Connect Claude Desktop

This is the local path. Avlok runs a small server on your own computer, and Claude Desktop reaches your library directly. Nothing about your library is sent to our servers to make this work. It is available on every tier, including Free.

Before you start

You need the Avlok desktop app installed (macOS or Windows), with at least one folder processed, and the Claude Desktop app. If you have not set up Avlok yet, start at avlok.ai/how-it-works.

Connect

1. Open Avlok and go to Settings → AI Integration.

   This is where Avlok’s local connection lives. You will see a toggle for the local server and a button to copy the configuration Claude needs.

2. Turn on the local server.

   Avlok starts a small read-only server on your machine. It can find and describe your photos. It cannot change or delete anything, and it makes no outbound network calls.

3. Copy the Claude Desktop configuration.

   Use the copy button in Settings → AI Integration. It puts the correct configuration on your clipboard, with the right path for your computer already filled in.

4. Open Claude Desktop’s configuration file.

   In Claude Desktop, go to Settings → Developer → Edit Config. This opens the claude_desktop_config.json file. Paste the Avlok entry inside the mcpServers block. It looks like this:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "avlok": {
         "command": "/path/to/avlok_mcp",
         "args": []
       }
     }
   }

   The copy button fills in the real path for you, so prefer pasting what it gives you over typing this by hand.

5. Restart Claude Desktop.

   Quit and reopen it so it picks up the new configuration.

6. Try it.

   Ask Claude something like “search my photos for sunsets at the beach.” If the connection worked, Claude will call Avlok and show you what it found.

Tip

If Claude does not seem to see Avlok, the most common cause is that Claude Desktop was not restarted, or the path in the config is wrong. The copy button in Settings → AI Integration avoids the path problem entirely.

What Claude can do once connected

Claude can call any of Avlok’s tools: search by description, filter by date and place, look up a photo’s details, find photos from a trip, reference people you have named, and find visually similar photos. On the desktop, it can also search the words spoken in your videos.

Open results back in Avlok

When Claude finds photos, its reply includes a line starting with “Open in Avlok:” followed by a short AVLK1: handoff code. Copy the code (or the whole reply) and paste it into the Assistant section of the Avlok app to open the same photos in Avlok’s grid, ready for full-size viewing, Reveal in Finder, or drag-and-drop.

Your searches through this connection also appear automatically in that Assistant section, so you can reopen a recent one without copying anything. Those records live only in Avlok’s database on your computer. See Handoff to the app for the full picture.

Privacy

This path keeps everything on your device. See How Avlok handles your data for the full picture. In short: the local server reads your local index, nothing about your library is stored on our servers, and your full-resolution photos never leave your computer.

Trouble?

See Troubleshooting for the common issues and fixes.