Use AI apps with Crucible (the Agent tab)

The Agent tab in the Crucible launcher has three parts:

Local Agent, a small AI that runs on your own PC and answers questions about Crucible, Rust maps and local servers. It can also do simple things for you, like opening an app or starting a server.
Activity, the list of everything an AI did in Crucible, with the cards that wait for your OK.
Connect, where you hook up an AI app you already use (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others) so it can work in Crucible for you: open and update your apps, build and export a Rust map in Crucible Heightmap, and run a local Rust test server in Crucible Local Server.

App windows stay on your screen the whole time, so you watch the AI work.

The Local Agent

The Local Agent is free and runs entirely on your PC. Nothing is installed until you ask.

Choosing a model

Open Agent, then Local Agent. The first screen shows your graphics card, its memory (VRAM) and your PC’s RAM, and the three models the Local Agent can run, all by the Qwen team:

Model	Answers	Download	Graphics memory
Standard (Qwen3.5-2B)	the fastest	about 1.2 GB	about 2.0 GB, or runs on the processor
Smarter (Qwen3.5-4B)	better, with fewer mistakes	about 3.8 GB	about 3.6 GB, graphics card only
Best (Qwen3.5-9B)	the best, slower again	about 6.5 GB	about 5.9 GB, graphics card only

One model is marked Recommended for your card (a star in the Model menu). Leave room on the graphics card for Rust and the in-game view (on at first) decides which:

On suggests a model that leaves most of the card free, so Rust or Heightmap’s in-game view run smoothly beside it.
Off suggests the biggest model your card can hold.

Pick any model your card has room for, then press Install. Smarter and Best come with Standard, which answers while Rust or the in-game view leaves no room on the graphics card; the sizes above include it. If the download stops, Continue install picks it up where it stopped.

Then press Load to put the model in memory and ask your question.

What it knows and does

It knows how Crucible works and what each slider and button does. Links to the pages it used show under each answer.

It also knows Rust itself, the same as the Rust game reference: console commands, server variables, items with their shortnames, stack sizes and crafting recipes, prefab paths, and the basics of Oxide and Carbon plugins, kept current with each Rust update. Ask it “what is the command to turn off decay” or “what is the prefab for a large wood box”.

When the docs do not cover a question, like raiding costs or what the latest Rust update added, it says it does not know instead of guessing, and points you somewhere that does: the Crucible Discord, RustHelp, Facepunch’s update news, or a quick Google or YouTube search.

It can also do simple things when you ask in plain words: open, close, install or update Crucible Heightmap or Crucible Local Server, make a new map or export the current one for RustEdit, start, stop or restart a local server, open your exports, projects, seeds, imports or logs folder, list the free downloads, and check your PC’s memory. It does these straight away; to have it show its plan and wait for your Allow first, see What does it ask me first?.

It can also do a few jobs that take several steps from one request:

Set up a server: describe it (“a 4k PvE server for 10 players with Oxide, called Test”) and it makes the server, sets its map (a procedural one with your size and seed, or your newest Heightmap export), applies the settings you named, downloads the server files and starts it. Say “make me admin” and the Steam account signed in on this PC is made the server’s owner; say “and join it when it’s up” and it waits for the world to finish loading, starts Rust and joins, then tells you in the chat (out loud too, with voice on). You can keep using the launcher while it waits.
Map onto a server: puts your newest Heightmap export on a server and starts it, and joins it once it is up if you ask.
Server settings: changes a server’s players, PvE, game mode, name or description.

Each one only fills in what you said: a name, size or seed you did not give is never made up. Bigger jobs, like building a whole map step by step or painting, are for an AI app you connect in Connect. If Crucible Heightmap or Crucible Local Server is older than the Local Agent can work with, it says so: close the app, press Update on it in Apps, then open it again.

When the answer is a place, it shows you: ask where to cancel your subscription and the launcher switches to Account, ask it to open the shop and it switches to Shop. With Heightmap open, it can switch Heightmap between the 2D map, the 3D preview and the in-game view.

Voice

The Local Agent can read its answers aloud as it writes them, and you can talk to it instead of typing. The voice comes with Install (about 0.5 GB more).

Voice, in the bar above the chat, turns Read answers aloud on or off and picks one of ten voices (choosing one plays a sample), the Volume, the Speed and the Microphone. Sending a message, switching chats or pressing the pause button cuts a reading off.
The mic button beside Send: press it and speak, then press it again or just stop talking. Your words land in the box, so you can check them before you send.
Hands-free, in the Voice menu: the Local Agent listens for “Hey” and the name of the voice you chose (“Hey Luna”), then does what you say and reads the answer aloud, with no button to press. When it hears the name, a short tone plays and the mic button turns red. Say it all in one go (“Hey Luna, start my server”), or say the name, wait for the tone, then the rest. “Hey Luna, stop” stops it talking. It keeps listening with the launcher minimized or behind a game. While hands-free is on, the mic button mutes and unmutes the microphone.

If the mic button does nothing, Windows may be blocking the microphone: turn on Microphone access and Let desktop apps access your microphone in Windows Settings > Privacy & security > Microphone. Chinese answers are not read aloud.

Graphics card or processor

When you press Load, the Local Agent runs on your graphics card when it has room, which is fastest, and on your processor when it does not. The chip beside Eject shows which one it is using.

The strip under the buttons shows, live, how much graphics memory (VRAM) and RAM your PC is using, with the Local Agent’s own share in lime, how full this chat’s Context is, and how fast it writes (tokens per second).

Model: switching later

Model switches between Standard, Smarter and Best at any time; your chats carry over. Each row shows how much space that model takes on your PC, and a star marks the one recommended for your card.

