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Claude installation guide

Install the Version Story plugin in Claude, on a personal account or across an organization.

You will need:

  • A Version Story account
  • The Claude desktop app or claude.ai

Installing the plugin is one step: upload the .plugin file in Claude's plugin settings. Everything else — signing in, transferring documents, saving redlines — the plugin handles itself, and there is no network allowlist to configure. See the plugin overview for what it does and why.

Install on a personal account

Each person installs the plugin on their own account. No owner or admin action is required.

  1. Download the plugin: version-story-mcp-plugin.plugin. Your browser saves it to your Downloads folder.

  2. In Claude, open Settings → Plugins (under the Customize section).

    Plugins settings screen with the Add button
    Plugins settings screen with the Add button

  3. Click Add → Upload plugin.

    Add menu with Upload plugin highlighted
    Add menu with Upload plugin highlighted

  4. Click Browse files, choose the version-story-mcp-plugin.plugin file you just downloaded, then click Upload.

    Upload plugin dialog with the file selected
    Upload plugin dialog with the file selected

  5. The plugin installs and turns on automatically. You will see Version Story listed with its /compare skill.

    Version Story plugin installed and enabled
    Version Story plugin installed and enabled

If you installed it in the desktop app and the comparison tools are not available yet, quit and reopen Claude — or wait about ten minutes, since the plugin finishes activating on its own — then start a new conversation.

Install across an organization

An owner can install the plugin once for everyone instead of each member uploading it. Download the same .plugin file, then open Organization settings → Plugins → Add plugins → Upload a file.

Uploading a newer Version Story plugin with the same name replaces the installed version, so this is also how you push an update.

Update your system prompt

Under General → Instructions for Claude, add the following line:

When I ask you to compare or redline documents, use Version Story Compare.

This tells Claude to reach for Version Story on its own whenever you ask for a comparison, so you never have to name it in a prompt. Your settings should look like this:

General settings with the comparison line added to Instructions for Claude
General settings with the comparison line added to Instructions for Claude

Test it

Start a new Claude session — Cowork works great — point Claude at two versions of a document in one of your folders, and ask it to redline them using Version Story. Claude will return an interactive redline link and the redline file itself.

The plugin does not run in plain Claude Chat. To cover that case as well, add the connector: see the MCP server installation guide. Adding both is safe — Claude merges them into one tool set and prefers the plugin.