Letting another AI assistant read your storage

If you use an AI assistant app on your Mac, such as Claude Desktop, you can let it read your storage status from Storage Studio — how much space is free, how your backups are doing, what ran recently. It's read-only: the assistant can ask questions but can't move, back up or delete anything. It works only on this Mac and is off until you turn it on in Preferences → Connections.

This uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standard way for AI assistants to connect to apps. You don't need to know how it works to use it.

Turning it on

1. Open Preferences and choose Connections.
2. Turn on Allow local assistant access. The line below it changes to Running on this Mac, port 8787. — 8787 is the default port.
3. Under Who can connect, keep Require an access key selected. It's the recommended choice.
4. Under Connect Claude Desktop, click Copy snippet.
5. Paste the snippet into your assistant's settings for connected tools (in Claude Desktop, its "MCP servers" settings), then restart the assistant.

You don't paste the access key anywhere. The snippet tells the assistant to start a small helper that comes with Storage Studio, and that helper adds the key for you. Storage Studio needs to be running for the assistant to reach it.

%% caption: How another assistant reads your storage status
flowchart LR
  A[AI assistant app on this Mac] --> B[Storage Studio helper adds the access key]
  B --> C{Storage Studio running and access on?}
  C -->|Yes| D[Read-only answer about your storage]
  C -->|No| E[No answer]
  D --> A

What the assistant can see

• free, used and total space on your Mac and your external drive, and what's using space;
• your Storage Profile — what kinds of files take the space, how it splits between your Mac, drives and cloud, your largest items, and Storage Studio's suggestions;
• sudden drops in free space and other unusual disk activity Storage Studio noticed, and what's in the notification bell;
• your Data Backup sets, their health, when they last ran and their saved versions;
• your connected cloud accounts — their type and the name you gave them, never passwords or sign-in details — and the Storage Studio location in Finder: whether it's on and which folders it shows;
• your Data Transfers — each one's status, progress, schedule and, if it failed, why — plus recent transfer totals;
• a summary of background activity, as in Job Insights, including any problems it lists;
• the latest duplicate results on your Mac and in your synced and connected cloud storage, with the largest sets;
• apps you've moved or offloaded to your drive, and the size and last use of the apps on your Mac;
• folders you've moved to your drive, whether their shortcuts are healthy, and any moves still waiting or that failed;
• whether Delta Drive or My Drive is set up and ready, how much is stored, and your plan's allowance;
• your paired Bridge devices and whether each is connected;
• the Recycle Vault — how much it holds and its most recent items, with their names, sizes and the folders they came from;
• your automatic move and delete rules, including the folders they watch;
• your support tickets — subject, status and the latest reply;
• the current tip and the Learning Center articles already on your Mac;
• Storage Studio's own built-in help — the same answers Tuhi uses — so it can explain how a feature works and where to find it.

It reads what Storage Studio last measured. Asking never starts a scan, so if something hasn't been checked yet, the assistant is told which screen to open. It can't see passwords, access keys, passphrases or sign-in details, and it can't open your files or read your Junk Yard.

What it can't do

Nothing it asks can change anything. There's no way through this connection to move, back up, restore, delete, run a rule, start a scan or run a transfer again — for that, use Sync again in Data Transfers. For actions, use Storage Studio itself — or ask Tuhi, which knows the same things and can take you to the right screen.

Who can connect

Either way, the connection is open only to apps on this Mac. Other computers on your network and the internet can't reach it.

Regenerate makes a new access key. Anything using the old key is disconnected and needs connecting again. Keep the key private.

Turning it off

Turn off Allow local assistant access. The status changes to Off. and assistants can no longer connect. It stays off until you turn it on again.

Your privacy

Storage Studio answers the assistant on your Mac and doesn't send these answers anywhere itself. But once your assistant has read them, they're handled by that assistant, which may send them to its own online service. Check the assistant's privacy terms before you turn this on. See Tuhi runs on your Mac for how Tuhi differs.

If the status line says Couldn't start, another app may already be using that port. Quit the other app, or restart your Mac, and turn the switch off and on again.

See also: The Preferences window · Privacy: what stays on your Mac · What leaves your Mac