Zirkle in Claude

How Zirkle shows up in Claude Desktop, how to choose its tools, and how to add its skills. For the installation itself, see the Quick start.

Where Zirkle appears

• Setup adds an entry called zirkle to Claude Desktop's settings. Claude starts Zirkle in the background whenever it needs it; you never start Zirkle by hand.
• In a chat, Claude lists Zirkle's tools with its other tools and connectors, under the name zirkle. You don't need to pick a tool: describe what you want, and Claude chooses.
• When Claude 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.

Restart Claude after connecting

Claude reads its tool list only when it starts, so after Setup, after turning a toolset on and after activating a licence:

1. Right-click the Claude icon in the corner of the taskbar, next to the clock (click ^ if you don't see it).
2. Choose Quit. Closing the window is not enough.
3. Open Claude again.

If Claude still doesn't start Zirkle, see ZK-SET-021.

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 Claude ask you to click a point or an object in your CAD. In Claude, Zirkle waits up to 110 seconds for your click, then cancels the request in your CAD.

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

Skills

Skills teach Claude 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.

Claude asks you to add skills yourself:

1. In Setup's AI apps step, or later in Zirkle Settings → Status, choose Add Zirkle's skills. Zirkle saves a file, zirkle-skills.zip, where you choose.
2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities, choose Upload skill under Skills, and pick the file you saved.

You can also read each skill and copy it from zirkle.app/skills.

Claude's settings file

Zirkle's entry lives in Claude Desktop's own settings file, usually %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json. A Claude installed as a Windows app package keeps a copy under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_…\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\, and Zirkle writes its entry to every copy Claude may read. Before each change Zirkle backs the file up to %USERPROFILE%\.zirkle\backups\.

You don't need to edit this file. If Claude 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 Claude's settings. Your other Claude settings are unchanged. Connect adds it back.