Set up AI agents

ArcLight has a built-in MCP server. Connect Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex or any MCP client, and an agent can build and restyle slides, write the script and its cues, add animated graphics, and run the show with you: take slides, run builds, drive the teleprompter and record.

The quick way: in ArcLight, choose Help ▸ Set Up AI Agents… (also in Settings ▸ AI, and the toolbar's Set Up AI button when no agent is connected). The dialog turns on access, then you pick your app: Claude Desktop installs ArcLight as an extension in one click, Codex gets ArcLight added to its settings, and Claude Code gets the exact command and a prompt you can paste, with the paths for your copy of the app already filled in. Once an agent is connected, its button in the show's toolbar lists its changes and links back to this setup and to Settings ▸ AI.

Connect Claude Code

Turn on agent access. In ArcLight, open Settings ▸ AI and turn on Let AI apps work on my shows. It's off by default, and agents can only connect while it's on and ArcLight is open.
Add ArcLight to your project. In Terminal, go to the folder you'll run Claude Code in, and run:
```
claude mcp add --scope project arclight -- "/Applications/ArcLight.app/Contents/Helpers/arclight" mcp
```
This writes a .mcp.json file in that folder. Claude Code sessions started there will see ArcLight. If your copy of ArcLight isn't in Applications, copy the command from the app instead, which uses the right path.
Start Claude Code in that folder (claude). The first time, it asks whether to use the arclight server from .mcp.json: approve it.
Check the connection. Type /mcp. arclight should be listed as connected. Then ask something like "What documents are open in ArcLight?"

Connect Claude Desktop

In Help ▸ Set Up AI Agents…, click Install Extension next to Claude Desktop. Claude opens and shows ArcLight's extension: its tools and what they do. Click Install, then start a new chat. The extension runs the copy of ArcLight you installed it from, and finds the app again if you move it. After an ArcLight update, the dialog offers Update Extension when Claude's copy is older.

Approving tools. Claude asks the first time it uses each ArcLight tool. Choose Always allow. The reading tools (look up, read, render, activity) are marked read-only, so they change nothing, and Claude lists them apart from the ones that edit. Every edit an agent makes is one undo step you can revert from ArcLight's toolbar.

If you added ArcLight to Claude's config file before, the dialog says so: remove that entry, or Claude lists ArcLight's tools twice. You can still use the config file instead of the extension, under Use the config file instead.

What the command writes

If you'd rather edit the file yourself, add this to .mcp.json at the root of your project (keep any other servers already in it):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "arclight": {
      "command": "/Applications/ArcLight.app/Contents/Helpers/arclight",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

There's no token in the file. The arclight helper reads the connection details ArcLight writes to ~/Library/Group Containers/UW68D9RYJX.com.graizlabs.arclight/agent.json (readable only by you) each time it starts.

Let an agent set it up

The Set Up AI Agents dialog has a prompt you can copy and paste into Claude Code, run in your project folder. It asks the agent to add the server to .mcp.json, install the producer skill into the project, check that ArcLight is listening, and tell you what to do next. Use the dialog's copy: it has your app's paths filled in.

Install the producer skill

The arclight-producer skill teaches Claude Code to turn an article into a show: script, slides, graphics and cues. It ships inside the app. To install it in a project by hand, copy it into the project's .claude/skills folder:

mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -R "/Applications/ArcLight.app/Contents/Resources/Skills/arclight-producer" .claude/skills/

Restart Claude Code, then ask it to "make an ArcLight show from" a link.

Using ArcLight from every folder

A project-scoped server only appears in sessions started in that folder, so agents only get ArcLight where you've added it. To use it in another project, run the command there too, or copy its .mcp.json.

To make ArcLight available in every Claude Code session, whatever the folder, add it for your user instead (the Set Up AI Agents dialog has this command too, under Use it from every folder):

claude mcp add --scope user arclight -- "/Applications/ArcLight.app/Contents/Helpers/arclight" mcp

If you commit .mcp.json to a shared repository, teammates get your path to the app and are asked to approve the server. Use user scope instead if that's not what you want.

What agents can and can't do

Local only. The server is a Unix socket on your Mac, with a token. Nothing listens on the network.
Off by default. Only you can turn access on, in Settings. Regenerate there disconnects every agent using the old token.
You can see and undo every change. The toolbar's agent badge lists what agents changed, with Revert. Layers an agent just changed are outlined on the canvas, and each change is one undo step named "Agent: …".
Agents see what they make. They can render slide stills, grab the live program frame and read color scopes. Cameras that aren't running show as labeled cards in renders, so an agent never turns on your camera just to look.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What to do
`arclight` isn't in `/mcp`	Start Claude Code in the folder that has the `.mcp.json`, and approve the server when asked. If you declined it earlier, run `claude mcp reset-project-choices` in that folder and restart.
"ArcLight isn't listening"	Open ArcLight and turn on Settings ▸ AI ▸ Let AI apps work on my shows.
"Failed to connect" or the helper isn't found	The path in `.mcp.json` must point at your copy of the app. If you moved ArcLight, run `claude mcp remove arclight` in that folder, then copy the command again from the Set Up AI Agents dialog. Keep ArcLight in Applications: a copy opened straight from Downloads runs from a temporary location that goes away.
You added ArcLight with an older command	Early versions used a command that only worked in one folder. Run `claude mcp remove arclight` in that folder, then use the command from the dialog.
Calls fail after you regenerated the token	Restart Claude Code. The helper picks up the new token when it starts.
Checking from Terminal	`"/Applications/ArcLight.app/Contents/Helpers/arclight" status` says whether ArcLight is listening. `… arclight call list_documents` makes a real call and lists the open documents.

Other MCP clients

Any client that runs stdio MCP servers can use ArcLight: the command is the arclight helper inside the app, with the argument mcp. See the Agent API reference for the tools it offers.

If you have the Mac App Store version

The App Store version of ArcLight runs in Apple's sandbox, so agents can only use files in one folder you choose. Go to Settings ▸ AI ▸ Folder for agents and pick a folder, such as Documents/ArcLight. Put the images, videos and decks you want an agent to use there, and it can also save shows there. Paths outside that folder are refused, and the error names the folder. Your open shows and your recordings folder are always available.

Two other differences: Set Up AI Agents installs the Claude Desktop extension but can't show whether it's installed, and shows the entry to paste into Claude Desktop's or Codex's config file instead of adding it for you, and Keynote import may ask you to export a PDF from Keynote first. The version from our website has none of these limits.

The graphics library

Agents build charts, big numbers, quotes, timelines, comparisons, process loops and 3D scenes from ArcLight's graphics library, and draw their own graphics when a story needs a picture the library doesn't have. Each graphic has a form, so you can edit its words and numbers yourself in Format ▸ Graphic. Ask an agent to save a graphic you like and it's there for your next show.