cortex¶
An unofficial, open-source toolkit for the Neural DSP Quad Cortex and Nano Cortex, developing one desktop GUI for Linux, Windows and macOS alongside a hardware-backed CLI, an MCP server for agentic patch editing, and the reusable Rust core beneath them.
Unofficial and unaffiliated
This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Neural DSP Technologies. "Neural DSP", "Quad Cortex", and "Nano Cortex" are their trademarks. It is an interoperability client built by the community for hardware it owns. See Legal and attribution.
What it is¶
The project is one toolkit for two related device models, exposed through several interfaces:
- A desktop GUI intended for both Cortex devices on Linux, Windows and macOS, built with Tauri, React and Mantine. Its interactive first draft has explicit browser-fixture and daemon-backed Tauri modes, non-persistent Quad grid controls, and a Nano fixed-chain editor over the shared Rust foundation.
- A hardware-backed CLI for reading device state, browsing presets, searching the model catalog and editing the grid.
- An MCP server for agentic patch editing through the held-session daemon. Read, recall, scene and unsaved live-grid editing tools are hardware-verified; save and delete are not exposed.
- A reusable Rust core implementing USB HID transport, framing, the protobuf envelope, session handling and a typed domain model. It depends on no host application or async runtime. The CLI, MCP server and GUI use the same behaviour rather than reimplementing it.
Why this exists¶
Neural DSP provides Cortex Control for macOS and Windows but has not provided a Linux editor. This community project began by building that missing support for ourselves; today it is maintained by one person.
Linux is the first implementation and the only hardware-verified host today, but it is not the product boundary. Windows and macOS host work is active: native package jobs are configured to build an unsigned Windows x86_64 NSIS installer and ad-hoc-signed Apple Silicon DMG, while Windows also has its named-pipe daemon boundary and a direct/QEMU hardware-smoke runbook. Their first remote package matrix is pending, and both hosts remain provisional until their native package and real-device smokes pass. Each device/platform combination will be called supported only after its transport, local IPC, packaging and real-hardware behaviour have been tested.
What it is not¶
- Not a replacement for Cortex Control. It does not do cloud sync, firmware updates, or Neural Capture creation, and it is not trying to.
- Not finished. The CLI can save through a hardware-verified prepare/edit/commit flow, MCP can edit unsaved working state, and the GUI integrates both devices, but major device operations, persistent MCP and GUI writes, cross-platform verification and distribution remain unfinished.
- Not a jailbreak. It talks to the device over USB exactly as the official editor does. It does not modify firmware, root the unit, or touch the SD card, and it carries none of the warranty risk that route does.
Status¶
The project's central discipline is being honest about what has actually run against real hardware. Throughout these docs:
verified means exercised against the applicable real hardware from this project's own code. Quad Cortex claims name CorOS 4.0.1 where version dependence matters; Nano claims identify their own measured operation boundary.
provisional means implemented but not yet verified against the applicable hardware or production integration boundary.
planned means specified but not built.
| Area | Status |
|---|---|
| USB HID transport, framing, message envelope | verified |
| Connect handshake, keepalive, correlation | verified |
| Reading device version, scene, presets, folders | verified |
| Model catalog | verified |
| Recall preset, switch scene | verified |
| Grid: place/move/remove block, set parameter | verified |
| Grid: bypass, routing, per-scene values, splits | verified |
| Prepared save, stored read-back and delete | verified |
| Capture and IR export/import | investigation; no working export/import |
| MCP server read, recall, scene management and live-grid tools | verified; no save/delete tools |
| Desktop GUI shell | daemon-backed Rust read/write boundaries verified on Linux; rendered native interaction smokes remain partial |
| Windows and macOS hardware paths and packaging | native package builders implemented; Windows IPC implemented; remote package runs and real-device smokes pending |
| Nano Cortex | USB HID, state, amp, bypass and raw FX plus core/daemon/MCP/Tauri-backend Gate-reduction paths verified on Linux; the rendered Gate control, wider operations and host integrations remain partial |
Start here¶
- Install - the udev rule, building, and your first command.
- GUI first draft - the current desktop shell and its verification boundary.
- Windows tester-preview smoke - native Windows and QEMU/KVM package, IPC, USB and GUI checks.
- Walkthrough - a tour of the CLI with hardware-captured output shapes and fictionalised identifiers/preset names.
- CLI reference - every command.
- The protocol - what we know about the wire, and how we know it.
- Quad Cortex HID transport - USB identity, reports, writes, framing, ownership and handshake.
- Nano Cortex HID transport - the newly measured 65-byte transport, shared framing, state exchange and differences from Quad.
A note on how this was built¶
Almost everything here rests on stokes-audio/pyquadcortex, an MIT-licensed Python library that established the protocol against real hardware and recovered the protobuf schema. This project is a Rust port of that work with attribution, not an independent rediscovery. See Legal and attribution.