Handoff to the app
When an assistant finds photos for you in a conversation, you can open that same set in the Avlok desktop app, against your full local library. This is the handoff.
Why it exists
Section titled “Why it exists”An assistant working over the cloud connection sees thumbnails and descriptions. Sometimes you want to act on what it found at full resolution, on your own machine: view the originals, reveal them in Finder or Explorer, or keep working with them. The handoff bridges the result you got in the conversation to the app on your computer.
Where it lives
Section titled “Where it lives”In the Avlok desktop app, the Assistant destination is the home for this. It has two parts: a place to pick up a result from your assistant, and, below it, the technical reference for connecting your own MCP clients.
Three ways it works
Section titled “Three ways it works”Pull. When you use Cloud AI Access, recent result sets from your assistant are briefly held so the app can fetch them. Open the Assistant destination in Avlok and your recent assistant searches are there to open, no copying required.
Local record. Searches you run through Claude Desktop’s local connection are recorded directly in Avlok’s own database on your computer and appear in the same list. Nothing is sent anywhere; this works on every tier, with Cloud AI Access off, and even offline.
Paste a code. The assistant’s reply also carries a short handoff code that starts with AVLK1:. In Claude Desktop it appears as a plain “Open in Avlok:” line in the reply; in ChatGPT it appears on the photo-grid card. Copy the code, or simply copy the whole reply, and paste it into the Assistant destination in Avlok; the app finds the code and opens exactly those photos from your local library.
What you can do after handoff
Section titled “What you can do after handoff”Once the photos are open in the app, they behave like any search result: view full resolution, open in your default viewer, or reveal in Finder or Explorer. The photos were always on your computer. The handoff just lined them up with what your assistant found.
Privacy
Section titled “Privacy”The paste-a-code path holds nothing on our servers. The local-record path stores your Claude Desktop searches only on your own computer, in Avlok’s database. The pull path briefly retains the result set (the photos involved and the text of the search) so the app can fetch it, then clears it on a short schedule. For the full picture of what each connection stores, see How Avlok handles your data.