Getting Started with Claude Code & IDEs

Use xhost from your local terminal or editor — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or any AI tool that can fetch a URL and run shell commands.

Your console. Once you sign in, your dashboard lives at console.xhostd.com — apps, tokens, custom domains, and account settings. You'll find it linked from the docs sidebar too.

Install the xhost plugin

Inside Claude Code, register the marketplace and install the plugin. It ships both the MCP server (the tools your agent calls) and the xhost skill (instructions for using them) — no tokens, no manual MCP setup.

Run inside Claude Code

/plugin marketplace add xhostd/xhost-sdk
/plugin install xhost@xhost-sdk

Authenticate

Run /mcp, select xhost, and choose Authenticate. Your browser opens for Google sign-in and a one-click approval. If you're brand-new, you'll be asked to pick a username — that becomes part of your project URLs (e.g. my-site-yourname.xhostd.com).

Claude Code stays signed in across sessions; you won't be prompted again until your token expires.

Tell it what to build

Describe what you want. The skill already taught Claude the create-app → commit-files → deploy flow, so a plain sentence is enough.

Example prompt

Build a landing page for my coffee shop called "Bean There".
Deploy it to xhost.

Claude creates the app, writes the files, deploys, and replies with a live URL like https://bean-there-alice.xhostd.com.

Other things you can ask for:

"Build me a portfolio site with my projects"
"Create a REST API for my mobile app"
"Make a multiplayer game I can share with friends"
"Set up a webhook handler for my Slack bot"
"Build a small CRUD app with logins"

Make changes

Want to update your project? Just tell Claude what to change. It edits, redeploys, and reports the new URL.

For a safer iteration loop, ask for a preview channel ("deploy a preview"). You get a separate URL you can share for feedback before promoting to prod.

Every project gets a database wired in automatically — your app reads DATABASE_URL and Claude takes care of the rest. The API reference covers schema reset, SQL dump, custom domains, and Google sign-in for your apps.

Using a different MCP client?

Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and any other OAuth-capable MCP client can connect to xhost's server directly — no plugin install, no token paste. Point the client at:

MCP server URL

https://mcp.xhostd.com/mcp/

The first tool call triggers the same browser-based Google sign-in flow as the plugin. To teach the client the create → commit → deploy flow without the bundled skill, also ask it to fetch https://docs.xhostd.com/llms-full.txt at the start of the session.

For developers

Want to use the API directly? xhost is fully API-driven. See the API Reference for curl examples, endpoint documentation, and the OpenAPI spec. To get a raw xh_ token (for git push or CI) sign in at console.xhostd.com/tokens and click Create token.