# Benchy Desktop

> The Mac app for projects on your disk, slicing, printers, and the apps you already use.

Canonical: https://benchy.world/docs/desktop
Last updated: 2026-10-27

Benchy Desktop is a chat with your files in front of it: sign in, open a folder, and ask for the work. Printers, slicers and Blender join in if you have them; the app works without them. Desktop runs on macOS and works in one workspace, the one you choose when you sign in.

## Start a project [#start]

Choose **New project…** or **Open folder…**, or drop files onto the app. A folder you open stays where it is; new projects go in `~/Documents/Benchy Desktop/Projects/`, and files you drag in are copied into the project's folder.

Each Desktop project is linked to a private project in the workspace Desktop is signed in to; only its name and that link leave your Mac. **Open in Benchy** in the project menu opens it in Studio, where you can share it or move it to another workspace.

## Chat with Benchy, Claude or Codex [#agents]

Pick who answers in a chat. All three work through Benchy's tools in the project.

| Choose | Paid by |
| --- | --- |
| Benchy | Your Benchy plan and Credits |
| Claude, through Claude Code | Your Claude plan |
| Codex | Your ChatGPT plan |

Slicing and other heavy work run one job at a time, and you can stop any of them.

## Approvals [#approvals]

Before an agent does something that needs your say, a card asks: **Allow once**, **Deny**, or allow that kind of work for the rest of the chat, such as **Allow slicing for this chat**. A card nobody answers is denied after 10 minutes. **Settings → Plugins → Tools** shows each tool as **Allowed** or **Asks first**.

## Made by Benchy [#made-by-benchy]

What Benchy makes — print files, renders, exports — goes in a **Made by Benchy** folder, and your own files are never overwritten. The first time a folder you opened has something to keep, the chat asks whether to keep results there or in Benchy's folder, and warns if the folder syncs, as with iCloud Drive. Change the answer from the project menu.

## What leaves your Mac [#on-benchy]

Nothing uploads on its own, and no agent can upload for you. Your project folder, print files, plates, slice runs and variants stay on your Mac. To put a file from Made by Benchy into the project on Benchy, choose **Add to project on Benchy**; it then shows **On Benchy**, and **Versions on Benchy…** once it has more than one version.

## Benchy in your other agents [#your-other-agents]

While you're signed in, Desktop connects Claude Code, Codex and Cursor on your Mac to Benchy. The first time, a notice names the agents it added, with **Undo** and **Done**. Each agent then asks you to sign in once:

- Claude Code: type `/mcp`, choose `benchy`, and sign in.
- Codex: choose **Sign in** in the notice.
- Cursor: in Cursor's settings, under MCP, sign in beside benchy.

Turn it off per agent in **Settings → Connected agents**. Desktop backs up each settings file before its first change and removes its own entry when you sign out. See [Connect your agent](https://benchy.world/docs/connect-your-agent).

## Blender and other apps [#blender]

[Plugins](https://benchy.world/docs/plugins#desktop) let Benchy use apps on your Mac; manage them in **Settings → Plugins → Installed**, which shows each one's app, version and tools. Blender is built in.

With Blender, Benchy renders previews, turntables and animations, imports, decimates, remeshes, solidifies, bevels, combines, transforms and exports models, and can run a short Python script it wrote, showing you the script on the approval card first. The first time a chat uses Blender, a card asks **Allow Blender for this chat**, and Benchy asks again before running its own script.

Blender runs in the background, sandboxed, with no network, writing only into its own folders. Your `.blend` is never written: the first change works on a copy with its own versions and undo, and **Open in Blender** on a `.blend` in Made by Benchy opens it in your Blender. A script stops after 5 minutes unless it asked for longer, up to 30, and a stopped or failed one changes nothing. No plugin can start a print.

If Blender isn't installed, **Settings** offers **Get Blender**, which downloads and verifies the official build, or lets you point to your own copy.

## Printers [#printers]

Desktop shows your printers through Benchy Host: their state, time left, the camera and past prints. See [Printers and Benchy Host](https://benchy.world/docs/printers).

## Websites [#websites]

Desktop can also build and preview websites. See [Websites](https://benchy.world/docs/websites).