Working with an AI app

If NeoDownloader cannot download from a site, or downloads the wrong things from it, an AI app can teach it: the app studies the site and writes a recipe, a short description of where the site keeps its files. NeoDownloader has no built-in AI, but your app can connect to it, and the program's window calls it the agent. It connects over MCP, the common way for AI apps to work with other programs. This page covers what that is good for, connecting the app, the AI Agent screen and Fix with AI.

What it is for

Crawler is the plugin that walks the pages of a site and takes the files it finds there. It works from recipes: a recipe says where a site keeps its files and how to page through them.

For a site it knows, Crawler has a recipe written for that site. For any other site it uses one of four general recipes, one for each kind of page, such as a gallery or a forum thread. A general recipe knows nothing about the particular site, so it does not always cope.

When it brings nothing, or not what you wanted, your AI app can write a recipe for that site. The same goes for a recipe that stopped finding files after the site changed: the app can fix it.

A recipe is made once. From then on it handles its site in every project, and runs do not need the app. The app downloads nothing itself: its test run only lists the files, and a project you start does the downloading. The app works on your subscription, or on a free model if it has one.

Try an ordinary project first, because Crawler's kinds of page often cope, in seconds where an app takes minutes. If you would rather wait for us than make a recipe, use Ask us for a recipe for this site.

Only Crawler reads recipes. Video Downloader, Gallery Downloader and Direct links do not.

What the app can see and do

The app works in the open: every step is a line in the journal below. What it receives, what it cannot do and where its answers may go is in An AI app you connect. Read that before you connect an app, above all if you are signed in to sites in NeoDownloader's browser.

If you work with a free model in OpenCode, look at it before you use it. OpenCode's list says what each free model does with your data. At the time of writing, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash Free and GLM-5.3-Flash Free keep nothing and do not train on it, while others may keep it for 30 days or use it to improve the model.

Connect your app

No AI app yet? Start here.

You do this once, on the computer NeoDownloader runs on.

1. Click AI Agent in the bar on the left.
2. Click How to connect, under the first line of the screen.
3. In the window Make a recipe with AI, under Connect your AI app, pick your app from the list.
4. For Claude Desktop, ChatGPT / Codex and OpenCode, click Add to Claude Desktop, Add to ChatGPT / Codex or Add to OpenCode: NeoDownloader writes the entry into the app's settings file itself. For any other app, do what the window says. Copy takes the text, which already has your computer's paths in it.
5. Restart your AI app. NeoDownloader itself does not need a restart.

The button changes nothing else in the file and keeps the old file beside it, with .before-neodownloader at the end of its name. If it cannot read the file, it leaves it alone and opens the text under Add it by hand. That link also works on its own.

NeoDownloader has to be running while the app works. If it is closed, the app is told so and should ask you to start it.

Where the text goes

The window shows the text ready to paste. Below is where it goes in each app and what it looks like. In these samples PROGRAM stands for NeoDownloader's path on your computer and FOLDER for its data folder, so copy the text from the window.

If the settings file already lists other servers, put the neodownloader entry beside them, in the same list. The text holds no password or key: the connection reads what it needs from NeoDownloader's data folder.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

claude mcp add --scope user neodownloader -- PROGRAM --mcp --install-dir FOLDER

[mcp_servers.neodownloader]
command = "PROGRAM"
args = ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "servers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"],
      "tools": ["*"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcp": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["PROGRAM", "--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "context_servers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neodownloader": {
      "command": "PROGRAM",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--install-dir", "FOLDER"]
    }
  }
}

command: PROGRAM
args: --mcp --install-dir FOLDER

Ask for a recipe

Write to your app in its message box, for example: “Make a NeoDownloader recipe for example.com.” Your own words will do too, and so will the sentence NeoDownloader prepares.

The same window opens from three places:

• Make a recipe with AI at the top of the Recipes tab, once an app has connected. The sentence there has a blank for the site: put the address in its place.
• Make a recipe for this site with AI in the New project wizard, under Where do the files come from?
• Fix with AI on a project; see below.

