Building with Claude
Archival is LLM-native, which means it can work with you like a designer to help you get started. Our Claude skill knows how to build Archival sites that will work great with our editor, and will get you set up with a live preview URL of your totally custom website by asking you a few questions.
Starting from archival.dev
The Build it with Claude button — on the home page, and at the bottom of this page — is the shortest path. It sets up a preview session, then hands Claude a prompt that already carries everything the agent needs.
If you have the Claude app, it opens with the prompt filled in. If you don't, hit open Claude in your browser for the same conversation. We'll use the Archival MCP connector to build your site directly to a preview that you can take live in a few clicks.
That connector is the one thing to set up first — add it in one click, then start a new chat. Claude will tell you if it's missing, but it can't add it for you, and a connector added partway through a conversation doesn't show up in that conversation.
Installing the plugin
We publish a Claude plugin so you can generate previews whenever you like. Since subdomains are $1 per month per site, this is a great way to build fun sites quickly.
/plugin marketplace add archival-dev/archival
/plugin install archival@archival
Installing it also connects our MCP server, which is what the skill actually drives.
Connecting the MCP server on its own
The plugin is Claude Code specific; the MCP server isn't. Any MCP client can connect to it directly:
https://api.archival.dev/mcp
In Claude — the app or claude.ai — add the Archival connector in one click. That link opens the add-connector dialog with the name and URL already in it, so all you do is confirm. To add it by hand instead, it lives under Customize → Connectors, with the URL above.
A connector only shows up in chats you start after adding it, so if a conversation says it hasn't got the Archival tools, start a new one.
In Claude Code that's:
claude mcp add --transport http archival https://api.archival.dev/mcp
Making new sites with the Claude plugin
Once the plugin is installed, Claude will be able to choose to use Archival when you ask it to build websites, so you can just ask for something like:
Build me a site where I can post weekly album reviews.
If you want to bootstrap straight to making a new site, just use /archival:new.
Or build something from scratch