setup guide · mcp

Connect your AI apps.

CroppickVoice can act as a local MCP server, so the AI apps you already use — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code — can read your latest capture, search your dictation history, or ask you for a fresh snip. On this computer only, gated by switches you control. A Pro feature.

what this unlocks

Once connected, you just talk to your AI app the way you already do. Try: “Grab my last CroppickVoice capture” · “What did I just dictate?” · “Snip the error on my screen for me.”

Behind those phrases sit three abilities, each with its own switch: your latest Crop & Speak capture (the image plus what you said over it), your dictation history (text only, searchable), and “request a capture” — the AI asks, your normal snip overlay opens, and nothing is shared until you finish it yourself. You can redact before confirming, or press Esc to decline. Every agent-requested capture is marked in History, so there's always an audit trail.

step 1 · turn the bridge on

  1. Right-click the floating button → SettingsConnect AI apps (MCP) (named “Agent bridge (MCP)” in v1.2).
  2. Enable the agent bridge and Save — the status line flips to ● Running.
  3. Leave CroppickVoice running — connected apps can only reach it while it's up.

step 2 · one click per app

The same page lists the AI apps found on your computer, each with a Connect button. Click it, and watch the line under the row — it flips to ✓ Connected the first time that app actually reaches the bridge.

  • Claude Code — Connect registers the bridge with the claude CLI for you (no terminal). Open a new Claude Code session; /mcp should list croppickvoice.
  • Claude Desktop — Connect opens a small connector file in Claude Desktop; approve its install review. If the tools don't show up right away, restart Claude Desktop once.
  • Cursor / VS Code — Connect opens the editor's own “install MCP server” prompt; approve it there.

Several apps at once is fine — every app you connect can use the bridge at the same time.

any other mcp app

Open Setup steps & other apps on the same Settings page. It shows both standard forms, prefilled with your real install paths: a stdio command (the app's own executable run with --mcp — no token to copy, it finds the running app by itself) and a Streamable HTTP endpoint (http://127.0.0.1:27182/mcp with a bearer token from the same page). Any MCP-capable client works with one of the two.

if something doesn't connect

  • “CroppickVoice isn't running.” That's the honest answer your AI app gets when the bridge is down — start CroppickVoice and ask again.
  • A tool is missing from the list. Its switch is off on the Settings page — each ability is opt-out individually.
  • Claude Desktop lists the server but calls fail. Restart Claude Desktop once after installing the connector.
  • You regenerated the access token. Only hand-pasted HTTP configs break — update the header. One-click connectors pick the new token up on their own.
  • The page is greyed out. The bridge is part of Pro — one payment, yours forever.

private by design

The bridge answers on 127.0.0.1 only and never connects out; every request needs its access token. An AI app can ask for a screenshot, but you always take it — unless you deliberately enable the separate “capture without asking” option, which announces every shot with a flash and a notification. One thing to know: whatever a connected app reads becomes part of your conversation with that app's AI model, which usually runs in the cloud. The full network-use table →

Not set up yet? Download CroppickVoice — dictation and Crop & Speak are free forever; the bridge rides along when you go Pro.