Other AI apps (MCP)
Syncretic ships an MCP server. Connect an AI app and it can list and open your projects, read the shape, search, run read-only Cypher, add to the shape, and propose nodes, relationships and changes that arrive in the Build panel as a draft. Nothing is written until you add it.
Turning it on
Settings › Use Syncretic from other AI apps › Let other AI apps use Syncretic. On by default. The line under it says the state: Ready. Connect an app below., In use by Claude Desktop and Codex., or Off: no other app can reach Syncretic. While it’s on, the app listens on this Mac’s loopback interface only.
Connecting an app
One row each:
| App | Where it’s used | What Connect does |
|---|---|---|
| Claude | the Claude app for Mac | writes syncretic into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json |
| Claude Code | Claude in Terminal and code editors | runs claude mcp add --scope user syncretic -- <helper> |
| ChatGPT and Codex | Codex in the ChatGPT app, in Terminal and in code editors | writes an entry into ~/.codex/config.toml |
The entry points the app at the helper inside the app bundle: Syncretic.app/Contents/MacOS/syncretic-mcp. The helper is what the AI app starts; it opens Syncretic if it isn’t running and relays messages to it.
Each row shows Connect, Connected ✓ · Disconnect, Reconnect (the entry points at a copy of Syncretic that has moved), or Not on this Mac with where to get the app. An app that was open when you changed its settings needs a restart: “Claude is open: restart it to pick this up” with a Restart Claude button.
Another app (Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, anything that takes MCP servers): Copy setup copies a JSON snippet to paste into its MCP settings.
ChatGPT in a web browser can’t reach apps on your Mac. Use the ChatGPT app, which runs Codex, or Codex itself.
What a connected app can do
Reads answer at once, on the project that’s open in Syncretic. Anything that would change the graph becomes a draft in the Build panel marked Sent from Claude Desktop, exactly like one written there: the panel opens, the app asks for your attention, and the AI is told to ask you to review it and can check later whether you added it. Adding to the shape is the one thing that applies at once, because it only adds and you can undo it.
The AI app receives instructions at connection time that explain all of this: how to work (list, open or create a project; get the shape first; read; propose; design), and how to build well (use names exactly as listed, give every node a ref and a title, connect to existing nodes rather than duplicate, values as strings, relationships directed and only between allowed pairs, changes as read-only queries). See The tools.