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AI access (MCP)

AI access lets AI assistants — such as Claude Desktop and other MCP-compatible tools — read what Storage Studio knows about your Mac, so their answers are grounded in your real storage instead of guesswork. When it's on, an assistant can see:

  • Your storage status — how much space is free and how things are

trending.

  • What's using space on your Mac and your external drive.
  • Your Data Backup sets and the versions kept for each.
  • The accounts you've connected in Data Transfers.
  • Recent activity — what Storage Studio has been doing in the

background.

Read-only, always

AI access can only read. It can never change, move, delete, or back up anything — no assistant connected this way can touch your files, your settings, or your backups. It's a window in, not a lever.

Private by design

  • It runs entirely on your Mac. Nothing is exposed to your network

or the internet.

  • It's off until you turn it on, and one switch turns it back off.
  • In the default mode, a connecting app needs your access key before

it can read anything.

Turning it on

Open Settings → Connections and turn AI access on. There you'll find everything you need:

  • On / Off — the master switch.
  • Access mode — choose Require an access key (the default) so

only apps that have your key can connect, or Open on this Mac to allow any app running on this Mac to connect without a key.

  • Access key — copy it to share with an assistant, or regenerate it

at any time. Regenerating immediately stops anything using the old key.

  • A ready-to-paste config snippet — copy it straight into your AI

tool's setup.

The snippet is safe to share: it doesn't contain your key. The key is read from Storage Studio itself, so pasting the snippet somewhere never leaks your access.

Two ways to connect

  • A direct local connection — for tools that connect straight to

Storage Studio on this Mac.

  • The standard MCP setup — for Claude Desktop and similar tools

that expect the usual MCP configuration.

The panel gives you the right snippet for each; pick whichever your assistant supports.

What is MCP?

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol — the open standard for connecting AI tools to the apps and data they help you with. Because Storage Studio speaks MCP, any assistant that also speaks it can read your storage picture through the same simple setup.