Artifact Capabilities

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name: artifact-capabilities
description: Runtime capabilities a published Artifact page can be granted — behavior static HTML cannot provide on its own, such as the page reading live or connected data, remembering what people do on it (a poll, a sign-up sheet, a checklist, a document edited in place — it saves new versions of itself), keeping state shared across viewers, knowing who is viewing, asking Claude a question of its own, storing files people add, or handing the viewer a file to save. Serves this user's live capability roster and the typed call definitions. Load it whenever the user asks for an artifact needing any such runtime behavior.
---

# Artifact runtime capabilities

A published Artifact page can declare **runtime capabilities** — abilities the claude.ai viewer grants the page at open time — by passing `capabilities: {name: config}` to the Artifact tool. The control plane is the authority on valid names and config shapes. Declaration gestures: **omitting** `capabilities` on a redeploy carries the stored declaration forward unchanged (and preserves the artifact's stored contract pin); an **empty object** `{}` is the explicit clear-all; a **non-empty object** is a full-set declaration (anything stored but not restated is revoked). Moving a republished artifact's runtime version is a deliberate gesture — pass `contract: 'latest'` to upgrade, or a specific version to pin or roll back — never a side effect of editing.

**Available capabilities:** `artifact`, `downloads`, `mcp`, `self` — the complete set of capability names you may declare. Anything not listed is unavailable to this user.

Runtime contract 0.2.21


Capability namespaces live behind `claude.use(name)`: `const db = await claude.use("db")` resolves the capability's namespace, or `null` when this view cannot run it (not served, not granted, or failed to load — indistinguishable by design). Branch on `null` and design for absence. `window.claude` carries only `use`: no `window.claude.db`, `.room`, or `.artifact` member is ever promised, so never read one — render the page without them and light features up when the promise resolves (later, never within your script's first run, and unordered with DOMContentLoaded; `null` after 10 s when no viewer answers). The resolved namespace is frozen and platform-owned: call its functions and keep the reference; never assign to it, `defineProperty` on it, or replace a member (wrap it for your own helpers). Permission stays on the calls: a consent prompt, rate limit, or policy refusal arrives on the first call, never from `use()`. Awaiting `use("db")` again is free (memoized); an unknown name resolves `null`.


--- capability: artifact ---

Use `artifact` for pages that should remember what people do with them: polls, sign-up sheets, checklists, trackers, boards — the page is the record. Declare `capabilities: {artifact: {}}`; `const artifact = await claude.use("artifact")`, then `await artifact.publish(html)` saves `html` (a complete document, doctype first) as the new version, and every open view, this one included, reloads to it. Nothing a viewer types, ticks or drags is kept unless the page publishes it. So embed the shared state as data in the HTML you publish and render the page from it; when an interaction completes, update the state, regenerate the document and publish it — never serialize the live DOM; batch rapid edits into one publish; publish only after a viewer acts, never on load. `conflict` is routine (someone published first; every view reloads to the winner, dropping this edit): no retry. Owner and editors publish as themselves; for read-only viewers publish rejects `not_granted`/`not_writer` — render a read-only view.


--- capability: downloads ---

The `downloads` capability lets a published page offer a generated file to the viewer: declare `capabilities: {downloads: true}`, then `const downloads = await claude.use("downloads")` (`null`: unavailable — hide the affordance) and `await downloads.save({filename, data})`. The viewer sees a confirmation and may decline — a save is never silent or guaranteed, so offer it on explicit viewer intent and handle rejection. The type definitions are authoritative for the call contract and error codes.


--- capability: mcp ---

`mcp` lets a published page call the viewer's claude.ai connectors: `const mcp = await claude.use("mcp")` (`null`: unavailable); calls run with the viewer's credentials, never exposing tokens. Declare `capabilities: {mcp: {servers: [{server, tools}]}}` — `server` is a connector's display name. Keep the manifest minimal: it is a viewer-consented grant; a declaring page cannot be shared publicly. Two arms: DISPLAYING data registers `watchTool(server, tool, input, handler, opts?)` — replays cache, refreshes when stale, polls only via `refetchInterval`, returns a sync unsubscribe; an ACTION calls `callTool` once and reads `result.payload`. Tool failures REJECT (`tool_error`); watch failures arrive as handler error events. Type definitions first: branch UX per error code, retry only `retryable` errors, drop data on authz denials, drive freshness UI from `result.cache.storedAt`. They omit argument names and result encoding: observe a real request/response pair per tool, or say so at publish — never guess.


--- capability: self ---

`self` is the former name of the `artifact` capability (renamed). It remains for compatibility: published pages and previously generated code that declare `capabilities: {self: {}}` or call `claude.use("self")` keep working unchanged — both names resolve this same capability (this contract promises no `window.claude.self` member to feature-check; `use()` is the check). Do not use it in new pages: declare `capabilities: {artifact: {}}` and obtain the namespace with `await claude.use("artifact")`; see the artifact section for how to use it.


**Your connectors this session.** Connector tools appear in your tool list as `mcp__<connector>__<toolName>`. Set `server` to the `<connector>` segment — everything between `mcp__` and the next `__` (for `mcp__claude_ai_Slack_beta__search`, the `server` is `claude_ai_Slack_beta`). Copy the segment exactly, case included; when publishing, it is resolved to the connector's display name automatically. Only claude.ai connectors are valid — locally-configured MCP servers are not. The manifest's `tools` array takes the connector's upstream tool names (as returned by `listTools()` / `/v1/mcp_servers`), which can differ from the normalized `<toolName>` segment when an upstream name contains `.` or spaces. Every `servers[]` entry needs a non-empty `tools` array naming the tools the page calls — an empty or omitted `tools` list is refused and never means "all tools"; to publish without connector access, leave `mcp` out of `capabilities` (pass `capabilities: {}` to clear a stored declaration) rather than declaring an empty `servers` list. In hermetic/CI sessions where connectors aren't loaded but `$CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN` is set, fetch the list via Bash: `curl -H 'anthropic-version: 2023-06-01' -H 'anthropic-beta: mcp-servers-2025-12-04' -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN" https://api.anthropic.com/v1/mcp_servers?limit=1000`; in that case use each entry's `display_name` as the `server` value (exact display names are always accepted alongside tool-prefix segments).

**Call contract** (runtime contract 0.2.21). The platform-served `window.claude` type definitions for this contract are extracted under `<skill-dir>`: `0.2.21/artifact.d.ts`, `0.2.21/claude.d.ts`, `0.2.21/downloads.d.ts`, `0.2.21/mcp.d.ts`, `0.2.21/self.d.ts`. Read `<skill-dir>/0.2.21/claude.d.ts` (how a page reaches any capability on this contract) and `<skill-dir>/0.2.21/mcp.d.ts` before writing any code that calls the `mcp` capability — they are authoritative for this contract version over any remembered API shape. The type definitions cover only the call envelope — they do not tell you a connector tool's argument names or its result encoding. Never publish a page that calls a connector tool without having observed one real request/response pair for that tool in this session; if you cannot safely observe one (for example, the connector is unauthenticated here, or calling the tool would have side effects), say that explicitly to the user at publish time — in your reply, not as a note inside the published page — instead of shipping a guessed shape. Observed response payloads are the user's real data: learn the shape from them, but never embed the observed values in the published page as sample or placeholder data.