In the chat with Claude
This is the simplest way. You talk to Claude in the Claude desktop app. Claude builds the app. When a decision is yours, it shows you the part in the chat with an Approve button. The whole app opens inside the conversation in NodeGX Studio, where you can watch it being built and change it yourself.
Coming soon
This way needs a one-click add-on for the Claude desktop app. We are finishing it. The steps below show how it will work. Join the list at nodegx.io/start and we will email you the day it is out. Until then, use the NodeGX editor.
What you need
- The Claude desktop app, with a paid plan. Pro is enough to start. See Plans and limits.
- The NodeGX add-on for Claude. One double-click installs it. Nothing else to install, no terminal, no account.
The add-on is for Mac first. Windows follows.
What happens
You describe the app. Claude asks questions about your world, such as who uses the app and what it needs to remember. It makes the small decisions itself and carries on. See Plan before you build for how to start that conversation.
Claude shows you the decisions that are yours. When a choice is about how something looks, Claude shows you that part live in the chat. A button, a hero, a card. You see up to three versions, with only the settings Claude chose for you to decide, such as the colour or the text. Press Approve, or Not that, and Claude carries on. It never asks you about padding or databases.
Studio opens in the chat. As Claude builds, NodeGX Studio appears inside the conversation. The app comes together in it a little at a time.
You can press Hold. If Claude changes something you did not want, press HOLD at the top of Studio. Claude stops at its next change and will not write anything until you press Release. Type what you saw in the box beside it, such as "you just made the background grey".
You can change things yourself. Change the words, the colours, the pictures, where things go, in Studio while Claude works. Claude sees what you changed and carries on from your change.
The first time Claude uses NodeGX
Claude asks permission before it uses NodeGX. Click Allow. The Claude app asks this for each tool the first time it is used.
When you install the add-on, the Claude app shows a warning that the add-on gets access to your computer. That is the Claude app's standard notice for any add-on. Install it only from nodegx.io. Staying safe explains what to check.
What this way does not do
Studio does not edit every part Claude can build. A script, or a piece of logic with its own states, is shown but not editable. For those, Claude will tell you, and offer either to build you an editor for that one thing or to walk you through the NodeGX editor. See Changing things yourself.
How it works
The add-on is a Claude Desktop extension (a .mcpb file). It carries the NodeGX MCP server, Studio's editor and its own copy of Node.js, so nothing else needs installing. The project is written to a folder Claude chooses on your computer. Claude Code and Cline can build NodeGX apps too, through the same server; see Claude Code in depth.
Quick reference
- Claude desktop app, paid plan, one double-click to add NodeGX. Coming soon.
- Claude shows you parts to approve. Studio opens in the chat.
- HOLD stops Claude. Release lets it carry on.
- Change anything in Studio yourself. Claude picks up from your change.