Dials — a behavior control panel for Claude

Give Claude a set of 0–10 sliders — rigor, verification, verbosity, autonomy — that it reads over MCP and actually follows. Tune how Claude works from the outside, as data, instead of re-typing "be more thorough / just ship it / double-check everything" in every chat. The settings persist across sessions and work in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and claude.ai.

Free. MIT. Zero dependencies.

On claude.ai? Get a free hosted connector (no signup) at https://dial.kestudios.dev — generate a token, paste the endpoint + token into a custom connector, done.

In Claude Code / Desktop? One line:

claude mcp add dials -- npx -y github:willykeenan/claude-dials

---

Why

How Claude behaves is normally buried in prose — system prompts, CLAUDE.md, whatever you remember to say. Prose can't be dialed. Dials turns the tunable dimensions into numbered sliders exposed as MCP tools + a resource. Slide one, and every task after it changes. That's a control plane for the model, not a notes file.

The dials

Dial	0	10
Rigor	quick first-pass	exhaustive reasoning
Context depth	act on the prompt alone	read the full surrounding context first
Verification	assert it's done	run it and show evidence
Self-review	ship the first draft	adversarial critique before delivering
Verbosity	one-liner	exhaustive explanation
Autonomy	ask before acting	just do it, report after
Novelty	proven patterns only	bleeding-edge
Caution	move fast	treat as if it'll be reviewed

Each value maps to a concrete instruction (see dials://schema), so Claude gets an unambiguous directive, not a vibe.

Presets

• default — balanced baseline
• fable — maximum rigor: read everything, verify with evidence, self-critique; terse replies, meticulous work
• ship — fast and autonomous, for low-stakes velocity
• careful — high-stakes: verify everything, ask before acting, max caution
• explore — research/prototyping: reach wide, try new things

Tools

get_dials · set_dial(dial, value) · apply_preset(preset) · list_presets · explain_dial(dial) · reset_dials

And a resource dials://current (the live settings as Markdown) + dials://schema (full JSON), plus a load-dials prompt.

Install

Client	How
Claude Code	claude mcp add dials -- npx -y github:willykeenan/claude-dials — details
Claude Desktop	add the snippet in configs/claude_desktop_config.json
claude.ai	free hosted connector — generate one at dial.kestudios.dev, or self-host src/http.mjs (details)

Drop CLAUDE.md into a repo to make Claude read your dials at the start of every task.

Use it

"get my dials" · "set rigor to 9" · "apply the careful preset" · "explain the autonomy dial"

Or just talk: "double-check everything from now on" → Claude bumps verification.

Design notes

• Zero dependencies. The MCP wire protocol (JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio + Streamable HTTP) is implemented directly. No SDK, no supply-chain surface, instant npx.
• State lives at ~/.claude-dials/state.json (override with DIALS_STATE_FILE). Corrupt or missing state falls back to defaults — a config tool must never take down the client.
• Remote auth. The HTTP transport takes an optional DIALS_TOKEN bearer token; unset = open (local dev only).

Verify it yourself

npm test

Spawns the real server over stdio and drives a full JSON-RPC handshake — 25 assertions across initialize, tools, resources, prompts, persistence, and error paths.

License

MIT — built by KE Studios. https://dials.kestudios.dev