FREE · OPEN SOURCE · MIT

TouchDesigner,
minus the busywork.

Templates, parameter promotion by drag and drop, MIDI and OSC mapping, network and navigation shortcuts — built to feel like they shipped with TD. Take the whole toolkit, or pick the three tools you actually want.

Nothing to download just to look around: browse every package in the browser, or read a tool's page before you commit to it.

A full walkthrough with the TouchDesigner team on InSession. Recorded on an earlier release — the tools have grown since, but the ideas are the same.

Install in three steps

One container goes into your project. You pick the tools from there, and only those get downloaded.

1

Drop one .tox

Drag FNSTools.tox into the root of a project. It is about 150 KB and arrives empty — the container you drop is where your tools will live.

Download
Other ways in

Already have a toolkit container? Take the bare installer instead (~14 KB).

Or skip the download entirely: build your install in the browser and paste one line into the TouchDesigner Textport.

2

Pick your tools

Pulse Pick Tools and the picker opens inside TouchDesigner. Browse by category, follow any card through to its docs, then review the plan before anything is written to your project.

See the picker →
What the picker actually does

It downloads exactly the packages you ticked, plus the core registries they need, and verifies every file against the release manifest with sha256 before anything is installed.

Nothing else is written. You can also export a selection.json and hand that to the installer instead of clicking through the picker.

On the very first run it fetches the catalogue before it can show you anything, and says so while it does.

3

It stays current

Each package carries its own version, and the updater compares it against the published one. Update the tools you use, leave the rest alone, and keep your settings across the swap.

How updates work
Where your settings live

Preferences do not live in the project file. They go into one aggregated JSON in your user palette, so the way you set a tool up follows you into the next project — and survives the next update.

MIDI and OSC maps are the deliberate exception: they save into the project folder, so they travel with the show.

Settings are preserved across a package being replaced, not re-entered afterwards. And the registries are promoted masters you can clone, so your own tools can sit on the toolbar, nav bar or OP menu too. How settings persistence works →

Make it the default

Save the project and set it as your startup file in Preferences → General → Startup File Mode. Every new project then opens with your tools already in it.

On macOS

Everything works except the Olib Browser and clipboard image paste. Where the docs say Alt, press Cmd — exceptions are called out per tool.

Finding help later

Alt-right-click (or Alt-middle-click) any toolbar icon to open that tool's page on this site. Option on macOS.

Configurator

Choose before you install anything

Browse all 49 packages by category, read what each one does, and tick the ones you want. You get a single line to paste into the Textport — it installs that selection and nothing else.

Why there seem to be two pickers

There is one. The same page is served from inside TouchDesigner by the installer — nothing leaves your machine there — and hosted here so you can look around before downloading anything.

The web copy hands you a paste line instead of installing directly. That line re-resolves the current release at paste time, so a copied line stays valid.

Open the configurator →

What's in the toolkit

49 packages, each installing on its own. Core goes in as a unit; everything else is optional. Open a category to see what is inside.