Once an app has connected, the steps above fold into a line such as Claude Desktop last called NeoDownloader on …, and How to connect another one opens them again. Under Tell your agent is the sentence, in the language of NeoDownloader's window. Copy takes it. Paste it into your app.

The window opened from the wizard ends with When your agent saves the recipe, this wizard picks it up by itself. Leave the wizard open. When the recipe is saved, the wizard asks the plugins again and says Your agent saved a recipe, and the wizard checked the address again.

When the app says the recipe is saved, start an ordinary project with the site's address: Crawler now uses the recipe, and the project downloads the files. The recipe also appears on the Recipes tab.

The AI Agent screen

AI Agent is in the bar on the left, on every screen, and the window calls your connected app the agent. A dot on the item means something new is there. NeoDownloader never takes you there by itself.

At the top of the left column is what the app is doing, with its name under it, such as via Claude Desktop 1.2:

The journal

Under that line is the journal: one line for each step the app takes, the newest at the bottom, in the language of NeoDownloader's window. The time stands at the first step of each minute. When the app's name changes, a heading names the next app.

• A step that failed has a mark on its line; point at the mark for the reason: Refused, Stopped, Took too long or Failed.
• Outside the site of the draft marks a step that left the site the recipe is for.
• Click a step that opened a page to see that page again.
• If you scroll up, the journal stays where you are, and New: 3 takes you to the latest steps.
• Clear empties the journal at once, without asking. Recipes and drafts stay.

The app may need you for a sign-in or a check on a site. Its request stands in the journal under The agent asks you, with Show the page. Do what it asks on the page, then tell the app.

The page and the recipes

To the right of the journal are two tabs. Page is there while the app has a page open, and shows it in NeoDownloader's browser. Recipes lists your recipes. The app's new page takes the panel only if you have not picked Recipes: a tab you chose stays. A dot on a tab means something new came there.

In a narrow window there is one column, with Journal, Page and Recipes as tabs.

Recipes

The Recipes tab lists your own recipes: the ones your AI app saved, and any saved by the recipe editor of an earlier version. Recipes from the catalog are not listed here. Your own recipe handles its sites in every project, ahead of the catalog's.

A recipe's card has its name, its sites and when it was saved, and it can carry these marks:

• Made by AI - your AI app saved it.
• With code - it has code of its own beside it.
• Does not load - NeoDownloader skips it until it is fixed; the card shows what is wrong.

Used instead of the catalog recipe: … says what the recipe takes the place of.

Delete asks first, and says what will handle those sites afterwards: a recipe from the catalog, or Crawler's general kinds of page. A copy is kept beside your recipes, in the .prev folder. Only you can delete a recipe: the app cannot.

Allow MCP

Allow MCP, under the first line of the screen, is the app's permission. Turned off, NeoDownloader stops answering AI apps over MCP, whatever the app asks, and what the app had started stops, its open page included. The screen says MCP is off: every call of an AI app is refused until you allow MCP again.

It stays off after a restart, until you turn it on. To stop the app from working with NeoDownloader for good, also remove NeoDownloader from the app's own settings.

Fix with AI

A card with Fix with AI stands on the Properties tab of an open project, between the project's properties and Delete project. It opens the window Make a recipe with AI, with the steps to connect an app if none has connected yet. What the sentence asks depends on the project's plugin.

On a Crawler project, the sentence names the site, the address and the number of files the last run brought, and asks the app to find out why the recipe stopped working and to fix it.

On a project of another plugin there is no recipe to fix, so the app is asked to make a new one for the address. The card says so: Recipes are for Crawler, and this project downloads with another plugin. Ask your AI agent to make a recipe for this site, then start a new project for this address with Crawler. The project you started from stays as it was.

A project whose plugin is gone has Fix with AI too, in the warning at the top of the tab, and it asks for a new recipe as well.