA authoring — create, install, and save digital assets from your session
- Simulation & caches — start/stop DOP sims, read and write bgeo/vdb caches
- Rendering — automated turntable flipbook from any camera
- Bug fixes — render crash, temp file security, attribute key collisions, HDA install errors, and more
2.1
- Image upload — attach images to chat messages via the paperclip button or paste from clipboard; disabled automatically for non-vision models
- Viewport capture — agent can call
capture_viewportto take an instant OpenGL screenshot of the active viewer; works proactively after scene changes and from external MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) - Snapshot toggle — Settings → Behaviour → Allow agent to capture viewport snapshots to opt out
- Block session — new button on mutation-tool consent dialogs; suppresses that tool for the rest of the session without repeated prompts
2.0
- Brand new web UI — rebuilt for improved text rendering and legibility, with syntax-highlighted code and appearance settings for font, font size, and display scaling
- Improved agent loop — smarter orchestration with better tool routing and more reliable, grounded responses
- Bundled MCP server — NodeArchitect now runs on its own built-in MCP server, no separate install or configuration. External clients like Claude Desktop and Cursor can also connect to your live Houdini session
- GitHub Copilot sign-in — use your existing Copilot subscription (including Copilot Free) with no API key
- Secure credential storage — keys stored in your OS keychain, not a plaintext file
- Per-tool consent — the agent pauses and asks before anything touches your scene
1.1
- Support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers via HTTP and stdio
- Use MCP for scene control — disables built-in context and scene management, letting you connect your own MCP instead
- Filter chat history by current filename
1.0 — Initial release
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