Core The registries every other tool plugs into. Installed as a unit. 11 tools
FNS_ConfigRegistrySettings persistence registry: one aggregated JSON in the user palette, so preferences follow you across projects and survive updates. The raw master, promoted to /sys.
FNS_ConsoleThe toolkit's web front, served from inside your project: every tool's settings on one page, the install picker, and any tab a tool contributes. The raw master, promoted to /sys.
FNS_HubThe FNS button in TouchDesigner's main-menu bar and the one-stop manager window behind it: the Toolbar, Navbar and Main Menu configurators as tabs, the console, and any tab a tool contributes. Drop a panel COMP on the button to register it into a surface.
FNS_HubRegistryThe registry behind FNS_Hub's tab bar: tools contribute native panels, viewers or parameter pages as hub tabs. The raw master, promoted to /sys.
FNS_MainMenuRegistryTD main-menu surface registry, including project-name display. The raw master, promoted to /sys.
FNS_NavbarRegistryThe pane-bar surface registry. The raw master, promoted to /sys -- clone it to add your own pane-bar widgets.
FNS_OpMenuRegistryOP Create dialog surface registry: search words, row decorations, right-click items, filter stages. The raw master, promoted to /sys.
FNS_PaletteRegistryContribute tabs to TouchDesigner's Palette Browser: a tool publishes a native panel COMP and it appears beside the stock Palette tab, sized to the slot and notified on every tab change.
FNS_PaneTypeRegistryNamed, persistent pane-type entries for TD's panebar: any COMP can appear in the pane-type dropdown and be recalled with configurable owner, type, window actions and callbacks.
FNS_TimelineRegistryPublish a widget into TouchDesigner's timeline bar: transport controls beside the stock ones, an entry on the time-properties block, or a full-width strip in the frame-ruler band that gets its own row.
FNS_ToolbarRegistryThe toolbar surface registry and mirror rail. The raw master, promoted to /sys -- clone it to put your own tools on the bar.
Surfaces The parts of TouchDesigner you look at all day, made yours. 5 tools
BorderlessTDBorderless TouchDesigner window, plus timeline hiding.
ColorUIOperator and family colour palettes, with the active palette roaming through config.
FNS_NavbarPane-bar extras: parent-hierarchy navigation, path injection and drag-drop hijack, plus the navbar Configurator.
FNS_OpMenuOP Create dialog extras: the IO filter, operator search words and script injection.
FNS_ToolbarToolbar extras: the Configurator UI for ordering, grouping and hiding bar widgets, plus stock widgets.
Parameters Promote, bind, randomize and reset — by drag and drop. 4 tools
CustomParToolsPromote parameters to a parent with binds or expressions, customize name/label/range on drop, plus extension creation, parent shortcuts, parameter clearing and IOP promotion. Also carries four stock-TouchDesigner shortcuts for opening parameters and the COMP editor.
ExprHotStringsAbbreviations that expand into TouchDesigner expressions as you type in a parameter field.
ParOPDropCreate Parameter CHOP/DAT and Parameter Execute DAT nodes inside a COMP from its custom parameters, by drag and drop or hotkey.
ParRandomizerRandomize parameter values within range, for quick exploration.
Network Build, swap, collapse and navigate without touching a menu. 9 tools
AltSelectAlternative selection helpers for operators in the network editor.
AutoCombineHold Alt while placing a generator TOP to have it come in pre-set to composite over its input.
OpTemplatesA library of preconfigured operator templates to drop into a network.
OpToClipboardCopy the selected operator's reference to the system clipboard, ready to paste into an expression.
paste_from_clipboardPaste images and data from the system clipboard into TouchDesigner.
QuickCollapseCollapse a selection into a component, with an optional customize dialog.
QuickMarksBookmark network locations and jump back to them. Bookmarks stay project-local by design.
SwapOpsSwap one operator for another while keeping connections intact.
SwitchOPsSwitch between operators in place.
Media & Output Where the picture and the sound actually leave the project. 6 tools · 1 Plus
AutoResProject-wide resolution reference that operators can follow instead of hardcoding pixel sizes.
FNS_TimelineToolsPlusDrive the timeline from your media: pick a movie and an audio file, optionally resize the timeline to fit, and see them behind the ruler and the Keyframer graph as a filmstrip and a waveform.
GlobalOutSelectBrowse Global OP Shortcuts and the out operators inside them in a tree, and drag any of them into a network as a Select.
GlobalVolControlGlobal audio volume control.
HydroHomieA toolbar reminder to drink water at an interval you set. Off by default.
OUTPUTOutput window and display routing helpers.
Control Hardware in, parameters out. 3 tools
midiMapperMap MIDI controls to parameters, with a learn mode you drive by dropping a parameter on the toolbar button. Mappings are saved into the project folder by design; the tool's own settings roam through config.
oscMapperMap OSC messages to parameters. Mappings are saved into the project folder by design.
SetSmoothnessSet Input/Viewer Smoothness on selected TOPs, or on every TOP in the network.
Workflow The small frictions, removed. 6 tools
FNS_HotkeyManagerUnified hotkey discovery, conflict detection and rebinding UI across the whole toolkit.
MISCAssorted small utilities that ship together (hog CHOP, mouse input and friends).
QuickPanePane layout shortcuts.
QuickTimeTimeline and time-related shortcuts.
ResetPLS1Reset stateful operators (feedback, cache, timers, counts) across the project, with a pattern-based exception list. Bound to ctrl+0.
TDX_SearchPaletteSearch field for TouchDesigner's palette browser, installed into the palette on startup. Vendored TD-SearchPalette by Yea Chen.
Developer Extensions, stubs and the editor you actually write them in. 5 tools
FNS_CommandKitDrop-in kit that lets ANY component publish quick-launch commands to the TDXL launcher palette — decorate a promoted method, or declare a spec. Guarded: with no launcher in the session nothing happens and nothing errors.
FNS_ConfigHostA standalone FNS_ConfigRegistry host. Drop it into a component to give it roaming settings — its parameters save and reload with your config, with per-parameter and per-page exclusions.
FNS_UpdaterIn-place toolkit updates, with settings preserved across the replacement.
OpenExtOpen an operator's extension source quickly.
VSCodeToolsVS Code integration: open externalized scripts, sync files and generate TouchDesigner type stubs.