A model not on your PC yet shows a download mark. Choosing it brings back the setup screen with a progress bar until it is downloaded, then the chat returns.
The bin icon beside Smarter or Best removes that model from your PC and frees its space. Standard stays, and choosing the model again downloads it back.

Smarter and Best run on the graphics card only. When the card does not have room for the one you chose, for example while the in-game view is open, a smaller model answers instead and the Model button turns gold to say so; close something heavy, then press Eject and Load.

Memory: how much of a chat it keeps in mind

Memory sets how much of a chat the Local Agent keeps in mind at once:

Setting	Keeps in mind	Graphics memory: Standard	Smarter	Best
Automatic (default)	set for your PC	about 2.0 GB	3.6 GB	5.9 GB
Short	8k tokens	about 1.9 GB	3.4 GB	5.6 GB
Medium	16k tokens	about 2.0 GB	3.6 GB	5.9 GB
Long	32k tokens	about 2.1 GB	4.2 GB	6.4 GB
Longest	64k tokens	about 2.5 GB	5.2 GB	7.4 GB

More lets it follow longer chats and longer multi-step work. When a chat fills up, the oldest messages drop out of the model’s memory, never out of the chat itself.

Chats

New chat starts a fresh one. Chats are grouped by week this month and by month before that. Click a group to open or close it, and the bin icon deletes one chat or a whole group.

Rust and the Local Agent

Rust and the Local Agent share your graphics card and memory. If Rust is open when you press Load, or Rust starts while the model is loaded, the launcher comes to the front and recommends closing Rust while you chat. Eject gives all the memory back.

Eject, update, remove

Eject unloads the model. Your chats stay.
Update appears when a newer Local Agent is published.
Remove Local Agent, at the foot of the chat list, removes the Local Agent from your PC. Your chats stay, and the first screen comes back so you can choose a model again.

How do I connect an AI app?

Open Agent, then Connect. The launcher lists the AI apps it finds on your PC:

Connect adds Crucible to that app. Restart the AI app, or start a new chat in it, so it loads Crucible.
Undo takes Crucible back out.
Repair shows when an app points at a Crucible install that has moved; it points it at this one.
Not on this PC means the app is not installed.

The list covers Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Antigravity, Windsurf, Gemini CLI and LM Studio. These are AI apps that run on your PC (in a terminal, an editor or a desktop app); a chat website in a browser cannot reach apps on your PC.

Another AI app works with any app that runs local MCP servers, including ones that do not exist yet. Copy setup copies the standard MCP setup block:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crucible": {
      "command": "<the Crucible program on your PC>",
      "args": ["--mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Paste it into that app’s MCP settings, or paste it to the AI agent itself and ask it to add Crucible. The copied block already has the right path for your PC.

You do not need to open the launcher first.

What can a connected AI app do in Crucible?

The launcher: see what is installed and running, install and update apps, open them, check your PC’s free memory, search these docs, and save the free plugins, prefabs and maps (you pick the folder).
Crucible Heightmap (open, with a license that covers it): read and change any setting by its on-screen name, conjure a new map, work with islands, run worldgen, add ramps and channels, paint, turn a picture in your imports folder into an island, take a picture of the map or of the in-game view, save and open projects and seeds, and export through the same Export panel you use.
Crucible Local Server (open): create servers (vanilla, staging, creative, Carbon or Oxide), download their files, change settings, start, stop and restart them, run console commands and read the console, list players, put your newest Heightmap export on a server, manage plugins, make backups and wipes, and start Rust to join.

A map position in Heightmap is given on the map picture: left to right and top to bottom, with north at the top, the way you see it.

What does it ask me first?

Anything that cannot be undone waits for you. A card appears in Agent > Activity (or beside the Local Agent’s chat, for its own requests), the launcher comes to the front, and the AI waits until you press Allow or Deny. Deny tells it you said no. That covers, among others:

replacing a Heightmap map that has unsaved changes,
wipes, restoring a backup and deleting a backup,
installing a plugin from a link (it is someone else’s code running in your server) and deleting one,
replacing server.cfg or the launch arguments,
console commands that change the server (reading commands like status run straight away),
closing an app while a server is running,
the Local Agent closing Crucible Local Server while a server runs.

The Local Agent starts, stops and sets up servers straight away. To have it show its plan in one card and wait for Allow first, press Local Agent acts without asking in Activity, so it reads Local Agent asks before acting. Wipes, deletes and anything that would lose unsaved work always ask.

Allow everything this session lets connected AI apps’ changes through without a card until the launcher closes. It is never saved and does not change the Local Agent.

What can it never do?

Buy anything or see your license key. Purchases and licenses stay in the launcher’s Shop and Account tabs.
Read a password. Your servers’ RCON passwords stay hidden from AI apps.
Start a step your PC has no room for. When your PC is short on memory for a step, Crucible says what is using it, so you can decide what to close.

How do I stop it?

Stop, at the right of the Agent tab, refuses everything AI apps and the Local Agent ask to do until you press Resume, and it holds across a launcher restart. A download already running finishes, so no app is left half updated. To stop the Local Agent mid-answer, press the pause button where Send was.

Activity lists every request: which AI made it, what it asked for, and how it went.

Is my data shared?

The Local Agent runs on your PC. Your chats stay on your PC, and nothing you type or say is sent anywhere.

A connected AI app gets Crucible’s answers on your PC and nothing else. What that app does with them (map pictures, settings, server state) follows that app’s own policy, the same as anything else you show it. It never gets your license key or your passwords.

Where do I see what happened?

Save for support in Settings includes what AI apps did, for when you need help. See install and update the Crucible launcher for where the launcher lives on your PC.