Content Planning Studio Setup Guide for Any AI

The packaged app is a Windows program, so it will not open on a Mac, and these guides cover the Windows app only.

Content Planning Studio is built with Django, so a developer can run it from source on another system. That route is not covered here. If a Mac is your only computer today, the practical answer is a Windows PC. A modest second-hand laptop is enough, because the app is light and your data is one database file.

Claude Desktop itself runs on a Mac, but the link the app installs for it (CPStudio-mcp.exe) is a Windows file, so the Claude route needs the app on a Windows PC too.

Windows treats any new app it has not seen many times before with suspicion, which is why you get the blue "Windows protected your PC" screen. It does not mean the app is faulty. Click More info, then Run anyway. Windows remembers your choice for that file.

If there is no Run anyway button, or nothing happens, work through these in order:

1. Check you extracted the zip into a folder first. Running the .exe from inside the zip does not work.
2. Right-click the original zip file, choose Properties, and tick Unblock at the bottom if you see it. Press OK, then extract again into a new folder.
3. If your antivirus removed or quarantined a file, restore it from the antivirus history and add the app folder to its allowed list. Then try again.
4. Make sure the whole folder is together. CPStudio.exe will not start without the _internal folder next to it.

The first time, the app has real work to do: it creates your database, loads the example content, the Training pages and the content recipes, and checks for a Claude Desktop connection. That normally takes a few seconds, and can take up to a minute on a slow disk. Later launches are quicker, because that setup is already done.

Do not keep double-clicking the icon, as that can open several copies. Give it a minute. If the window is still blank after two minutes, close it from the taskbar and open it once more. If it still fails, open %LOCALAPPDATA%\ProductTracker, find the file startup.log, and send its contents to support. It records each setup step and which one failed.

Work through these in order, and stop when it works:

1. Fully quit Claude Desktop. Right-click the Claude icon near your clock and choose Quit, then open it again. Closing the window is not enough, because Claude only loads new tools when it restarts.
2. Check you are in the right place. It must be the Claude Desktop app, signed in, and you must be in a New Chat, not Cowork. The browser version and the phone app cannot use the connection.
3. Press Reconnect. In the app, open Settings and find Claude Desktop connection. Press Reconnect, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop again. This rewrites the connection if you moved or updated the app folder.
4. Look at the status. The same Settings card shows the last result. It also tells you if Claude Desktop was not installed when the app first looked for it. The app keeps retrying, so opening Claude Desktop later usually connects it without reopening the app.
5. Ask Claude to help. Use the third prompt above and send it the claude_connect.log file from %LOCALAPPDATA%\ProductTracker. Each line records one attempt and its result.

This message means the app could not find a working AI key to use. There are four usual causes:

• The provider is not marked Active. A saved key with Active unticked is never used. Open AI Settings, tick Active next to the provider, and save.
• The key was not saved. Paste it into the matching provider's field. A key for one provider will not work in another's field.
• The key is no longer valid, or your account with that provider has no credit. Create a fresh key on the provider's website, or check your billing there.
• The provider is set to Off. Off keeps your keys saved but stops anything calling a provider. Pick one again.

Press Test connection after each change. If you would rather not use a key at all, connect Claude Desktop instead, which uses your Claude plan.

No. Tasks and habits, pages and notes, products, the content calendar, the dashboard, the backup button and the reminder email all work with no AI at all. You can run a whole content calendar by hand.

You need one of the two AI routes for the parts that write for you: the 30-Day and 90-Day Content Plan chats, the Generate panels, the Assistant, the Email Specialist and the carousel text. You can add AI at any point without losing or redoing anything. Many people look around with no AI for a day or two first, and that is a sensible way to start.

Your data is a database file and a media folder in %LOCALAPPDATA%\ProductTracker on your own computer. That holds your websites, products, assets, plans, tasks and uploaded files. The folder keeps the name from an earlier version of the app on purpose, so nobody loses their work. Please do not rename it.

Nothing is sent anywhere except to the AI provider you chose, and only when you use an AI feature. What is sent is the text needed for that request, such as your asset text and your brief. With your own key, that goes to OpenAI, Anthropic or Google. With Claude Desktop, your chat goes through Claude. Your API key is stored encrypted and is never sent anywhere except to its own provider.

1. On the old computer, press Backup everything in Settings and copy the zip file to a USB drive or cloud drive.
2. On the new computer, unzip the app into a permanent folder, open CPStudio.exe once so it creates its data folder, then close it.
3. Open %LOCALAPPDATA%\ProductTracker. Replace db.sqlite3 and the media folder with the ones inside your backup zip.
4. Open the app again. Your websites, plans and assets should all be there.
5. Set up your AI again. Your key is stored encrypted for the old computer, so add it again in AI Settings, and for Claude Desktop, open the app once so it reconnects, then restart Claude Desktop.

Press Backup everything first, so you have a safe copy. Then unzip the new download into a new folder and open its CPStudio.exe. Your data sits outside the app folder, so it carries over, and the app updates its database on first launch. You can delete the old app folder once you have checked everything is there.

If you use Claude Desktop, the connection still points at the old folder. Open Settings in the new app, press Reconnect under Claude Desktop connection, and fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop once.