AI Connections: let Claude Desktop translate inside your project

Machine translation is fast, but it doesn't know your game — that 響 is a character the fan-wiki spells “Hibiki,” or that an item keeps its Japanese name in the official localization. AI Connections hands that research to Claude. It links RuneTranslate to Claude Desktopso you can just talk to Claude about a project — “find the untranslated lines,” “look up this character's official English name,” “translate the rest and keep the honorifics” — and it does the work inside RuneTranslate, using its own web search to get names and terms right.

How AI Connections works

RuneTranslate runs a tiny server on your own PC that Claude Desktop can reach, built on the open MCP(Model Context Protocol) standard. Through it, Claude can list and search your projects and glossary, and — on a paid plan — apply translations, edit the glossary, run the translation engine, and export the finished build. It's off until you switch it on, and the connection never leaves your computer (127.0.0.1 loopback only).

Setting it up

You'll need the Claude Desktop app installed. Then:

1. In RuneTranslate, open Settings → AI Connections and switch it on.
2. Click Install Desktop Extension. RuneTranslate opens Claude Desktop with the extension ready — approve it and paste the connection token shown in Settings.
3. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop, then ask: “List my RuneTranslate projects.”

That's it. Prefer to wire it up by hand? An “Add via config” option writes Claude's config file for you.

A worked example

Translating an RPG and want character names to stay consistent? A conversation might go like this:

• You: In Mahou Quest, find every untranslated line that mentions 響. Claude:Found 14 lines — 響 looks like a character name.
• You: Look up the official romanization, then add a glossary entry. Claude:The wiki spells it “Hibiki.” Added 響 → Hibiki.
• You: Now translate the remaining lines and keep honorifics like -san. Claude:Done — 14 lines translated and saved.
• You: Export the build to D:\Games\MahouQuest-EN. Claude: Exported.

Every change lands in RuneTranslate — open it and the new translations, the glossary entry, and the exported build are waiting. You're still in the editor for anything you want to tweak by hand.

What Claude can do — free vs paid

The split mirrors the rest of RuneTranslate: free to look, a paid plan to act.

• Every tier, free included: connect Claude and let it browse and searchyour projects and glossary — perfect for reviewing where a translation stands and planning the work.
• Supporter, Pro and Developer: the actions — translate lines, build and edit glossaries, run the translation engine, and exportthe finished build — all using your own configured provider at full speed.

It researches the game for you

This is what makes it more than a chat wrapper. When Claude translates a line, it can lean on its ownweb search — a game's wiki, fan translations, a character database — to settle what machine translation only guesses: a heroine's established English name, an item's official spelling, whether a term is usually left in Japanese. Capture those as glossary entries and they're force-substituted across every line and every provider, so the name in chapter 1 matches the name in chapter 47. Want a second pass for tone? RuneTranslate's AI refiner works exactly as it does on any project.

Your projects stay yours

AI Connections only runs on your own computer. Claude Desktop reaches RuneTranslate over a private local link (loopback only, 127.0.0.1) guarded by a token that lives only on your machine — requests without it, or coming from a web page, are refused. Regenerate the token any time to cut off existing connections. When Claude translates a line, that text is processed by Claude the same way any message you send it is.

Good to know

• Claude Desktop, specifically.It targets the Claude Desktop app, which can reach a server on your own PC. Browser-based connectors run in the cloud and can't see localhost, so they're out for now.
• One-click, no extra tools.The Desktop Extension installs without Node or npx — RuneTranslate finds Claude Desktop and opens it for you, whether you installed it from Anthropic or the Microsoft Store.
• Fully opt-in.If you never open Settings → AI Connections, nothing about RuneTranslate changes.

Download RuneTranslate, open Settings → AI Connections, and introduce Claude to your project.