Hi everyone,

NodeArchitect is a Houdini plugin that brings an AI agent directly into your scene. It reads your selected nodes, parameters, and connections, then uses that context to:

- Explain node networks
- Help debug issues
- Generate VEX and Python based on the current scene
- Document networks
- Build HDAs from natural language descriptions
- Expose Houdini through MCP for external AI tools

I've just pushed a major update — 2.0 — with the following changes:

- Rebuilt agent system using native function calling (more reliable multi-step behaviour)
- New web UI with streaming output and syntax highlighting
- Built-in MCP server (no separate setup required)
- GitHub Copilot login support
- Per-tool consent before scene modifications



Licensing note:
NodeArchitect 2.0 will move to a commercial license at a small price in the future, reflecting the increased scope and quality of the tool. Version 1.0 will remain free for personal/non-commercial use, available upon request.

Anyone who downloads NodeArchitect before the licensing change will be grandfathered in with access to future updates at no additional cost.

Download [bishopvfx.gumroad.com]

Update: 19/07/2026
NodeArchitect now officially supports Houdini 22 as well as 20 and 21. See the reply below for full details on the update.

Big update: NodeArchitect has now been updated to v2.3.x


ChatGPT/Codex login is now supported via the Codex CLI. This should make NodeArchitect much easier to try if you already use ChatGPT or Codex.

This release also adds Plan Mode, which is a major change to how the agent works. Before making any changes to your Houdini scene, NodeArchitect now generates a full implementation plan using live scene data. You can review the plan, refine it, or discard it entirely. Nothing executes until you approve it.

There is also a new HDA Composer. The agent can now help create, modify, and validate HDAs from natural language prompts. Like Plan Mode, it works plan-first, with rollback handling if something goes wrong.

Another big addition is early Copernicus / COP support. NodeArchitect previously very little Copernicus integration, so this release increases the COP toolset: 23 tools covering node inspection, image plane queries, error diagnostics, and exporting comps to disk.

Other improvements in v2.3.1 include:

• 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.
  
• Undo-safe AI mutations — every AI-driven scene edit now creates a checkpoint automatically, so changes can be rolled back from the NodeArchitect panel.
  
• Compact conversations — long sessions are automatically summarized before hitting the model’s context limit, while preserving important decisions and exact Houdini paths.
  
• Better model compatibility — text-only models now fall back to text-based validation instead of breaking on viewport requests.
  
• Stability fixes — including cook-deadlock prevention for agent-triggered scene evaluation and other reliability improvements.
  

Undo Changes Safely

Overall, this is one of the biggest NodeArchitect updates so far. The focus has been on making the agent safer, easier to get started with, and more useful in real Houdini workflows: ChatGPT/Codex login, plan-first execution, rollback-safe edits, HDA creation, longer sessions, and the first step toward COP/compositing support.

Hi everyone,

NodeArchitect 2.4.0 is now available.

This update is focused on Houdini 22 support, but it is not a hard Houdini 22-only release. NodeArchitect now detects the live Houdini build and available nodes before exposing specialised workflows. Houdini 21 continues to use compatible tools and automatic fallbacks where newer Houdini 22 functionality is unavailable, including Karma AOV output behaviour.

New in 2.4.0:

• APEX and KineFX workflows for rig inspection, skeleton debugging, retargeting and character recipes.

• Houdini 22 Copernicus workflows for terrain, pyro and material recipes.

• Solaris and Karma additions: RenderPasses, AOVs, Texture Material Library support, preview-shot setup and viewport-to-camera capture.

• PDG, ML and Gaussian Splat workflows for dataset inspection, training setup and diagnostics.

• SOP camera and implicit-surface workflows.

• Context-sensitive MCP tool discovery. The built-in agent and external clients now receive tools relevant to the active SOP, LOP or TOP context, keeping the tool list focused rather than bloated.

v2.4.0 has been smoke-tested against Houdini 22.0.368 and Houdini 21.0.700.

Download / update [bishopvfx.gumroad.com]