Zirkle in ChatGPT

How Zirkle shows up in ChatGPT Desktop, how to choose its tools, and how to give ChatGPT Zirkle's skills. For the installation itself, see the Quick start.

Before you start

Local tools like Zirkle need a ChatGPT Plus plan or higher. ChatGPT on the web can't reach Zirkle: use the ChatGPT Desktop app on the PC where your CAD runs.

Where Zirkle appears

• Setup adds zirkle to ChatGPT Desktop's list of MCP servers. You can see it in ChatGPT's Settings → MCP servers.
• Zirkle's tools are available in Work conversations: use the Work toggle above the message box, then start a new conversation. Describe what you want; ChatGPT picks the tool.
• When ChatGPT is about to erase, overwrite, close or run something, it asks you first. Everything else runs as one undo step per request.
• To check the connection, ask "Is Zirkle connected?". The answer names your CAD, the drawing on screen, its units and which toolsets are on.
• Codex CLI shares ChatGPT's settings file, so Zirkle appears there too.

Restart ChatGPT after connecting

ChatGPT reads Zirkle's tool list when it starts Zirkle, so after Setup, after turning a toolset on and after activating a licence:

1. Open Settings → MCP servers and check that zirkle is listed.
2. Select Restart. If zirkle isn't listed, quit ChatGPT completely and open it again.
3. Switch to Work with the toggle above the message box and start a new conversation.

If ChatGPT still doesn't start Zirkle, see ZK-SET-020.

Choosing tools

Zirkle groups its tools into toolsets. Open Zirkle Settings from the Start menu, then Toolsets:

• On by default: Query & view, Draw & edit, Annotate, Blocks, Layers, styles & setup, Layouts & plotting.
• Off by default: Xrefs & images, 3D.
• Pick in CAD lets ChatGPT ask you to click a point or an object in your CAD. ChatGPT gives a tool 60 seconds, so Zirkle waits up to 40 seconds for your click, then cancels the request in your CAD.

Each toolset you turn on is sent to ChatGPT with every message, which uses more of your ChatGPT plan's allowance. Keep on what you use. Turning a toolset on takes effect after you restart ChatGPT; turning one off applies immediately. The Safety section has Read-only, the Advanced tool and Power mode (CAD commands and AutoLISP, off by default; ChatGPT asks before every run).

Skills

Skills teach ChatGPT how architects work in CAD: floor plans, room areas, dimensions, blocks and quantities, hatching, sheets, drawing setup, checks, cleanup and revisions. Zirkle works without them, and works better with them.

ChatGPT has no place yet where Zirkle can add them for you, so you paste them:

1. Open zirkle.app/skills and copy the skill you want, or the whole operator guide.
2. In ChatGPT, open a project and paste it into the project's instructions.
3. Work with Zirkle inside that project.

Skills stay in English because only the AI reads them.

ChatGPT's settings file

Zirkle's entry lives in ChatGPT Desktop's settings file, usually %USERPROFILE%\.codex\config.toml; when you set the CODEX_HOME variable, ChatGPT normally keeps it in that folder instead. Before each change Zirkle backs the file up to %USERPROFILE%\.zirkle\backups\.

You don't need to edit this file. If ChatGPT can't read it, Zirkle Settings → Help → Repair AI app settings restores only an unreadable file from Zirkle's backup and puts Zirkle's entry back; a file that reads fine is left as it is.

Disconnecting

Zirkle Settings → Status → Disconnect removes only Zirkle's entry from ChatGPT's settings. Your other ChatGPT settings are unchanged. Connect adds it back.