Connect Claude to Squall Studio

You'll need:

• A Squall Studio account with at least one project.
• Claude Code (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code) or Claude Desktop.
• Credits in your account if you want Claude to generate media. Check your balance.

Go to squallstudio.com/api-keys, give the key a name you'll recognise later, and pick its permissions.

Start with Read only. Create a second key with editing or generation access once you know how you want to use it. Editing and generation are independent permissions: editing costs nothing, and generating changes no text.

Press Create key and copy the token. It starts with sw_live_ and is shown exactly once. If you lose it, revoke the key and create a new one.

Claude Code

Run this in your terminal, pasting your key at the end:

claude mcp add --transport http squall-studio \
  https://squallstudio.com/api/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer sw_live_your_key_here"

Then start Claude Code and check the connection:

claude
/mcp

You should see squall-studio listed as connected, with 25 tools available.

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop doesn't accept custom headers directly yet, so bridge the connection with mcp-remote. Open Settings - Developer - Edit Config and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "squall-studio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote",
        "https://squallstudio.com/api/mcp",
        "--header", "Authorization: Bearer sw_live_your_key_here"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. Squall Studio appears in the tools menu.

You don't call tools by name. Describe what you want, using the project and episode names you already use in the app. If two projects share a title, Claude should ask which one you meant rather than guess.

There is no draft state and no undo. When Claude edits a shot, the change is saved the moment the tool returns - the same as if you'd typed it into the app and it autosaved.

• Ask to see before you ask to change. Ask Claude to read shot 4 and show you the dialogue, then tighten Elena's second line after you confirm.
• Claude sends only the fields it changed. Everything it doesn't mention is left alone.
• Editing is free. No credits are involved, so a key can edit without being able to spend anything.
• Your safety net is the app. Open the shot in the web editor to see the result.

Locations are shared

A location is usually used by several scenes, often across episodes. Editing one changes every scene that uses it. Ask Claude which scenes use a location before changing it; if the change belongs to one scene only, that scene needs its own location, which you create in the app.

Locations track staleness. Editing the name, description, visual prompt, style, or aspect ratio marks the location stale because its generated image no longer matches the words. Editing mood, type, or episode assignments leaves the image alone.

Generation is asynchronous. When Claude starts a job it gets back a job id immediately, not a finished file.

1. Claude calls a generate_* tool and gets { jobId, status: "queued" }.
2. Credits are reserved at that moment.
3. Claude polls the job with get_job until it reads succeeded or failed.
4. A succeeded job carries a link to the finished asset, which also appears in your project library in the web app.

Useful if you're debugging a call or writing your own client.

Generation through Claude costs exactly what the same generation costs in the web app and draws on the same balance. Credits are reserved when the job starts and settled when it finishes; a failed job doesn't keep your credits.

Every job Claude starts shows up in your normal job history and billing records. There is no separate MCP bill and no separate quota.

Claude Code says the server is disconnected

Re-add it and check the URL and header:

claude mcp remove squall-studio
claude mcp add --transport http squall-studio \
  https://squallstudio.com/api/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer sw_live_your_key_here"

Any MCP-capable client that supports Streamable HTTP with a custom header can connect, not just Claude.