Simplio3D Plugin for Claude: Build a Configurator in Minutes

The Simplio3D plugin for Claude brings your 3D product configurators into the conversation. Install it, sign in to Simplio3D once, and Claude can read your real projects, build a new configurator from a couple of sentences, add options and rules, and tell you what is broken before a customer finds it. You don’t paste screenshots, copy tokens or learn tool names.

This tutorial covers the whole path: what the plugin contains, how to install it in Claude or Claude Code, what access to grant, the prompts that get a first draft built in minutes, and the parts that deliberately stay with you.

What the Simplio3D plugin for Claude is

A Claude plugin bundles instructions and connections into one install. Simplio3D publishes its plugin in Claude’s plugin directory, and the source is open on GitHub under the MIT licence. It holds two things:

• The Simplio3D connector: the address of Simplio3D’s MCP server, https://app.simplio3d.ai/mcp. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the open standard that lets Claude call outside tools. It is the same connector Claude’s directory lists as Simplio3D, so if you have already connected that, the plugin uses the same connection.
• Seven skills: written instructions that teach Claude how to use those tools well. They tell it to look inside the real 3D model before it names a part, to pass on the caveats a price calculation returns, and never to say a price change is done while it is still waiting for your approval.

Behind the connector are 123 tools: 52 that read, 68 that write and 3 that run multi-step workflows. They cover projects, 3D model structure, materials, option blocks, conditional rules, pricing, forms, quote requests and store connections.

Nothing runs on your computer. The plugin has no scripts, hooks or local servers, and it contains no API keys or passwords. Every permission is checked on Simplio3D’s server, so editing the skills cannot widen what Claude is allowed to do.

Before you start

• A Simplio3D workspace on any plan. Starter, Pro and Enterprise all include AI connections (Starter since September 2026), and so does the 30-day Pro trial every new account starts with. On Starter, Claude follows the same plan rules as the dashboard: it cannot create Modular projects or duplicate a project.
• A confirmed email address on your Simplio3D account.
• Claude on the web, the desktop or mobile apps, Cowork, or Claude Code.
• A role that can edit, if you want Claude to build. A team member with a Viewer seat can only read, whatever they approve when signing in.
• Optionally, your own 3D model, uploaded under Dashboard → Assets. Claude cannot upload files, but it can start from a template or import a ready-made model from Simplio3D’s curated library.

Using Claude Code? The plugin installs from its own marketplace in two terminal commands. Then you sign in once from inside a session, on the same Simplio3D approval page.

Choose what Claude may change

Sign-in asks for read-only access by default. That is enough for audits, explanations, price checks and documentation questions. To build, tick write access one area at a time on the Simplio3D approval page. You can see and revoke the connection under Dashboard → Integrations → AI Connections. To grant more later, disconnect, connect again and tick the extra access.

Whatever you tick, every call is checked on Simplio3D’s server against four things, and the narrowest one wins: a confirmed email address, the workspace owner’s plan, your role in the workspace, and the access you granted.

For a first build, tick Projects, Materials, Configurator and Forms. Add Pricing if Claude should propose a price, and Workflows to use the build-from-a-brief workflow below. Leave Quote requests off unless you want Claude to summarise leads: anything Claude reads becomes part of your Claude conversation, and quote requests hold your customers’ names and contact details.

Build your first configurator in minutes

With write access granted, a first draft takes one prompt. There are three ways in, depending on what you already have:

• A template. Ask “Which Simplio3D templates can I start from?” and Claude lists the current catalogue, which includes closet, cabinet, chair, jersey, shoe, wedding ring and window configurators. Pick one and Claude copies its scene, option blocks, pricing, form and settings into a new project in your workspace. The new project starts unpublished, with no share link and no store link. Modular templates need a Pro or Enterprise plan.
• A model you already have. Name a 3D model from your Assets library and the finishes customers should choose from. Claude creates the project, attaches the model, works out which parts take the material (and asks when that is ambiguous), reuses library materials whose names match or creates them, and adds a Select Material option.
• A brief. Describe the product in a couple of sentences. The “Build a configurator from a brief” workflow creates the project, attaches up to four models from your library, and adds up to twelve finishes, up to six further options, show/hide rules, a quote form and a base price, which waits for your approval. If a store is already connected, it can propose a store product link too.

No model yet? Ask Claude to search Simplio3D’s curated library. It holds ready-to-use models, from chairs and sofas to rings and a jersey, which Claude can import into your workspace so you can try a build before your own files are ready.

Write the brief the way you would explain the product to a new colleague: what it is, what customers choose, which choices depend on others, and whether it sells through a quote form or a store. In follow-ups, name the project, and ask for evidence (“which rule hides it?”) rather than a yes or no.

Refine it in the same conversation

The draft is a normal Simplio3D project. Nothing in it is locked or AI-only: open it in the editor and rename, retarget, reprice or delete anything, or keep going in Claude. Five things make the second round safe:

• Claude checks the model before it names a part. Part names are verified against the actual 3D file, so Claude cannot target a mesh that doesn’t exist. Ask for a number input that resizes the model and it lists every part that will change.
• Claude asks before it changes or removes anything. Tools that change existing data are marked, so Claude confirms with you first.
• Risky changes become proposals. Prices, SKUs, deletions, bulk edits and store links are never applied by Claude. Each one waits in the Simplio3D dashboard under AI Changes, where you approve or dismiss it. Claude has no tool that can approve a change, and most applied edits can be undone from the same page.
• Longer jobs survive a closed chat. A workflow, such as a build from a brief or a full audit, runs on Simplio3D’s server and pauses when it needs your answer or your approval. Follow it under Dashboard → AI Workflows.
• Prices come from Simplio3D’s own engine. Claude calculates a configuration’s price on the server and passes on any caveat, such as per-unit Number Input pricing that the calculation does not cover. The live Preview is the final word.

When it looks right, ask whether it is ready to publish. The check returns Ready, Ready with warnings or Not ready, with a to-do list. Then you publish it yourself from the editor’s Share dialog, and embed it on your website or link it to your store as usual.

What stays in your hands

Some things Claude cannot do at all, by design:

• Publish a project, create a share link or change embed settings.
• Upload files. 3D models, images and price catalogues go in through the Simplio3D dashboard.
• Connect or disconnect a store, or read its credentials. Claude can see whether Shopify or WooCommerce is connected, list its products and propose a product link.
• Email your customers, or see passwords, API keys and store or email credentials.
• Delete a project.
• Reach another workspace. A connection belongs to the workspace you picked when you signed in. A project anywhere else reads as not found.

Two more things to know. Claude reads saved data, so an edit you made in the editor a moment ago may not be visible until it has saved. And for modular configurators, snap connections are authored once you tell Claude which faces connect: it won’t guess them from the shapes.