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Connect an AI assistant

When you finish, Claude Desktop can search your library and build reels from it. Claude Desktop is the assistant Shotwork sets up for you in one click.

Before you start

  • Claude Desktop installed and opened at least once. Shotwork recognizes it by the settings folder it creates the first time it runs.
  • The shot lists you want it to see, listed in the Library window. Shotwork adds a shot list there whenever you open or save it, so this is usually already true.

Steps

  1. Choose File › Connect an AI Assistant….

  2. Under Assistants, read the status on the Claude Desktop row.

    Status Button What it means
    Not installed on this computer. Get Claude Desktop… Opens the download page in your browser. Shotwork never installs other software for you.
    Installed, but not connected yet. Connect Ready to connect.
    Connected. It can see your library. Reconnect Already done.

  3. If you installed Claude Desktop while the window was open, open Claude Desktop once, then click Check Again.

  4. Click Connect.
  5. Read the confirmation, which names the settings file Shotwork is about to change, and click Yes.
  6. Close Claude Desktop completely, then open it again. It reads its settings only when it starts.
  7. In Claude Desktop, ask: What's in my Shotwork library? It answers with your tags and how many shots you have.

The Connect an AI Assistant dialog: what it does and that footage stays on the computer, an Assistants list with Claude Desktop marked not installed and a Get Claude Desktop button, numbered next steps, a Check Again button, a Set it up by hand link and a Close button.

Before Claude Desktop is installed, the row's button opens its download page, and the steps under it say what comes next

What happens

Shotwork adds one entry to Claude Desktop's own settings file, saying how to start Shotwork's library server. Everything else in that file stays exactly as it was, including any other servers you set up. If the file does not exist yet, Shotwork creates it.

From then on, Claude Desktop starts that server itself whenever it needs your library. Shotwork does not have to be open. The library is read fresh for every question, so tags and ratings you save mid-conversation count on the next one.

If the settings file cannot be read, Shotwork refuses to change it rather than guess, and says Couldn't update the settings. The file is left untouched, and Connect a coding agent shows the entry to add by hand.

Reconnect and disconnect

  • Reconnect points Claude Desktop at this copy of Shotwork again. Use it after moving or reinstalling Shotwork. A row that says Installed, but not connected yet when you expected Connected usually means Shotwork moved.
  • Disconnect appears once a row is connected. It removes Shotwork's entry and nothing else. Restart Claude Desktop for it to take effect.
Where Claude Desktop keeps its settings
Platform File
Windows %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

The entry sits under mcpServers, keyed shotwork, and starts the same Python that runs Shotwork with -m shotwork.mcp. A row says Connected only when that entry points at this copy exactly, which is why an entry left over from an older install reads as not connected.