Connect an AI (MCP)

The AI you already use can set DreamShow's scenes when you ask it: “full blue wash stage right”, “switch off the upstage moving heads”… It works with Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (Copilot), Windsurf, LM Studio, Gemini CLI and any other MCP-compatible AI (the open standard that lets an AI use a program). No API key is needed: your AI, with its own subscription, does the thinking.

To open it: menu File > Connect an AI (MCP)….

Connect your AI in three steps

Choose your AI in the list. AIs installed on this PC are marked.
Quit your AI completely (Claude, ChatGPT: right-click its icon near the clock, then Quit), then click “Connect DreamShow to …”. The button waits until the AI is closed: otherwise it would erase the connection when closing. DreamShow adds itself to your AI's configuration (a copy of the old configuration is kept next to it, with the extension .avant-dreamshow).
Reopen your AI as shown, then type the suggested sentence: “Which scenes are there in DreamShow?”. As soon as it answers, the window shows “It works!”.

DreamShow must stay open while the AI works. The Disconnect button removes DreamShow from the AI's configuration.

Working with the AI

Open the venue and show you want, then just ask, for example: “In scene 2, put a full blue wash on the stage-right half of the stage.” The result shows at once in the simulation and in the status bar (“AI (MCP): …”).

Right and left are as seen from the audience (right = “cour”).
The AI's changes can be undone: in the window, Keep validates them and Undo the changes puts the scene back as it was. You can also tell the AI “undo what you just did”.
The AI has the same safe tools as the built-in assistant: areas, aiming, colours, intensities, zoom, strobe, palettes. It never sees a DMX address.

ChatGPT

With the ChatGPT app for Windows, DreamShow is used by Codex. If an ordinary conversation does not see DreamShow, ask the question in Codex.

AIs in a web browser

claude.ai, ChatGPT on the web and other AIs used in a browser cannot reach software installed on your PC: use their app, or DreamShow's built-in AI assistant.

Advanced settings

For an AI that is not in the list, Advanced settings… gives the configuration blocks to copy (started by DreamShow, or the address http://127.0.0.1:8097/mcp with a token). The connector only listens on this PC and requires the token; New token creates another one and updates the AIs connected by the wizard.

If something goes wrong

The AI answers that “DreamShow is not open, or its MCP connector is not enabled”: open DreamShow; the connector comes back on by itself.
The window stays on “Waiting for a first exchange”: check that the AI was fully restarted.
“The MCP connector could not open port 8097”: another program uses that port; close it or contact support.

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