Claude Bridge for Blender

Install with automatic updates (recommended): in Blender, open Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Get Extensions ▸ Repositories ▸ + ▸ Add Remote Repository, paste https://jackluciano.github.io/claude-bridge-blender/index.json, then search for Claude Bridge and click Install. Blender will offer new versions as they come out.

Or ⬇ download the zip and install it via Get Extensions ▸ ⌄ ▸ Install from Disk.

Claude Bridge isn't on extensions.blender.org: the official platform doesn't host add-ons that connect to AI models, so it's distributed from this repository.

Drive a live Blender with Claude, from a chat panel inside Blender or from Claude Code, using compact, high-level ops instead of throwaway Python scripts. Runs on your normal Claude subscription (Pro/Max) through the Claude Code CLI. No API key is needed.

 Blender sidebar chat ──spawns──▶ claude CLI (headless, your login) ─┐
                                                                     ├─ MCP stdio ─▶ mcp_server.py ─TCP 127.0.0.1:9877─▶ addon ─▶ bpy
 Claude Code (terminal / desktop) ───────────────────────────────────┘

What's new in 0.2

The biggest update so far: 45 ops (up from 28), three chat modes, and many fixes. Full list in the CHANGELOG.

Fixes you'll notice

• 🔒 Security: a web page could reach the bridge port and run code in Blender. The bridge now refuses anything that isn't from the MCP server (per-launch token, HTTP requests rejected).

• 💳 Always your subscription: an ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in your environment is no longer passed to the chat's CLI.

• 🪑 Edit Mode trap fixed: add no longer puts new geometry inside the mesh you were editing, and a taken name no longer silently becomes Box.001.

• 🪵 Real-world sizes: dims is baked into the mesh, so bevels and textures look the same on every object (the stretched wood grain on big floors is gone).

Building better scenes

• 📐 place and check: rest objects exactly on the floor, a table or against a wall; check lists floating, overlapping, cut-off or unlit things as text, with a fix for each.

• 🖼 Multi-view look: camera + front + side + top in one image. render can now show Claude its own render and no longer changes your render settings.

• 🌍 world: studio/interior/outdoor HDRIs bundled with Blender, a sky with a matching sun, or a flat colour.

• 🧱 edit: extrude, inset, bevel and loop-cut faces picked by direction, material or your selection.

• 🕸 nodes: shader, world, compositor and Geometry Nodes graphs in one compact op, plus a scatter preset.

• 🪵 Free photo textures, HDRIs and models from Poly Haven (asset), and your own PBR texture folders (img), at real-world scale without UVs.

• 🌀 curve (pipes, cables, lathed vases and legs), room (walls with doors and windows from a floor plan), fit (normalize imported models), col and rename (tidy scenes).

• 🎬 Animation: key, a one-line turntable, spin/pop-in/bounce presets, constraints (con).

• 🎮 Game assets: check{only:["game"]}, gameprep (UVs, transforms, LODs, collision) and Unity/Unreal/Godot export presets.

A better chat

• 🧭 Modes: Build, Plan first (tick the steps you want; applying costs no tokens) and Coach (Claude can look but not touch, with lessons that are checked locally).

• ↩️ What changed + Revert: every reply ends with +added ~changed −removed, Select changed and a one-click Revert reply.

• 🎯 Scene context: "make this red", "put a lamp here" just work (selection, mode and 3D cursor are sent along, ~30 tokens).

• ⚡ Fewer tokens: a Blender-only system prompt replaces Claude Code's coding prompt; a usage footer shows the context size, and long chats can continue in a fresh chat that carries the scene over.

• 🧩 Starters, templates and recipes: one-click starters, Critique/Light this/Tidy up templates, save a chat as a recipe that rebuilds the scene with zero tokens, and a demo scene that works before you log in.

• 🩺 Setup check: missing, logged-out or outdated CLI is detected with fix buttons; Copy diagnostics for bug reports.

• ⚙️ Preferences: port, default model and effort, CLI path, folders, standing instructions, safe mode (approve risky ops), teach mode (how-to hints), live streaming and an optional resident CLI process.

• 🍎🐧 macOS and Linux: the CLI is found even when Blender starts from the Dock; CI runs on all three systems.

Related MCP server: BlenderMCP

Features

• In-Blender chat (View3D ▸ Sidebar ▸ Claude): replies stream in live, tool calls are shown inline, and Claude changes the scene while you watch. Each reply ends with a summary of what changed and a Revert button.

• Three modes: Build, Plan first, Coach (see above). Model picker (Opus default, Sonnet, Haiku, CLI default) and effort picker.

• Chat history: every chat is saved. Pick an old one from the dropdown to reopen it; the Claude session resumes with its full context.

• Screenshots and images: attach a clean viewport capture, the whole Blender window, an image file, or paste with Ctrl+V (works even while typing in the chat field; Windows). Big images are downscaled first.

• Inbox: drop GLB/FBX/OBJ files into the Inbox folder and import them at a sensible size with one click.

• Built-in skill (claude_bridge/skill/SKILL.md): workflow and real-world modelling tips. It's part of every in-Blender chat, and installed for Claude Code as the blender-bridge skill.