Every package has its own page, and the docs are searchable — open the documentation →

Free toolkit. A few tools ask for support.

Nearly everything here is MIT and stays that way. A small number of tools unlock when you support the work — through the same installer, the same updater and the same release.

Free · MIT

The toolkit

The core registries and nearly every tool in the catalogue.

  • No account, no sign-in. Nothing phones home, and there is no telemetry.
  • Source on GitHub. Read it, fork it, use it in commercial work.
  • Every machine you own — and every machine you set up for someone else.
  • Free stays free. A tool that is free today does not become paid later.
Plus

Plus tools

Unlocked inside TouchDesigner by connecting Patreon or redeeming a licence key.

  • Already in the picker, marked Plus — visible and documented, locked until you unlock them.
  • Sign in once. The credential goes into the Windows Credential Manager or the macOS Keychain — never into your project file, and never into a .tox you might pass on.
  • Same rails. One release, one manifest, the same sha256 verification and the same updater as everything else.
  • Membership or licence key. Patreon keeps them current for as long as you are a member; a licence key buys one tool outright.

More from Function Store

The toolkit is not the only thing here. Both of these work the same way: a free core, more with support.

Documentation

Every tool documented on its own page

What you read matches exactly what you installed — no hunting through one long page for the three tools you picked. Search covers every page.

Free forever. Patreon if it earns its keep.

The toolkit is MIT and free for everyone, including commercial work. If it saves you time, a membership keeps it moving — and unlocks the Plus tools while you are there. The Discord is where bugs get sorted fastest.

Built with

Plenty of this toolkit is not mine. These people contributed tools, mods and the habits I picked up from reading their components — please support them.

Olib Browser, op_store, MIDI & OSC mappers

Plus a great many best practices learned from reading his components.

by AlphaMoonbase.berlin
TD_SearchPalette

The palette search bar that is hard to work without once you have it.

by Yea Chen
IO filters, and TouchDesigner

The OP Create dialog filters — and the software all of this sits on.

by Greg Hermanovic
Clipboard image paste, OpType acronyms

Paste an image straight into a network; find operators by their initials.

by DotSimulate
QuickMarks

Bookmark spots in a project and jump straight back to them.

by Alex Guevara
Early testing and feedback

The people who used all of this while it was still sharp around the edges.

by Acrylicode and kim0slice

Also worth having

Free tools from the community that pair well with this one.

Olib

The de-facto free marketplace for TouchDesigner components.

by Wieland Hilker (AlphaMoonbase.berlin)
TD-Launcher

A must-have if you keep several TouchDesigner builds installed.

by Lucas Morgan

Stop rebuilding the same setup.

One .tox, then pick what you need. It is free, and it takes about a minute.