Contech-AI — Autodesk Connector for Claude

Ask Claude questions about your Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) project in plain English — "Which submittals are overdue?", "Who has the most open issues?" — and get answers, tables, and dashboards built from your live project data.

Claude Desktop  ──►  acc_mcp.py (on your laptop)  ──►  Autodesk ACC
  you ask              reads your project data          RFIs, issues, submittals,
                       with your Autodesk login          cost, members, documents

• Read-only. It can look at ACC data; it cannot create, change, or delete anything.

• Runs on your own Windows laptop. Your credentials stay in a file on your machine.

• You see only what your Autodesk login can see in ACC.

Setup takes about 30 minutes the first time. You need:

Step 1 — Create an APS app

APS (Autodesk Platform Services) is how programs are allowed to talk to Autodesk. The app is the "doorway"; your Autodesk login decides what's behind it.

1. Go to aps.autodesk.com/myapps and sign in.

2. Create application:

   • Application type: Traditional Web App

   • APIs: tick Data Management API and Autodesk Construction Cloud API

   • Callback URL: http://localhost:5002/callback — exactly this

3. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret. Treat the secret like a password.

What's the callback URL? When you sign in to Autodesk, the browser is sent back to this address with a one-time code. The connector listens on port 5002 on your own laptop, catches the code, and swaps it for your sign-in. It's only used during that one-time sign-in.

Related MCP server: Autodesk Build MCP Server

Step 2 — Approve the app in ACC (Custom Integrations)

An ACC Account Admin adds your app to the account that holds your project:

ACC → Account Admin → Custom Integrations → Add → paste your Client ID.

Without this, every request returns 403 (access denied) — and the error doesn't say why.

Step 3 — Find your project ID

Open your project at acc.autodesk.com and look at the address bar:

https://acc.autodesk.com/docs/files/projects/1a2b3c4d-1111-2222-3333-444455556666?folderUrn=...
                                             └──────────── project ID ────────────┘

Put b. in front: b.1a2b3c4d-1111-2222-3333-444455556666.

Step 4 — Get the code

From the download link you were given (no Git needed):

1. Download Contech-AI.zip from the link.

2. Right-click it → Extract All… → change the destination to C:\Users\<you> → Extract. You get the folder C:\Users\<you>\Contech-AI.

3. If Windows says the files came from the internet, run this once in PowerShell to unblock them:

   Get-ChildItem C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\Contech-AI -Recurse | Unblock-File

The setup script works from wherever the folder is, so any location is fine.

From GitHub: click Code → Download ZIP on this page (it unzips as Contech-AI-main), or:

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/entech-labs/Contech-AI.git
cd Contech-AI

Step 5 — Install (one command)

Open PowerShell in the Contech-AI folder and run:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\setup.ps1

It checks Python, creates a private environment (.venv), installs the libraries, creates your .env settings file and opens it in Notepad, checks port 5002, and prints the exact Claude config block for your folder.

python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\pip install -r requirements.txt
copy .env.example .env
notepad .env

The libraries it installs:

Step 6 — Fill in .env

In Notepad, replace the three <...> values and save:

APS_CLIENT_ID=<client ID from step 1>
APS_CLIENT_SECRET=<client secret from step 1>
APS_CALLBACK_URL=http://localhost:5002/callback
DEFAULT_PROJECT_ID=b.<project ID from step 3>

Make sure it's saved as .env, not .env.txt (in File Explorer: View → Show → File name extensions).

Step 7 — Sign in to Autodesk (once)

.\.venv\Scripts\python acc_mcp.py --test

Your browser opens → sign in with your Autodesk account → click Allow. You should see:

Signed in. Sign-in saved to ...\Contech-AI\.mcp_token.json
Checking project b.1a2b3c4d-... ...
  RFIs        12
  issues      8
  submittals  40

SUCCESS: Claude will be able to read this project.

The sign-in is saved in .mcp_token.json and renews itself — no browser needed again, as long as you use it at least every couple of weeks. Never copy or share that file.

Step 8 — Connect Claude Desktop

1. Quit Claude completely. Closing the window isn't enough — Claude keeps running in the background and will overwrite your change when it exits:

   Stop-Process -Name claude -Force

2. Open Claude's config file:

   notepad "$env:APPDATA\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json"

3. Add the block setup.ps1 printed inside "mcpServers" (template in claude/claude_desktop_config.example.json):

   "autodesk-connector": {
     "command": "C:\\Users\\<you>\\Contech-AI\\.venv\\Scripts\\python.exe",
     "args": ["C:\\Users\\<you>\\Contech-AI\\acc_mcp.py"]
   }

   • File empty? Wrap it: { "mcpServers": { ...block... } }

   • File has other settings? Add "mcpServers": { ...block... }, right after the first {.

   • Keep the double backslashes and the commas between entries.

4. Save, start Claude Desktop → your name (bottom-left) → Settings → Developer → autodesk-connector should say running.

5. In a chat, open the tools menu (sliders / "+" icon) and make sure autodesk-connector is on.

Claude starts the connector itself whenever it opens — there's nothing to keep running.

Step 9 — Create a Claude Project

Projects → New project → name it (e.g. "ACC Project") → project instructions → paste the text from claude/project_instructions.md with your project ID.

Start a new chat inside the project and try:

• "Which submittals are overdue?"

• "Group submittals by spec section."

• "List open issues and who they're assigned to — who has the most?"

• "Export all RFIs to CSV." (saved in exports\)

Click Allow when Claude asks to use a tool.

Step 10 (optional) — Dashboard Skill

skills/acc-dashboard/SKILL.md teaches Claude to build the same project overview dashboard every time — KPIs, submittals by status and spec section, open items by person, and an overdue list — from live data.

1. Zip the skills\acc-dashboard folder (right-click → Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder).

2. In Claude, go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the zip. (Menu names can vary by Claude version and plan; custom Skills may need to be enabled by your admin.)

3. Ask: "Build the project dashboard." Later: "Refresh the dashboard."

Dashboards are snapshots — "refresh" pulls fresh data and rebuilds in about a minute.

What Claude can read

All read-only. Up to 200 rows come back into the chat; ask for a CSV for everything.

Troubleshooting

Security

• Read-only by design: it only asks Autodesk for data:read and account:read.

• .env (your secret) and .mcp_token.json (your sign-in) stay on your laptop and are excluded from Git by .gitignore. Never share them, email them, or commit them.

• Using a test app for a demo? Delete it in the APS portal afterwards and remove it from Custom Integrations.

• Everything Claude shows comes from your ACC permissions — it can't see more than you can.

License

MIT — free to use and adapt. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Autodesk or Anthropic.

About

Built by EnTech Labs — the technology practice of EnTech Engineering, the group that builds the software behind our infrastructure work across the New York metropolitan region.

This repository is the companion to our Contech AI training session. It is a teaching example: a small, readable MCP server you can pull apart, point at your own systems, and learn from. The same ~500 lines work against any API you already have — ACC is just the one we needed first.

Questions from the session, or something unclear in the steps above? Open an issue — we would rather fix the instructions than answer the same question twice.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Autodesk or Anthropic.