Integrations

Clustta connects to your existing creative pipeline through two main mechanisms: a Kitsu integration for production tracking, and a DCC Bridge local API for plugin development.

Kitsu (CGWire)

Kitsu is the open-source production tracking platform from CGWire - widely used in animation studios. Clustta integrates with Kitsu so production metadata (statuses, assignments, assets) can stay in sync between the two systems.

Why integrate

If your studio already runs Kitsu for production tracking, you don't have to choose between Kitsu and Clustta - they coexist:

• Kitsu continues to be your source of truth for production planning, scheduling, breakdowns, and reviews.
• Clustta handles the actual file versioning, sync, and asset access on artists' machines.
• The integration keeps statuses and assignments in sync so your producers don't have to update both systems.

Setting it up

1. In Clustta, open Project Settings → Integrations → Kitsu.
2. Provide your Kitsu instance URL, API user credentials, and the Kitsu project ID to link to.
3. Map Clustta collections to Kitsu episodes/sequences/asset categories.
4. Map Clustta assets to Kitsu shots/assets.
5. Save.

Once connected:

• Status changes in Clustta propagate to Kitsu (and vice versa, depending on your sync direction settings).
• Assignments stay synchronized.
• Mapping is by ID, so renames don't break the link.

What's not synced

• File contents stay in Clustta. Kitsu was never meant to store source files.
• Checkpoint history stays in Clustta.
• Comments and reviews stay in Kitsu (its review tooling is excellent).

DCC Bridge

The DCC Bridge is a local HTTP REST server built into the Clustta desktop client. It exposes project data - accounts, studios, projects, collections, assets, checkpoints - as REST endpoints so DCC tools can query and interact with Clustta programmatically.

Why a local HTTP API

DCC plugin development is normally painful: every tool has its own scripting language, its own threading model, its own way of being called from outside. By exposing Clustta as a local HTTP server, we hand off all that complexity to the tool's own HTTP libraries:

• Blender can hit it from a Python addon
• Maya from a requests-based script
• Unreal from Blueprint or C++ HTTP nodes
• Houdini, Nuke, Substance - anything that can make an HTTP request

This means plugin developers don't need to link against Clustta's binary, navigate platform-specific IPC, or deal with our internal data formats. They get clean JSON over HTTP.

Where it runs

The bridge runs on 127.0.0.1:1173 (loopback only - never exposed to the network). It comes up automatically when the Clustta desktop client is running.

What it exposes

Read-only endpoints for:

• Authentication / current user
• Studios you have access to
• Projects in each studio
• Collections and their nesting
• Assets, including types, tags, statuses, assignees
• Checkpoints - version history, authors, comments
• Working folder paths so the plugin knows where files are on disk

Write endpoints for common operations are being expanded; the current model favors reading project data and letting the user perform writes through the desktop UI.

Authentication

The bridge ties into the desktop app's logged-in session. If no user is signed in, the bridge returns 401. There's no separate token model - the local app is the source of trust.

Building a plugin

1. Make sure the desktop client is running.
2. Hit GET http://127.0.0.1:1173/api/v1/projects for example.
3. Parse the JSON. Build your UI in the DCC tool. Use the data.

A reference plugin and OpenAPI spec are in the works. For now, the client repo under internal/bridge shows the available endpoints.

Roadmap

• Public REST API with documented OpenAPI schema (currently the bridge is internal-stable, not external-stable)
• Webhook system so external tools can react to Clustta events (sync, checkpoint, status change)
• First-party plugins for Blender, Maya, and Unreal (the bridge is the foundation; plugins are the next layer)
• More production tracker integrations (Shotgrid, Ftrack)