qsys-tools

Open-source tooling for QSC Q-SYS audio/video systems — control a Core from your shell, your code, or an AI agent, and run Q-SYS Designer natively on your Mac.

Every Q-SYS Core — and Q-SYS Designer in Emulate mode — serves QSC's published QRC protocol (JSON-RPC 2.0 over TCP, port 1710). It's the same external-control interface Crestron/AMX integrations use. These tools speak it natively: zero QSC code, no SDK, no hardware required for development.

Quick start — shell

export QSYS_HOST=192.168.1.10     # your Core, or 127.0.0.1 for Designer Emulate

npx qsys-cli status               # engine/design status
npx qsys-cli ls                   # list components
npx qsys-cli get MainGain         # read a named control
npx qsys-cli set MainGain -6 --ramp 2
npx qsys-cli watch MainGain       # stream changes until Ctrl-C
npx qsys-cli snapshot load Bank 1 --ramp 1

$ qsys status
Design     RobertOwens-L1 (code Hd4b6C9TXKzL)
Platform   Emulator (emulator)
State      Active

$ qsys set-component Main_Mixer input.1.gain -6 --ramp 2
NAME          VALUE  STRING   POSITION
input.1.gain  -6     -6.00dB  0.585

Install the command globally with npm i -g qsys-cli (the binary is plain qsys). Every command takes --json for scripting; watch emits JSON lines.

Quick start — AI agent (MCP)

claude mcp add qsys -- npx -y qsys-mcp

or in any MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qsys": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "qsys-mcp"] }
  }
}

Then ask the agent to connect to your Core (or the Designer emulator) and it can read meters, flip mutes, ramp gains, watch controls for changes, and recall snapshots — with auto-reconnect across Core restarts. Details in packages/qsys-mcp.

Registry-aware MCP clients can discover it as io.github.reowens/qsys-mcp.

Quick start — your own code

npm install qsys-qrc

import { QrcClient } from 'qsys-qrc';

const qrc = new QrcClient({ host: '192.168.1.10' });
await qrc.connect();

const status = await qrc.statusGet();          // typed helpers…
await qrc.setControl('MainGain', -6, 2);       // value -6, 2 s ramp
const [gain] = await qrc.getControl(['MainGain']);

await qrc.send('Component.GetComponents');     // …or raw QRC methods

qrc.close();

Change groups (poll-based watch), component access, snapshots, and logon are all covered by typed helpers — see packages/qsys-qrc.

Q-SYS Designer on your Mac

For most users, use the signed DMG installer app, run it once, then trash the installer app when you are done. The installed Q-SYS Designer.app and its Application Support data remain.

Direct DMG path:

open https://github.com/reowens/qsys-tools/releases/tag/qsys-mac-installer-v0.1.3

Or use the npm bootstrapper:

npx qsys-mac install "/path/to/Q-SYS Designer Installer 10.4.0.exe"

It downloads and verifies the signed Q-SYS Mac Installer DMG, mounts it, and runs the bundled helper. The npm package does not contain Q-SYS Designer or the app payload. You provide your own free Designer installer download (BYO — nothing of QSC's is redistributed).

For support diagnostics, run:

npx qsys-mac doctor

Current macOS prerequisite: Rosetta 2. The signed DMG bundles Wine, .NET, 7z, icon tooling, msiinfo, and native helper binaries; normal setup does not need Homebrew or host Python.

Prefer a GUI installer app? Homebrew can install it:

brew tap reowens/qsys
brew trust reowens/qsys
brew install --cask qsys-mac-installer
open -a "Q-SYS Mac Installer"

brew trust is required by current Homebrew for third-party cask taps.

The signed installer source lives in packages/qsys-mac-installer. It provisions Wine + .NET into Application Support and gives you a real Dock/Finder/menu-bar citizen. The current signed DMG is qsys-mac-installer 0.1.3.

Bonus: Designer's Emulate mode serves QRC on 127.0.0.1:1710, so all of the tools above work hardware-free against it — that's how this repo's tooling is validated.

No hardware?

Point any of the tools at Q-SYS Designer running in Emulate mode (--host 127.0.0.1). Two protocol facts worth knowing: QRC has no method to enumerate named controls or snapshot banks (you need their names from the design), and Component.GetComponents returns only components with script access enabled.

Development

git clone https://github.com/reowens/qsys-tools.git
cd qsys-tools
npm install
npm run typecheck
npm test

The e2e suites run against a private, design-driven Q-SYS Core emulator; without it the e2e tests skip automatically (unit/arg-parsing tests still run). Maintainers with access to the emulator checkout can link it locally, then run:

npm test                # full suites
npm run typecheck:full  # includes the emulator-backed test files

qsys-mac-installer builds separately with Xcode — see packages/qsys-mac-installer (scripts/package.sh for the sign/notarize pipeline).

Maintainer release steps are documented in RELEASE.md.

When working from this source checkout, use the workspace script instead of npx qsys-mac so npm does not confuse the local workspace package with the published package:

npm run qsys-mac -- status
npm run qsys-mac -- install "/path/to/Q-SYS Designer Installer 10.4.0.exe"

Licensing

• npm packages (qsys-cli, qsys-qrc, qsys-mcp): MIT
• qsys-mac npm bootstrapper and qsys-mac-installer wrapper: GPL-3.0-or-later

Each package carries its own LICENSE file.

Disclaimer

This is an independent open-source project, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by QSC, LLC. "Q-SYS" and "Q-SYS Designer" are trademarks of QSC, LLC, used nominatively. These tools speak the publicly documented QRC protocol and contain no QSC code.