Using Claude with Unity - Basic Setup

Let's get started

With the release of Claude Opus 4.6 the ability to use AI for development with Unity has improved dramatically. At AstroBeam, we now reached the point where large amounts of programming and Unity changes are being done with Claude.

There isn’t much for information online yet on setup and best practices for Claude for Unity development. My goal is to share some learnings and to start a conversation on best practices.

My first post in this series is getting Claude up and running with Unity, here are the steps.

1. Install Claude Desktop https://claude.com/download

   1. You may have read some folks online talking about using Claude Code via terminal, don't do it, Claude Desktop is much better.

2. Once installed close Claude Desktop (also close it in the bottom menu system tray look for *)

3. Install NodeJS https://nodejs.org/en/download

   1. No need to install the extra tools

4. Install MCP-Unity in Unity (https://github.com/CoderGamester/mcp-unity) - only if the project doesn’t already have an MCP

   1. Open Unity package, click + and add git, enter: https://github.com/CoderGamester/mcp-unity.git

      1. If you don’t have Git installed, install it here first (https://git-scm.com)

   2. It has its own setup instructions and troubleshooting if you are looking for more details visit - https://github.com/CoderGamester/mcp-unity

   3. There are a few different MCP packages that exist, this one works best for us (open source, clean and straightforward to modify), but many others will work and hopefully Unity will release an official one soon

5. Restart Computer

6. Open your Unity project, select Tools->MCP Unity->Server Window

7. Click Stop Server within the Server Window

8. Create Claude Folder (if missing)

   1. C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Claude

   2. Sometimes after a fresh install this folder is missing

9. Within Server Window, click Configure Claude Desktop, then Force Server Installation, then Start Server

10. Open Claude Desktop

11. Go to Settings→Developer→Local MCP Servers and check to make sure you have one configured and then return to Claude home

12. Click Code button in the top middle of Claude Desktop

13. Select your Unity project in Claude Code

    1. Click Select folder button below the prompt field and navigate to the root of your project

    2. Ex: C:\Users\[username]\wkspaces\MyProject

To test within Claude write something like “Add GameObject called Bob to the scene”. After it runs if you click on your Unity project you should see a GameObject titled ‘Bob’ in the scene.

Next posts will dive into learnings and custom setups to improve development.

I'd love to hear about different setups and custom MCP’s people have tried and liked.