Yes. SolidCraft has two ways to connect an assistant. The desktop app includes Agent chat, a built-in side panel. Outside the app, solidcraft-cli mcp starts an MCP server that an external assistant can drive. The project homepage states the boundary in its own words: "AI is optional. SolidCraft works without a connected assistant."
What AI can do
The project homepage says MCP lets a compatible AI agent run modeling commands, measure geometry, change parameters, and export files, and that you can open and edit the resulting design in SolidCraft.
- Run modeling commands. The MCP guide says every tool runs engine commands, the same ones the toolbar, palette, scripts, and control channel use.
- Measure geometry.
- Change parameters.
- Export files.
- Open the resulting design in SolidCraft and keep editing it.
- Agent chat uses those same tools on the design already open in the desktop app. The Agent chat guide says the app hands the chat its own MCP server when a conversation starts, and that changes show in the window as they happen.
Which assistants
Agent chat is a side panel where you talk to a coding agent you already use, or to a model behind an OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-compatible endpoint you choose.
- The guide names Claude Code, Codex, Google Antigravity, OpenCode, and Grok Build, and it adds "and others."
- It also names Ollama or LM Studio on your computer, plus OpenAI, Anthropic, or any other URL.
- Open the panel with Ctrl+Shift+A, or Cmd+Shift+A on a Mac.
- A coding agent runs on your computer under your own account. The guide says SolidCraft does not sell or proxy a model and needs no key for that agent. An endpoint key, if one is needed, goes into the system keychain.
- Show AI features, under Preferences → AI, is the master switch. Turned off, SolidCraft shows no AI button, shortcut, menu entry, or panel.
- The Agent chat guide marks that panel "Desktop app only." The repository browser-runtime design note says the web tab has no first-class agent session. That note's first phase is documentation only, with no user-visible change, and an in-browser agent bridge is a later phase.
- Named MCP setup is documented for Claude Code and Claude Desktop. Claude Code is
claude mcp add solidcraft -- solidcraft-cli mcp. Both configs are on the SolidCraft MCP setup page.
Which to choose
Use Agent chat to talk inside the desktop app, and MCP when an external tool should drive SolidCraft.
- Agent chat is the side panel on the design that is already open.
solidcraft-cli mcpcan run headless, with no window, or attach to the desktop app that is already running so you can watch.- Choose Agent chat when the conversation should stay in the app. Choose MCP when Claude Code or Claude Desktop should start the work from outside.
- The command-line tool is on the SolidCraft CLI page. Installers are on the SolidCraft download page.
FreeCAD MCP is a separate guide about connecting FreeCAD to Claude. Other guides are linked from the home page.