Set up AI agents

ArcLight has a built-in MCP server. Connect Claude Code, 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.

Connect Claude Code

1. Turn on agent access. In ArcLight, open Settings ▸ Agents and turn on Allow agents to control ArcLight. It's off by default, and agents can only connect while it's on and ArcLight is open.

2. 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.

3. Start Claude Code in that folder (claude). The first time, it asks whether to use the arclight server from .mcp.json: approve it.

4. Check the connection. Type /mcp. arclight should be listed as connected. Then ask something like "What documents are open in ArcLight?"

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/Application Support/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

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.