Pressmark can answer questions from your assistant: what is planned this month, which drafts are ready, what the report card says, which Engage suggestions are waiting. The assistant reads through a key you make on the Access page. It never posts, schedules or sends anything.
What assistants can and cannot do#
With the scopes you give a key, an assistant can read:
- Calendar: planned and scheduled posts in the days ahead, and the open slots between them.
- Library: search your posts, and read one post's summary and checks.
- Insights: the one-line takeaways.
- Report card: the latest score, grade and top fixes.
- Engage: today's suggestions with their reasons. A draft appears only once you opened that item in Pressmark.
An assistant cannot post, schedule, send, like, follow, comment or change anything, and it cannot make or revoke keys. Proposing drafts for you to review comes in a later version. People and words on your blocklist never reach an assistant. Everything an assistant reads comes from your files and from Substack, and Pressmark tells the assistant to treat it as material, not as instructions.
Making a key#
- Open Access under Settings.
- Give the key a name, such as Claude Desktop. The name shows in the audit log.
- Tick what it may read, and choose how long it lasts: 7, 30 or 90 days, a year, or until you revoke it.
- Press Make key and copy it at once. Pressmark keeps only a fingerprint of the key, so it cannot show it again. If you lose it, revoke it and make another.
Make one key for each assistant. Then you can revoke one without touching the others, and the audit log tells them apart. Revoke stops a key at once.
Connecting Claude Desktop#
The easiest way: on the Access page, press Download the extension, open the file, and Claude Desktop installs it. Paste your key into the extension's settings. The setting for the pressmark command is filled in for you.
Or add the snippet from the Access page to claude_desktop_config.json (in Claude Desktop: Settings, Developer, Edit Config) and restart Claude Desktop.
Connecting Claude Code#
Copy the command from the Access page and run it once in Terminal. It looks like this:
claude mcp add --transport stdio --scope user --env PRESSMARK_KEY=<your key> pressmark -- <path to pressmark> mcp
LM Studio and other MCP clients#
LM Studio reads the same mcpServers entry as Claude Desktop, in its mcp.json. Any other MCP client needs four things, all on the Access page: the command (the pressmark command on this Mac), the argument mcp, the variable PRESSMARK_KEY set to your key, and the stdio transport.
ChatGPT needs a server on the internet, so it is not available in the local edition.
Pressmark must be running#
The assistant talks to Pressmark on this Mac. While Pressmark runs, it leaves a note of its port in its workspace folder, and the assistant finds it there. If Pressmark is closed, the assistant says so and asks you to open it. To point an assistant at a fixed address instead, set PRESSMARK_PORT (or PRESSMARK_URL, an address on this Mac).
Safety and the audit log#
Keys draw on the same Safety budget and the same blocklist as you do. Every request with a key is in the audit log on the Safety page, under the key's name, whether it was allowed or refused. While Pressmark is paused, assistants wait. Pause everything on the Safety page, or switch on Pause assistants on the Access page to hold assistants alone while the rest of Pressmark carries on.
Your calendar in a calendar app#
On the Access page, Make a feed address gives you a private address for your publishing calendar: planned, scheduled and recently published posts. Copy it, or press Subscribe in Calendar to add it to Apple Calendar.
- The address works only on this Mac, and only while Pressmark runs.
- Google Calendar reads subscriptions from its own servers, which cannot reach your Mac. Press Download .ics and import the file in Google Calendar instead. An imported file does not update itself.
- Pressmark picks a new port each time it starts. Turn on Keep the same port so the address stays the same after a restart.
- Make a new address stops the old one. Turn the feed off stops it altogether.
Nothing is published from a calendar. You confirm every schedule in Pressmark.