Connect Claude
Install Claude for Mac and sign in. In Gridshift, chooseHelp → Connect to Claude…. Claude comes forward and asks you to install the Gridshift extension; click Install. Start a new chat, and Gridshift’s tools are there.
Connect ChatGPT
Install the ChatGPT app for Mac and sign in. In Gridshift, chooseHelp → Connect to ChatGPT…. Quit and reopen ChatGPT, then start a new chat in its Codex section: Gridshift’s tools are there.
Update the Claude extension after a Gridshift update
When Gridshift finds an older extension at launch, it offers Update in a banner. Click it, confirm in Claude, then start a new chat. ChatGPT needs nothing: it always uses the Gridshift you have installed.Check that it is connected
With a project open, ask “What’s in my song in Gridshift?”. Name Gridshift: Codex otherwise looks at the files on your Mac. The assistant reads the session and answers with the tempo, key and tracks you see in the window.Good to know
- Gridshift must be running. Without it, the assistant still sees the tools, but every call answers “Gridshift is not running. Please start Gridshift and try again.” Start Gridshift and ask again; the client does not need a restart.
- The connection stays on this Mac. The bridge talks to Gridshift over a local socket and opens no network port. What the assistant reads goes to the AI service your client uses.
- The assistant works on the project open in the window, and you see every change as it happens. What it can reach is on What Assistants Can Do; prompts that work well are on Use Cases.
- ChatGPT reaches Gridshift only in Codex chats. Regular ChatGPT chats, and ChatGPT and Claude on the web, cannot reach an app on your Mac.
- Claude keeps the extension at the version it installed. It only offers that version’s tools, and a chat that was already open keeps the old ones after an update.
Details
Details
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the open standard AI clients use to call tools in other apps. Gridshift’s server starts with the app; there is nothing to switch on.
- The Claude Desktop extension is a
.mcpbfile Gridshift builds from the bridge inside the app and hands to Claude Desktop. It carries its own copy of the bridge. - Later on the update banner hides it until the next Gridshift version.
- Connect to ChatGPT adds a
[mcp_servers.gridshift]entry to~/.codex/config.toml(or$CODEX_HOME/config.toml), which the ChatGPT app, the Codex CLI and Codex in code editors all read. Your other settings in that file stay as they are; connecting again only replaces Gridshift’s entry. Connect to ChatGPT… is also in the command palette. - Other MCP clients, such as Claude Code, start the bridge from inside the app. Add it to the client’s MCP configuration as
"gridshift": { "command": "/Applications/Gridshift.app/Contents/Helpers/GridshiftBridge" }undermcpServers; in Claude Code that isclaude mcp add gridshift /Applications/Gridshift.app/Contents/Helpers/GridshiftBridge. - ChatGPT and other clients run the bridge from inside the app, so they always see the tools of the Gridshift you have installed. Nothing needs updating after a Gridshift update.
- The bridge connects to
~/Library/Application Support/Gridshift/mcp.sock. Pass--socket <path>in the client’sargsto point it elsewhere. - If Gridshift is quit and started again, the bridge reconnects on the next call.
- A long call, such as a mix analysis or a stem split, may take minutes. The bridge waits up to 15 minutes for an answer before it gives up.
- With two copies of Gridshift open, the one started last takes over the connection.