Houdini

If you need a coding agent to actually control SideFX Houdini on your desktop, this is the bridge. It uses Flue, a shell-to-application pipe that lets Claude send Python commands to Houdini and get JSON back. You can inspect scenes, tweak nodes, query geometry, or run small hou scripts without leaving the agent conversation. The same Flue install also works for Photoshop, Blender, Unity, After Effects, and a bunch of other desktop apps through identical stdin/stdout contracts. It has passed three security audits and sits at 1.8K installs with 53 GitHub stars. Treat it carefully since it acts inside production software, but the setup is straightforward if you already work in Houdini.

skills.sh installs: 1.9K
GitHub stars: 106
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add sfkislev/flue --skill Houdini --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

This skill lets a coding agent operate SideFX Houdini on the desktop through Flue, a local shell-to-application bridge. The agent pipes Python into houdini_bridge.py and gets structured JSON back.

agent shell -> houdini_bridge.py -> hou -> JSON result

When to use

The human requests work performed inside Houdini — inspect the open scene, nodes, parameters, geometry, selection; make bounded edits; run small hou scripts. A CLI agent cannot act inside Houdini without a bridge like Flue.

How to proceed

Read FLUE.md in this directory first. It explains how Flue works, the bridge contract, a worked hou example, and safety expectations.
If Flue is installed: also read C:\Users\fredd\.claude\skills\flue\SKILL.md and adapters/houdini_adapter/APP.md for the operational contract, then work from there.
If Flue is not installed: tell the human. The install command is pip install flue && flue setup. Do not install without explicit approval in the current session.