Installation¶

Requirements¶

Claude Code (or any MCP client)
For the full stack: a Windows host with TwinCAT 3.1 Build 4026 and TcXaeShell

Reading projects, generating docs, searching infosys, and authoring ST (via the xml writer backend) work without TwinCAT installed, on Windows or Linux. Builds and hardware authoring need TcXaeShell open with the solution loaded (on Windows the writer defaults to the same Automation Interface route); runtime tools (deploy, tests, symbols, diagnostics) need an ADS route to the target.

Plugin (recommended)¶

In Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add georgeturneruk/tckit
/plugin install tckit@tckit
> Set me up for TcKit.

The bundled skills walk you through setup. No .NET SDK is required: if the SDK is present the plugin builds the server from source, otherwise it downloads the self-contained server for your platform (~75 MB, cached per version) from the releases page.

The launcher runs on Node, which Claude Code already needs, so the plugin installs the same way on Windows and Linux. On a host without node on the PATH, set TCKIT_SERVER_EXE (below) and the launcher is bypassed entirely.

Prebuilt binary¶

For MCP clients other than the plugin, or for offline and locked-down machines, download the server for your platform from the releases page. Both are self-contained, with no .NET runtime or SDK dependency.

Asset	Host	Lanes
`tckit-server-win-x64.exe`	Windows x64	everything, including the COM-backed build and hardware lanes
`tckit-server-linux-x64`	Linux x64	readers, analysis, ADS, docs, and the xml writer backend; no COM-backed lanes

claude mcp add tckit -- <path>\tckit-server-win-x64.exe

chmod +x tckit-server-linux-x64
claude mcp add tckit -- <path>/tckit-server-linux-x64

To point the plugin launcher at a pre-placed copy instead of letting it download, set the TCKIT_SERVER_EXE environment variable to its full path.

From source¶

With the .NET 8 SDK:

dotnet build dotnet/TcKit.sln -c Release
claude mcp add tckit -- <clone>\dotnet\src\TcKit.Server\bin\Release\net8.0-windows\TcKit.Server.exe

On Linux, build the plain net8.0 flavour; the net8.0-windows one carries the COM lanes and only builds a Windows artefact:

dotnet build dotnet/src/TcKit.Server -c Release -f net8.0
claude mcp add tckit -- <clone>/dotnet/src/TcKit.Server/bin/Release/net8.0/TcKit.Server

The server speaks MCP over stdio; any MCP client can register the built binary the same way.

Verify¶

Ask your MCP client to call Ping, then GetStructure against a TwinCAT project path.

Next¶

Set the safety stance before pointing TcKit at a live PLC.