---
title: Install the connector
description: Add Dashies to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or Claude web and desktop, so your AI tool can publish dashboards and keep them refreshing.
updated: 2026-08-04
tier: free
---

Dashies is driven from the AI tool you already use. Installing the plugin is the
supported path: it bundles the `dashies` authoring skill and the publish service
together, and the skill is most of the product's behaviour.

:::warning{title="A bare connector is not the same install"}
Adding only the MCP server gives your AI the publish tools and the service's own
brief instructions, but **not the `dashies` authoring skill**, which is where the
authoring behaviour is actually decided: how to design a cube, which
materialization to pick, and when a measure is not safe to sum.

Install the plugin wherever your tool supports one. Use the connector-only path
below only for surfaces that cannot install a plugin.
:::

## Pick your tool

::::tabs{sync=tool}

:::tab{label="Claude Code"}
Run both commands in Claude Code. The first registers the Dashies marketplace,
the second installs the plugin from it.

```bash
/plugin marketplace add https://dashies.xyz/marketplace.json
/plugin install dashies@dashies
```

`dashies@dashies` is `<plugin>@<marketplace>`. Both are named `dashies`, which is
correct and not a typo.

This bundles the `dashies` authoring skill and the publish MCP. Your first
publish opens the browser to sign in, and there is no token to paste.
:::

:::tab{label="Codex"}
Run both commands in your shell.

```bash
codex plugin marketplace add Dashies-ai/dashies-plugin
codex plugin add dashies@dashies
```

Then sign in over OAuth:

```bash
codex mcp login dashies
```

This bundles the `dashies` authoring skill and the publish MCP.
:::

:::tab{label="Cursor"}
Cursor takes two steps, because it installs the connector and the skill by
different routes.

First, add the publish connector with the one-click install link:

[Add to Cursor](https://cursor.com/install-mcp?name=dashies&config=eyJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL21jcC5kYXNoaWVzLnh5ei9tY3AifQ==)

Then add the authoring skill:

```bash
npx skills add Dashies-ai/dashies-plugin --global --agent cursor
```

`--global` installs at user level rather than into whatever directory you happen
to be in. It writes `~/.agents/skills/dashies/SKILL.md` and
`~/.agents/skills/dashies-design/SKILL.md`, which is one of Cursor's user-level
skill roots. It works whether or not the `cursor` shell command is on your PATH.

Restart Cursor once both are done. Your first publish opens the browser to sign
in, and there is no token to paste.

If the one-click link does not land, add the connector by hand to
`~/.cursor/mcp.json`:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dashies": { "url": "https://mcp.dashies.xyz/mcp" }
  }
}
```
:::

:::tab{label="Claude web and desktop"}
Claude web, desktop, and Cowork add Dashies as a custom connector. A connector
can only add the MCP server, so on these surfaces the `dashies` authoring skill
is not installed. Publishing works; the authoring guidance that makes a
dashboard correct does not come with it.

The connector URL is:

```bash
https://mcp.dashies.xyz/mcp
```

1. In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors.
2. Click the plus button, then Add custom connector.
3. Paste the URL above, then click Add.

[Open Claude connectors](https://claude.ai/customize/connectors)

Sign-in opens once, and there is no token to paste.
:::

:::tab{label="Any other tool"}
One command auto-detects every plugin-capable AI agent on your machine and
installs the Dashies plugin into each:

```bash
npx plugins add Dashies-ai/dashies-plugin
```

This always delivers the authoring skill, never a bare connector.
:::

::::

## Check it worked

Ask your AI tool to list your dashboards. In plain language:

> List my Dashies dashboards.

Three things should happen, in order:

1. Your tool calls the `list_dashboards` tool.
2. A browser window opens once, asking you to sign in with Google. See
   [Sign in and authorize](/guides/authorize).
3. You get back a list, which is empty on a new account. An empty list is a
   pass. The tool call completing at all is the signal.

If your tool reports that it has no Dashies tools, the plugin did not install.
Re-run the install commands for your tab above and restart the tool.

:::note{title="A newly installed tool argument can be missing"}
An MCP client reads each tool's schema once, when the session connects. If you
installed or upgraded Dashies inside a session that was already running, a newly
shipped argument is simply absent, as if it had never been built. Start a new
top-level session after installing.
:::

## Next

- [Sign in and authorize](/guides/authorize) if the browser flow did not
  complete.
- [Connect a warehouse](/guides/connect-warehouse) to make dashboards refresh
  from your own data.