--- title: App access description: Drive Lookout from another app over MCP, or from Claude Code with its plugin. canonical_url: https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/other-apps type: surface section: Surfaces last_updated: 2026-10-22 related: - https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/mcp - https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/machines - https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/connectors-and-skills - https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/account --- > Every page of these docs: https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/llms.txt # App access Drive Lookout from another app over MCP, or from Claude Code with its plugin. Lookout runs an MCP server, so another app can start, steer and watch chats on your machines. Each app signs in with your Lookout account and gets only the tools you allow. **Settings › App access** lists these apps. What the agent itself uses is on **Settings › Connectors** ([Connectors and skills](https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/connectors-and-skills)). ## Server address ```text https://mcp.lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/mcp ``` **Connect an app**, in **Settings › App access**, shows it as **Server URL** with **Copy**. ## Connect an MCP client 1. In **Settings › App access**, click **Connect an app**, then **Another MCP client**, and copy the server URL. 2. In the client, add a remote MCP server and paste the server address. 3. The client opens your browser. Sign in with your Lookout account: only the account the server belongs to can approve the app. The app then shows under **Apps** in **Settings › App access**. The server signs clients in with OAuth (scope `mcp`). ## Connect Grok 1. In **Settings › App access**, click **Connect an app**, then **Grok**, and copy the server URL. 2. In Grok, open **Connectors**, then **New Connector**, then **Custom**. 3. Paste the server address. 4. Sign in when the browser opens. ## Let apps reach this Mac The Mac that answers the server address signs apps in with your account. Turn it on once: 1. Open **Settings › App access** and turn on **Let apps reach this Mac**. 2. Enter your Lookout password and click **Turn on**. **Connect an app** asks for the same password first when the switch is still off. Lookout keeps the credential on this Mac and never shows it; your password isn't stored. When your account no longer takes it, the row says so with **Set up again**. Turning the switch off revokes it, and the apps that reach this Mac lose access until you turn it on again. Turning it on again asks connected apps to sign in once more. ## What a connected app can do Its tools start chats and send them follow-ups, check, stop, retry and answer them, read the files they changed, merge or push their worktrees, manage projects, list models and plan usage, and list and tune your machines. A chat they start can wait out a used-up plan, or move to models they list, and go on by itself ([MCP tools](https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/mcp#quota)). Every refusal carries a code and the call to make next. A call can name the machine it runs on. A new chat can take `machine: "auto"`, which puts it on the machine with the most headroom that runs its model; the chat stays on that machine. A machine's [limits](https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/machines#capacity) hold the chats connected apps start there until it has room. ## Choose the tools an app can use 1. Open **Settings › App access**. In the app's menu, click **Edit tools**. 2. Turn tools on or off, or click **All** or **None**. 3. Click **Save**. The change applies within 5 minutes, on the app's next token refresh. Lookout enforces the choice; the app's own tool switches don't change it. ## Let an app add projects An app works in the projects you already have. To let one add a folder of yours as a project, or clone a repository into one: 1. Open **Settings › App access** and find the app's row under **Apps**. 2. In its **Add projects** picker, pick **Anywhere in Home** for any existing folder in your home folder, or **Chosen folders** and add the folders it may add projects inside, then click **Save**. Every connected app has its own choice, and so does each client on this Mac, such as Claude Code, once it has asked: each has one row under **Apps**. Each starts **Off**. Lookout enforces it on this Mac: no app can allow itself or another, and the agents in the chats an app starts can't add projects through it. An app that asks without it is refused with `grant_needed`, which names this place. ## Let an app set up agents An app can't change your agents. To let one set an agent up for you (its name, description, instructions, section, projects, fallback models, and whether its chat shows every step): 1. Open **Settings › App access** and find the app's row under **Apps**. 2. Turn on its **Configure agents** switch. Every connected app has its own switch, and so does each client on this Mac, such as Claude Code, once it has asked. Each starts **Off**. An agent's limits, allowed models, pause, lock and memory switches stay yours in the app: no app sets them, whatever its switch says. Every change an app makes names it, in the agent's transcript and in Lookout's action log. An app that asks without it is refused with `grant_needed`, which names this place. ## Revoke an app 1. Open **Settings › App access**. In the app's menu, click **Revoke**. 2. Click **Revoke** to confirm. It loses access at once. Connect again from the app to undo it. An app whose sign-in ran out shows **Expired**, with **Reconnect** in its menu. **Sign out everywhere else** in **Settings › Account** revokes every app's access too. ## Claude Code The Lookout plugin for Claude Code drives your account from a Claude Code session: it hands tasks to Lookout agents, steers chats, and reads machines and plan usage. ### Install the plugin In Claude Code, run: ```text /plugin marketplace add arcadia-eng/lookout-marketplace /plugin install lookout@lookout-marketplace ``` The plugin runs with Bun: the copy Lookout ships, or Bun installed on the machine. ### How it connects On a machine with the Mac app or the `lookout` command, the plugin uses that Lookout. While Lookout isn't running, each call says so, and the first call after it starts works, with no reconnect. On a machine with neither, it uses the hosted server, which needs a sign-in: run `/lookout:login` and sign in with your Lookout account in the browser it opens. If `/mcp` then shows the `lookout` server as failed, reconnect it there. When Lookout updates, a session that is already open moves to the new version's tools at its next call, with no reconnect. ### What the plugin adds | Part | What it does | |---|---| | `/lookout:status` | Your chats, machines and provider quotas | | `/lookout:delegate ` | Hands a task to a Lookout agent and returns its result. Takes `--model`, `--effort`, `--machine`, `--lane`, `--ephemeral`, `--background` and `--direct` | | `/lookout:steer ` | Sends a follow-up into a chat | | `/lookout:machines [name]` | Lists your machines, and picks one | | `/lookout:login` | Signs the plugin in to your Lookout account, on a machine without the Mac app or the `lookout` command | | `lookout:worker` | A subagent that delegates a bounded task to a Lookout agent, waits, and returns the result | | Skills | `machines`, `models`, `orchestrate`, `review` and `vps-workers` | | MCP server `lookout` | The same tools as Lookout's MCP server | | Monitor | Runs as long as each interactive session does and tells it when a chat it follows settles, asks for a decision, waits for its plan or lands, with nothing to restart. The `orchestrate` skill adds the chats and lane prefixes it follows | | Session start | Tells a new session when Lookout already has chats running | | Status line | A subagent status line with the same count of running chats | ## Related - [MCP tools](https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/mcp.md): The tools Lookout's MCP server gives other apps, grouped by what they act on. - [Machines](https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/machines.md): Run chats on your other Macs and on your servers, from the app or the terminal. - [Connectors and skills](https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/connectors-and-skills.md): Give the agent more tools with connectors, playbooks with skills, and both together with plugins. - [Account and devices](https://lookout.itoowasinarcadia.com/docs/account.md): Your Lookout account: signing up, signing in on a Mac, adding a device, the Recovery Key and the web dashboard.