Storytold

Local creative work. Native app engines. Verified file handoffs.

A Claude Code and Codex plugin for the open-source ArtCraft Craft App Suite: one craft Skill drives thirteen local, headless Craft MCP apps (photo, vector, video, RAW, PDF, layout, spreadsheets, documents, slides, CAD, audio, motion and interface design) through staged copies and verified exports.

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Thank you, ArtCraft team! Storytold is built on the Craft App Suite, which the ArtCraft team released as free, open-source software: thirteen creative apps, each written from scratch. We're grateful for their generosity. None of this integration would exist without their work.

❤️ ArtCraft team 💚

Contents

• Overview
• Quick start
• The Craft App Suite
• Setting up the native apps
• Updating and removing
• Where things live
• Working safely
• Development
• Verification status
• Repository map
• License and affiliation

Overview

Storytold is Devsolux's local integration kit for the thirteen existing Craft CLI MCP servers. One compact craft Skill guides the host; each app keeps its own schemas, editing state, rendering and save semantics. Deterministic helpers install and pin the CLIs on explicit command, stage files, generate evidence-bound configuration and verify artifacts within stated limits.

User + Claude Code / local Codex
           │  one craft Skill; native tool discovery and approvals
           ├── stdio ── PhotoCraft, VectorCraft, FilmCraft, LightCraft
           ├── stdio ── PdfCraft, EffectCraft, DesignCraft, GridCraft
           ├── stdio ── WordCraft, DeckCraft, CADCraft, SoundCraft
           └── stdio ── FigCraft
                                │
                      native engines → durable files

What it is

• One instructional Skill, thirteen on-demand app cards and two workflow guides.
• Thirteen direct, native stdio MCP registrations, one per app and host.
• A standard-library Python CLI (storytold.py) that installs, verifies, pins, probes and registers the Craft CLIs, but only when you run it.

What it is not

• No gateway MCP server, daemon, router or second AI agent.
• No bundled binaries: installing the plugin adds guidance, the reviewed release manifest and inactive templates, never executables, permissions or running MCP processes.
• No remote ChatGPT connector. Local Codex support is an additive packaging and configuration adaptation.
• No OS sandbox. See Working safely and SECURITY.md.

Quick start

1. Install the plugin. Repository devsolux/storytold, plugin storytold, marketplace devsolux-storytold. Both hosts take plugin@marketplace:

claude plugin marketplace add https://github.com/devsolux/storytold
claude plugin install storytold@devsolux-storytold

codex plugin marketplace add devsolux/storytold
codex plugin add storytold@devsolux-storytold

2. Install the native apps. From a clone, or from the installed plugin directory (<home>/plugins/cache/devsolux-storytold/storytold/<version>/ under ~/.claude or ~/.codex), set up one app or all thirteen:

python3 storytold.py setup --app photocraft

python3 storytold.py setup --all --acknowledge-unconfined

3. Start a new host session and use the Skill: /storytold:craft in Claude Code, or storytold:craft from the Codex Skill picker.

python3 storytold.py doctor reports, per app, the desktop app, CLI and host registration it finds and prints the exact setup command for anything missing; the Skill offers the same command in chat when a server is not connected.

The Craft App Suite

ArtCraft Launcher installs the Craft App Suite: free, open-source creative tools from the ArtCraft team, each written from scratch in Rust and each able to stand on its own. The File access column shows how Storytold launches each app's MCP server.

| | App | What it's for | File access | Code | Learn more | |:-:|---|---|---|---|---| | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/photocraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.photocraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | PhotoCraft | Image editing: layers, masks, type and real PSD files | Read/write roots | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/vectorcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.vectorcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | VectorCraft | Vector illustration | Read/write roots | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/filmcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.filmcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | FilmCraft | Video editing, color and sound | User-wide | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/lightcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.lightcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | LightCraft | Photo library and raw development | User-wide | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/pdfcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.pdfcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | PdfCraft | Reading, organizing and protecting PDFs | Read/write roots | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/effectcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.effectcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | EffectCraft | Motion graphics and visual effects | Read/write roots | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/designcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.designcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | DesignCraft | Page layout and publishing | Read/write roots | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/gridcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.gridcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | GridCraft | Spreadsheets and data | User-wide | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/wordcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.wordcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | WordCraft | Word processing and documents | Read/write roots | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/deckcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.deckcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | DeckCraft | Presentations and slide decks | Read/write roots | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/cadcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.cadcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | CADCraft | Computer-aided design | User-wide | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/soundcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.soundcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | SoundCraft | Audio recording and editing | Read/write roots | GitHub | Website | | <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/storytold/figcraft/main/assets/app-icon/hicolor/64x64/apps/ai.storyteller.figcraft.png" alt="" width="32" height="32"> | FigCraft | Interface design and prototyping | Read/write roots | GitHub | Website |

• Read/write roots (nine apps): launched with native root flags that let them read the workspace and write only its outputs/ directory. PdfCraft also keeps its single --root on the workspace; both apply.
• User-wide (four apps): launched without file-root flags, so they can read and write anything your OS user can. setup installs and registers them only with --acknowledge-unconfined; keep them for non-sensitive work or run them under OS isolation.

Setting up the native apps

Each app's MCP server is its CLI, <app>-cli. Neither the plugin nor the desktop app provides or registers it, so until it is set up the Skill correctly reports that the app's native tools aren't connected. setup supports macOS (universal), Linux x86_64 and Windows x64 and requires Python 3.11+.

What setup does

For each selected app, setup:

1. Downloads the archive pinned for your platform in config/releases.json (the macOS CLI zip, the Linux tarball or the Windows portable zip).
2. Checks it against that manifest and the release's own SHA256SUMS.txt, then extracts exactly the one <app>-cli.
3. Verifies provenance (see Provenance).
4. Stages the candidate beside the active install and runs preflight plus the official MCP SDK probe against it: initialize, tools/list and one read-only call.
5. Promotes it only then, to ~/.local/opt/craft/bin (or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Storytold\craft\bin on Windows), and pins the binary hash in a private lock.
6. Registers the server with every host CLI on PATH (codex mcp add, claude mcp add --scope user).

A candidate that fails any step leaves the previous binary, its pin and the registrations untouched; an upgrade interrupted between the file replace and the lock rewrite is reconciled by the next run. Re-running setup is idempotent: an app whose installed binary matches its pin and the manifest is skipped, and a matching registration is kept. Nothing runs unless you invoke it. Start a new host session afterwards.

Options

| Option | Effect | |---|---| | --app <app> / --all | Select one app (repeatable) or all thirteen. | | --acknowledge-unconfined | Also install and register the four user-wide apps. Not evidence of isolation. | | --host {codex,claude} | Register with the named host only (default: every host CLI on PATH); a named host that is not on PATH fails the run. | | --dry-run | Preview what a real run would do per app (keep, install, upgrade, skip or refuse, a download only where one is needed, each registration) and whether it would pass (exit status 1 if not), or, with --remove, exactly what would be removed. Changes nothing. | | --list |