• Token-lean by design:

  • The chat runs the CLI with no built-in tools, skills, other MCP servers or user hooks, and its own short system prompt.

  • Two MCP tools with a ~1.3k-token schema covering 45 ops.

  • Each op reply is one line, a batch is one call and one undo step, and captures are small JPEGs.

Why ops instead of scripts

Python is still there as a last resort (py op), and api looks up operator arguments and node sockets in your Blender so Claude doesn't have to guess.

Install

Requirements: Blender 4.2+ (tested on 4.2 LTS and 5.2), and Claude Code installed and logged in (claude once in a terminal). Python 3.10+ only for installing from source.

From the extension repository (easiest, with updates)

1. In Blender, go to Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Get Extensions ▸ Repositories ▸ + ▸ Add Remote Repository and paste https://jackluciano.github.io/claude-bridge-blender/index.json.

2. Search for Claude Bridge in Get Extensions and click Install. Updates show up there too.

3. The in-Blender chat works right away. The setup check tells you if the CLI is missing or logged out.

4. For Claude Code (optional): in Sidebar ▸ Claude ▸ Bridge, click Connect Claude Code, then restart Claude Code.

From a release zip

Download claude_bridge-x.y.z.zip from Releases and pick it in Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Get Extensions ▸ ⌄ ▸ Install from Disk…. Zip installs don't update by themselves.

As a Claude Code plugin

claude plugin marketplace add JackLuciano/claude-bridge-blender

claude plugin install blender-bridge@claude-bridge-blender

This adds the MCP server (via uvx claude-bridge-blender) and the skill. You still need the add-on running in Blender.

From source

git clone https://github.com/JackLuciano/claude-bridge-blender
cd claude-bridge-blender
python install.py

install.py links claude_bridge/ into Blender's user add-ons (use --copy to copy instead), enables it, registers the MCP server with Claude Code as blender-bridge, and installs the blender-bridge skill (skip the Claude Code steps with --no-mcp).

Start Blender and open the Claude tab in the 3D view sidebar (press N). The bridge starts automatically.

• In Blender: type in the chat field and press Enter, or click a starter.

• In Claude Code: just ask, e.g. "make a low-poly table with a wooden material, then show me".

Chat panel

Chats are stored as JSON under Blender's config folder (…/config/claude_bridge/chats/, configurable in Preferences).

MCP tools

bl: run a batch of ops

{"ops": [
  {"op": "new"},
  {"op": "room", "pts": [[0,0],[4,0],[4,3],[0,3]], "openings": [{"wall": 0, "at": 1, "w": 0.9}]},
  {"op": "add", "type": "cube", "name": "Top", "dims": [1.2, 0.7, 0.04], "col": "Desk",
   "mat": {"name": "Oak", "color": "#a0703c", "rough": 0.6}},
  {"op": "tex", "obj": "Top", "kind": "wood"},
  {"op": "place", "obj": "Top", "on": "floor"},
  {"op": "world", "hdri": "interior", "strength": 0.5},
  {"op": "check"}
]}

Ops run in order, stop at the first error (reported with its index), and the whole batch is one undo step. obj is a name, a list of names, "sel" or "active". Sizes are meters, angles degrees, colors "#rrggbb" or linear [r,g,b].

look: see the result

Returns a small JPEG (default 512 px) rendered from the viewport with OpenGL, so it has no UI, popups or other windows. cam: true gives the scene camera's view. views: ["cam","front","right","top"] returns one grid image of several angles and leaves your view alone. View args (preset, orbit, zoom, frame, shading) are applied first, so "orbit 45° and show me" is a single call.

Tests

python run_tests.py                                    # headless: ops, chat (with a stand-in CLI), MCP end-to-end
python tests/live_smoke.py --chat                      # running Blender GUI: viewport, look, render, real chat, paste
blender --python tests/live_paste.py                   # Windows: real Ctrl+V keystroke into the chat

71 headless tests run on Windows, macOS and Linux in CI. --chat makes a few real Claude requests on your subscription.

Security

• The add-on listens on 127.0.0.1 only. Every request must carry a per-launch token that only local processes of your user can read, and anything that looks like a web request is dropped.

• It executes the ops it receives, including py. Turn on Safe mode (Bridge panel or Preferences) to approve Python, scene clears, file opens, deleting your objects and file access outside the project/temp folders.

• The chat's Claude process can use only the two bridge tools: no shell, no file access. Coach and Plan modes are read-only, enforced by the bridge.

• Poly Haven downloads happen only when asked, only from Poly Haven, are checksum-verified, and respect Blender's Allow Online Access setting.

Notes

• Ctrl+V paste: Windows works everywhere, including the text field. On macOS/Linux it works over the sidebar but not while editing the text field; use the 📋 button there. Clipboard reading uses pngpaste/AppleScript on macOS and wl-paste/xclip on Linux.

• Port: set it in Preferences (default 9877; a second Blender takes the next free port). CLAUDE_BRIDGE_PORT sets it for the MCP server.

Contributing

Feel free to fork, modify and improve it. Issues and pull requests are very welcome, from small fixes to new ops, lessons and recipes. See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, how to add an op, and the test commands.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later (required for Blender add-ons that import bpy). Poly Haven assets are CC0.