Connect your AI app

Syntope MCP is the Mac app that lets AI apps work with your design tokens. It connects Codex, Claude Code, Cursor and Claude Desktop to Syntope Tokens, the Figma plugin built on Syntope Engine. The two talk through Syntope Bridge, a local connection on your Mac. No Syntope server sits between them.

Your AI app lists Syntope MCP under the name Syntope Tokens. Its messages say “Syntope Tokens on this Mac”.

Requirements

• A Mac with macOS 13.5 or later. Windows is not supported, so run Syntope MCP on a Mac.
• Figma Desktop with the plugin open in your file. Getting started covers installing it.
• Codex, Claude Code, Cursor or Claude Desktop.

You do not need Terminal, Node or npm.

Download

All files are on the release page. Use the plugin and Syntope MCP from the same release.

AI app	File
Codex, Claude Code, Cursor	syntope-tokens-mcp-<version>-darwin-<chip>.pkg
Claude Desktop	syntope-tokens-mcp-<version>-darwin-<chip>.mcpb

For <chip>, choose arm64 for Apple silicon or x64 for an Intel Mac. To check, open Apple menu → About This Mac. It shows Chip for Apple silicon and Processor for Intel.

Install for Codex, Claude Code and Cursor

The .pkg is not signed by Apple, so macOS blocks it the first time.

1. Quit Codex, Claude Code and Cursor.
2. Open the .pkg file. macOS says it was “Not Opened”. Choose Done, not Move to Trash.
3. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down to Security and choose Open Anyway next to the blocked installer. Apple describes this step.
4. Follow the installer. It installs for your Mac login only.
5. Open your AI apps again.

The installer sets up every supported app it finds on this Mac. It keeps your settings and approvals and backs up each settings file it changes, next to the original.

Check that Syntope Tokens is listed: in Codex under its MCP settings, in Claude Code with /mcp, in Cursor under Settings → Tools & MCP. If you turned it off earlier, it stays off until you turn it on.

Added another AI app later? Open the installer again.

Install for Claude Desktop

1. In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Extensions → Advanced settings → Install Extension….
2. Choose the .mcpb file and accept.
3. Turn on Syntope Tokens in Claude’s connectors.

Claude Desktop uses only the .mcpb. The .pkg does not set it up. Installing the extension does not give Claude access to a Figma file yet.

Connect a Figma file

1. In Figma Desktop, open your file, start Syntope Tokens and open Settings → MCP. The MCP icon in the plugin footer goes there too.
2. Ask your AI app: “Show me my Syntope tokens.”
3. The first time on this Mac, you compare two numbers. The plugin shows a six-digit number, and a Mac window called Connect Syntope Tokens shows one too. If the plugin is on another screen, choose open MCP settings in its notice. If no number appears, choose connect.
4. If the numbers match, choose Connect in the Mac window, then the button that starts with numbers match in the plugin. If they differ or no Mac window appears, choose cancel connection.
5. Your app is listed with “Not allowed for this file yet.” Choose allow file access.
6. Check the file name, choose read tokens or read and change tokens, then choose allow.
7. Ask again. Check that the app names the right file and lists your tokens.

The number check and the approval each run out after 2 minutes. Choose connect to start again.

You compare numbers once on this Mac. Later files connect without it.

Allow an app per file

Approval is per app and per file. Allowing Codex does not allow Claude Code, and allowing one file does not allow another. Approvals stay through restarts until you revoke them.

Access	What the app can do
read tokens	Read your saved tokens and layers
read and change tokens	Also change your tokens and apply them to layers

With read and change tokens, the app saves changes without asking you each time. Each change shows in Figma. What AI apps can do lists what each tool changes and how to undo it. Your AI app’s own tool permissions apply on top of this.

An app works on the file you last worked in where the plugin is open, and follows you when you switch files. Settings → MCP shows the file each app is using.

If an app asks for a file it may not use yet, the plugin in that file asks you at once, on whatever screen is open. Choose allow or not now. After not now, you can still choose allow file access in Settings → MCP.

To change an app’s access, use access on its card in Settings → MCP. To stop an app, choose revoke access on its card: it can no longer read or change tokens in this file. To allow it again, choose allow file access.

Update

Update the plugin and Syntope MCP together. An older plugin is refused until you update it.

1. Quit every AI app that uses Syntope MCP.
2. Open the new .pkg, or install the new .mcpb the same way as before. Extensions installed from a file do not update by themselves.
3. Import the plugin from the same release in Figma Desktop.
4. Open your AI apps again.

Your approvals stay. Do not delete Syntope’s files to force an update.

Remove access

1. In each file, choose revoke access for the app.
2. Turn off or remove the syntope server in the AI app. In Claude Desktop, use Settings → Extensions.

The installation, keys and approvals stay in ~/Library/Application Support/Syntope Tokens/bridge, for your other AI apps and for a later reinstall. Do not delete them while another AI app uses Syntope MCP.

Something not working? See Troubleshooting Syntope MCP.