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Connect Ray to Claude

Written by Ral Oz

Short answer: there isn't a separate "Claude MCP" app or download to find. You connect Claude to Ray by adding Ray as an MCP server inside Claude's own settings. Once you do, Claude can use Ray to make and translate subtitles, answer questions about what a video says, narrate documents, unmix audio, and control what Ray is playing.

This works in Ray 4.0.16 and later, with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and any other app that supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Before you start

  • Keep the Ray app open while you use it from Claude. If Ray is closed, Claude still sees Ray's tools, and each one simply says "Ray isn't open. Open Ray, then try again." You don't need to restart Claude after opening Ray.

  • The connection stays on this computer only. Nothing on your network can reach it, and there's no firewall prompt.

Easiest way: let Ray write the setup for you

Open a terminal and run the command for your system. Ray prints the exact configuration, ready to paste into Claude:

  • Windows: ray api mcp --print-config claude-desktop

  • macOS: "/Applications/Ray Beta.app/Contents/MacOS/ray-cli" mcp --print-config claude-desktop

(Use claude-code in place of claude-desktop if you use Claude Code.)

Claude Desktop (manual steps)

  1. In Claude Desktop, open Settings > Developer > Edit Config. This opens claude_desktop_config.json.

  2. Add a ray entry inside mcpServers, using the full path to ray-cli on your computer:

Windows (replace you with your Windows user name; the double backslashes are required):

{   "mcpServers": {     "ray": {       "command": "C:\\Users\\you\\AppData\\Local\\io.techspecs.ray.windows.x64\\current\\ray-cli.exe",       "args": ["mcp"]     }   } }

macOS (use your Ray app's name in Applications):

{   "mcpServers": {     "ray": {       "command": "/Applications/Ray Beta.app/Contents/MacOS/ray-cli",       "args": ["mcp"]     }   } }

  1. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop. If the file already lists other servers, add "ray": {...} next to them inside the same mcpServers.

Claude Code

Run this once in a terminal, with your own path:

claude mcp add ray -- "C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\io.techspecs.ray.windows.x64\current\ray-cli.exe" mcp

Add --scope user after add to make Ray available in every project. Check it with claude mcp list.

Other AI apps (Cursor and more)

Any MCP app that starts a local command works the same way: the command is the full path to ray-cli, and its only argument is mcp.

What you can ask Claude once it's connected

  • "Subtitle D:\movie.mkv in Spanish."

  • "Summarise what I'm watching."

  • "What did they say at 42:10?"

  • "Translate these subtitles into German and save them next to the video."

  • "Pause it" / "Go back 30 seconds" / "Show English subtitles."

If Claude shows no Ray tools

  • Make sure the command is the full path to ray-cli (on Windows, ray-cli.exe), and that the argument is exactly mcp.

  • Make sure Ray is open, under the same user account.

  • Re-run the print-setup command above, paste the fresh config, and restart Claude.

Privacy

Jobs run on your computer unless you ask for Ray Cloud. Ray never skips its own screens: turning on Ray Local, signing in, Ray Cloud choices, and track or profile prompts are always yours to answer in Ray.

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