How to install Epic's official Unreal Engine plugin in Claude Code and drive the editor

Unreal Engine Skills (unreal-engine-skills-for-claude-code) is Epic Games' plugin for Claude Code. It connects to the Unreal Editor over MCP and lets Claude work directly with 30+ toolsets, including actors, Blueprints, materials, Niagara, Sequencer, UMG widgets and automation tests. It's listed in Anthropic's official marketplace, claude-plugins-official.

1. Install the plugin in Claude Code.

/plugin install unreal-engine-skills-for-claude-code@claude-plugins-official

If the official marketplace is missing, add it first.

/plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official

To roll it out to a team, add this to the project's .claude/settings.json and commit it. Anyone who trusts the folder is prompted to install it.

{
  "enabledPlugins": {
    "unreal-engine-skills-for-claude-code@claude-plugins-official": true
  }
}

1. In the project's .uproject file, enable both ModelContextProtocol and AllToolsets in the Plugins array. Without AllToolsets the server starts but exposes no tools.

{ "Name": "ModelContextProtocol", "Enabled": true },
{ "Name": "AllToolsets", "Enabled": true }

1. Launch the editor, start the MCP server from the console, then generate the .mcp.json Claude Code reads. The default endpoint is localhost:8000/mcp; if the port is taken, pass another port number after StartServer. Regenerate the config whenever the port changes.

ModelContextProtocol.StartServer
ModelContextProtocol.GenerateClientConfig ClaudeCode

To start the server on every editor launch, add this to <Project>/Saved/Config/<Platform>Editor/EditorPerProjectUserSettings.ini.

[/Script/ModelContextProtocolEngine.ModelContextProtocolSettings]
bAutoStartServer=True

1. In Claude Code, run /mcp to confirm unreal-mcp is connected, then try "List all actors in the current level".

The plugin also exposes a tool that runs Python inside the editor (execute_tool_script). The README recommends saving and committing before long sessions and not combining the plugin with --dangerously-skip-permissions. It works out of the box on macOS and Linux; on Windows the SessionStart hook needs Git Bash or WSL.