Hardware Designer

Connect your AI

Let Claude, ChatGPT or any MCP client measure and edit your models. Everything stays in this browser; the server only passes your AI’s calls to this window. Five steps, each turning green as you go.

Your AI

Claude: claude.ai and the Claude desktop app.

  1. Step 1: Create an account with a passkey

    To do

    A passkey is the whole account — your device unlocks it, there is no email or password, and nothing about your models is uploaded. It exists so the server knows which window your AI’s calls belong to.

  2. Step 2: Switch the bridge on in this tab

    To do

    Your models, their history and the geometry kernel live in this browser’s storage. Your AI never reaches them directly: it talks to the server, the server hands each tool call to this tab while the bridge is on, and this tab runs it and sends the answer back. So keep this tab open.

    BridgeOff

  3. Step 3: Add Hardware Designer to Claude

    Follow along

    Claude talks to this app’s server, and the server passes each of its calls to this window. Add the server where Claude keeps its connectors:

    1. Open claude.ai, then your profile menu, then Settings, then Connectors. On some accounts it is under Customize, then Connectors.
    2. Click Add custom connector (the + button).
    3. Name it Hardware Designer and paste the server URL. Leave the OAuth client ID and secret under Advanced settings empty — the app registers the client itself. Click Add.

      Remote MCP server URL

      /mcp
    4. Click Connect on the new connector.
    5. In a chat, open the + menu, then Connectors and switch Hardware Designer on. The desktop app shares the same connectors.

    Every Claude plan can add custom connectors; Free allows one. On Team and Enterprise, an owner adds it under Organization settings, then Connectors first, then each member clicks Connect.

    The first time, your AI opens this app in your browser; sign in with your passkey if it asks, and you are sent straight back.

  4. Step 4: Authorize it

    To do

    Once you are signed in, this step watches for your AI to ask and turns green the moment it has been let in.

  5. Step 5: Say hello

    To do

    In a new chat or session with Hardware Designer switched on, ask it something only your models can answer. This step turns green on the first call that reaches this tab.

    First prompt

    List my models in Hardware Designer and describe the first one.

    No models yet? Upload a .3mf in the Library first, or ask your AI to create one:

    To start from nothing

    Create a 40 × 20 × 10 mm box in Hardware Designer and render it.

    Calls in this tab

    Calls appear here the moment your AI makes one.

    Every call your AI makes about your models passes through this tab, which is why they show here.

If it doesn’t work

Your AI says nobody is home, or no tab is connected
The bridge is off or this tab is closed. Switch it on here and leave the tab open.
Your AI says it is not authorized, or asks to reconnect
The token expired or the account changed. Remove and re-add the connector, or run the client’s login command again.
ChatGPT only offers search and fetch
Developer mode is off. Switch it on under Settings, then Apps & Connectors, then Advanced settings, then enable the connector in the chat’s + menu.
You closed the tab, or the laptop went to sleep
The bridge lives in this tab. Reopen the app, switch the bridge on again, and your AI’s next call goes through.