Optional AI helper

Only for people who already use Cursor or Claude. If that doesn’t sound like you, go download the desktop app and ignore this page — you don’t need it.

Short version: you can skip this page

Atto works perfectly well with no AI at all. The desktop app is the whole product. Nothing on this page is required to buy Atto, unlock your license, research records, or approve them into your tree.

Download the desktop app instead Getting started

What this is

A small local bridge (sometimes called MCP) so an AI coding app on your computer can ask Atto for safe research context — without changing your family tree by itself.

Runs on your computer (Mac or Windows) — you turn it on in your AI app’s settings
Does not upload your vault to Atto’s servers (there isn’t a vault cloud)
Cannot silently change your tree — Approve stays in the desktop app
Not required to buy or use Atto

Do I need to “upload a skill” somewhere?

No. You don’t publish anything to a marketplace. The normal desktop app already works without this. This page is only the extra helper for Cursor/Claude users.

Setup (power users who already bought)

Skip this if you only want the desktop app. Here you’ll use a terminal once — that’s separate from the normal install.

1 · Get the helper package (buyers only)

This file is not on the public download page. After you buy, open your claim page from email (or the page after checkout) and click Download MCP/CLI wheel.

The download link expires after about 5 minutes. That is normal and it is not a broken purchase — just reload the claim page and the link works again. The claim page itself keeps working; only the individual download link is short-lived.

In Terminal, from the folder where the file landed (usually Downloads):

cd ~/Downloads   # or wherever you saved the claim-page wheel
uv tool install --force "./atto-*.whl[mcp]"
atto-mcp --help

If atto-mcp --help prints usage text, the binary is on your PATH (usually ~/.local/bin). Import a valid license.json first — vault commands stay locked until licensed. If the command is not found, put the full path in the Cursor JSON "command": Mac/Linux ~/.local/bin/atto-mcp (expanded to e.g. /Users/YOU/.local/bin/atto-mcp), Windows %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\atto-mcp.exe (or the uv tool shim path).

2 · Point Cursor (or Claude) at it

Add an atto server in your MCP config. Cursor: project .cursor/mcp.json or user ~/.cursor/mcp.json. Claude Desktop: the app’s MCP / developer config (same shape).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "atto": {
      "command": "atto-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "ATTO_VAULT_ROOT": "/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/AttoVault",
        "ATTO_MCP_BISCUIT": "find",
        "ATTO_MCP_ENVELOPE": "find"
      }
    }
  }
}

The MCP server and the atto CLI both read ATTO_VAULT_ROOT — same vault folder (default ~/AttoVault). Replace YOUR_USERNAME with your computer username (on Windows use e.g. C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AttoVault). Optional ATTO_MCP_BISCUIT=find and ATTO_MCP_ENVELOPE=find are power-user limits (find / share / extract only; envelope is a no-op if you omit it; never includes Approve or secrets). Restart Cursor / Claude after saving.

3 · Use it carefully

Ask the AI to call tools like a context pack or find-plan — treat output as suggestions
Research helpers may open allowlisted archive pages in your browser — they do not scrape acts into your vault
Never paste full SSNs or passport scans into chat if you can avoid it — the context pack already redacts full SSNs to XXX-XX-#### (strip_for_llm) before any model sees it
Do not paste scraped archive HTML into Approve — type a short note or use Atto’s own evidence flow
Tree merges: open Approve in the Atto desktop app — MCP will not approve for you
Only enable MCP on a machine you trust; gated ops need an explicit confirm phrase

I’d rather skip AI entirely

That’s the default. Use the desktop app only. You can ignore this page, never install [mcp], and never add MCP JSON. Your kit still works.

Back to home Buy the DIY kit — $299