Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop keeps its tools in one settings file. You add CADshift to it once.

The quick way is one command (--register claude-desktop). The steps below do the same by hand.

1. Open the settings file

1. Open Claude Desktop.
2. Open the menu (☰, top left) → File → Settings. This is the app’s own settings window, not your claude.ai account settings.
3. Select Developer on the left, then Edit Config.
4. File Explorer opens with claude_desktop_config.json selected. Right-click it → Open with → Notepad.

The file is %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json. If Edit Config isn’t there, update Claude Desktop first.

2. Add CADshift

If the file is empty, or only has {} in it, replace everything with this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cadshift-autocad": {
      "command": "C:\\Users\\YOUR-NAME\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\CADshift\\AutoCAD MCP\\server\\cadshift-mcp-autocad.exe",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR-NAME with your Windows user name (how to find the path). Keep the doubled backslashes.

If the file already has an "mcpServers" section with other tools in it, add only the "cadshift-autocad": { ... } part inside it, with a comma between it and the entry before it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "some-other-tool": {
      "command": "...",
      "args": []
    },
    "cadshift-autocad": {
      "command": "C:\\Users\\YOUR-NAME\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\CADshift\\AutoCAD MCP\\server\\cadshift-mcp-autocad.exe",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Leave any other settings in the file as they are. Save the file.

3. Restart Claude Desktop completely

Closing the window is not enough: Claude keeps running in the notification area.

1. Right-click the Claude icon in the notification area (next to the clock; you may need to click ^ to see it) and choose Quit.
2. Open Claude Desktop again.

4. Check that it worked

1. Open AutoCAD with a drawing.
2. In Claude, start a new chat. Click the + button at the bottom left of the message box, point to Connectors, and choose Manage connectors. cadshift-autocad is in the list, with its tools.
3. Ask: “Use CADshift to tell me how many layers the open drawing has.” Claude asks your permission the first time it uses a CADshift tool: allow it.
4. In AutoCAD, the CADshift tab → Status now says the AI is connected.

In Settings → Developer, cadshift-autocad should show as running. If it shows an error, see Troubleshooting. Claude Desktop’s own log for CADshift is %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\mcp-server-cadshift-autocad.log.

Official guide: Connect to local MCP servers (Model Context Protocol, by Anthropic).