Three ways an AI works with QuanterLab, and each does one job. Expecting one to do another's job is the mistake this page exists to prevent. None of them is required: the platform works with a browser and nothing else.
The map
| Quantin, in the platform | Claude or ChatGPT, through the hosted connector | Your own assistant, at QuanterLab Desktop | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A chat assistant inside the web app, in every plan. | A hosted MCP server that your claude.ai or ChatGPT account connects to. | The engine and the canvas on your machine, with a local MCP server that Claude Desktop or Claude Code connects to. |
| It can | Explain primitives, methods and results; read your saved work; argue against weak evidence. Four lenses: Skeptic, Tutor, Librarian, Mathematician. | Read the catalog, list your saved work, poll progress, summarise results, and search and quote the published papers. | Build and run circuits, walk a registered study window by window, compile it, and submit it to the platform as a draft. |
| It cannot | Run anything. It is a guide. | Start a run. Compute does not happen on our servers through it. | Publish, and see the bars: it receives results, never a price series. Custom primitives are closed to it. |
| Where the compute is | None. | None. | Your machine. |
| What you need | A QuanterLab account. | A claude.ai account that can add custom connectors, or a ChatGPT account with developer mode on (free accounts included, as of September 2026). | QuanterLab Desktop, and Claude Desktop or Claude Code installed on the same machine under your own Anthropic account. |
| How to start | Open it inside the platform. | The setup steps, four for each. | Install, sign in once, then open Assistant in the desk's top bar. Download and setup. |
A common question
Through the hosted connector an assistant reads and summarises. It can tell you which of your backtests had the deepest drawdown and open the paper you are thinking of; it cannot start a run, because compute on our servers is reserved for the app. At the desktop the assistant builds, runs and walks, because the compute is your machine and the data stays inside the engine there. If you want an AI to run research for you, the desktop is the surface that does it.
Under the hood
Quantin runs on Anthropic's Claude Haiku 4.5, as of September 2026. Add your own Anthropic API key in Settings and it switches to Claude Sonnet 5, billed to your key; the key is stored encrypted and read only during a chat turn. The connector and the desktop use whatever model your own Claude or ChatGPT account runs. The platform does not pick that model and does not pay for it.
Which account
Keeping it clean
An assistant that can build and run will also cut corners unless told where they are. Four short skill files name the traps (look-ahead, survivorship, uncharged costs, multiple testing), the shape of a project that stays legible, the shape of a progress report without invented findings, and the bones of a paper. They are on the connector page, and they are plain Markdown any assistant can read.
Documentation