Redline

Working with agents

An AI agent can help edit your drawing, fill in device information, and handle repetitive changes. It works on the open document through Redline's external control interface. Review its work just as you would any other drawing edit.

This requires a harness to be installed on your computer. Harnesses are different from AI models in that they run on your computer and allow the AI to interact with your computer and other applications, such as Redline. Some examples of programs that use AI models in this way include Codex, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, OpenCode, T3 Code, and Pi. Redline uses MCP to communicate with the agent, so any harness that supports MCP and skills will work.

Give your agent the setup prompt

  1. Open the drawing you want to work on.
  2. Open Settings > External control and enable Allow external control.
  3. Under Connect your AI app, choose Copy prompt for your agent.
  4. Paste the prompt into your agent's chat and send it.
  5. The agent will request permission to access the drawing.
  6. Once approved, it can generate, modify, or review your Redline document.

The prompt asks the agent to set up a reusable skill named `redline` and a connector for communicating with Redline. A skill is a set of instructions the agent can use again in later conversations.

Your agent's harness determines how skills are installed and invoked, how connectors are configured, and which permissions are required. Ask your agent which method its harness supports. If setup requires a permission, restart, or new chat, follow the agent's instructions for that harness.

Approve the intended drawing

When you invoke the skill, the agent discovers open Redline drawings. If several instances of Redline are open, it will ask which one you want it to connect to.

When Redline asks for approval, review the request in Settings > External control. You can revoke the client's access there or disable Allow external control to disconnect all clients.

The agent needs access to the computer running Redline. A remote or sandboxed agent may need its harness's supported host-access setup; an empty list of drawings does not necessarily mean your document is closed.

Ask for a specific result

Once approved, the agent has just as much access to the document that the application provides. However the more specific of a request you give it, generally the better the results will be.

Ask questions about Redline

If you don't want to read all of the documentation here, that's okay! The agent has access to review the documentation provided, so if you want to use a feature or want to know what combination of features you need to use to get your work done: ask an agent.