Deploy ChatMD Studio to your company’s PCs.

Install on many PCs

ChatMD Studio is a Microsoft Store app, and this guide only covers the Store route. Without our own code-signing certificate, a downloaded installer would trigger SmartScreen warnings and most IT deployment tools refuse an unsigned one outright — the Store needs no certificate of ours, which is why it is the one route offered here for 2.1.

winget install --id 9N3KGMG61MMV --source msstore

ChatMD Studio in the Microsoft Store

Policies

ChatMD Studio reads its settings from the registry path below — the standard place Group Policy and Intune write application settings for a packaged app. It reads them before its window opens, when Settings is opened, and every 15 minutes while it runs. A setting that becomes stricter applies at once, letting a request already in flight finish; a setting that becomes looser waits until ChatMD Studio is started again.

HKLM\Software\Policies\ChatMD\Studio

HKCU at the same path is read too, but it can only make a setting stricter than what HKLM says — never looser, and never a different value. A copy-on-write per-user registry hive proves nothing about who wrote it, so it is never trusted to loosen anything, and it never carries the deployment code or the licence key below.

Download the policy templates (ADMX/ADML): the ADMX file, plus an ADML file for each of English, German, Spanish, French and Polish.

Set-ChatMDAIRules.ps1 writes settings files into other vendors’ system folders (C:\Program Files\ClaudeCode, C:\ProgramData\OpenAI\Codex, C:\ProgramData\gemini-cli). It must run elevated. It makes those apps more restrictive for every user and project on the PC, not only in vaults. It never writes Claude Code’s managed-mcp.json. It never sends anything anywhere.

Every setting has a loosest value and a most restrictive one. A company's team page can only make a setting as strict as Windows policy already made it, never looser. A setting this build does not understand takes its most restrictive value and is reported in Settings, rather than being ignored.

Cursor Agent is not offered in this version of ChatMD Studio. The policy table still lists its code, so a setting that names it is read as before.

Enrolling PCs

To add the PCs to this licence without typing anything, create a deployment code from your team page's Deploy section and set it as the EnrollmentCode value under HKLM\Software\Policies\ChatMD\Studio. Each PC redeems it when ChatMD Studio starts and takes a free seat.

Anyone who can sign in to a PC can read that policy value, so a copied deployment code could add another PC until you withdraw it. For PCs that cannot reach chatmdstudio.com, the key itself can go in the LicenceKey value instead, but then every user of that PC can read the key.

Our website records up to 30 activations and daily checks for each key an hour, or twice the key’s seats if that is more. A PC past that still starts Studio, and is counted at its next check.

Honest limit: both routes rely on Windows policy being the strictest thing set. A person who can edit files in their own profile — not the registry, which needs an administrator — can still remove the team page's settings on their own PC and fall back to whatever Windows policy alone enforces. For a PC where an AI feature must never run even once, set it through Windows policy, not the team page alone.

What each PC sends over the network

This is the same list ChatMD Studio shows on the PC itself, under Settings › Privacy, generated here from the app's own source so it cannot silently gain an undeclared destination. The Closed by column names the setting above that can turn a destination off; where it is blank, no policy closes that connection, and it is listed here rather than left unsaid.

Cursor Agent is not offered in this version of ChatMD Studio. Its row stays in this list so the list matches the policy table.

What ChatMD writes into a shared team folder

In a team folder, ChatMD writes small files into the folder’s hidden .chatmd folder, and your sync service carries them like any other file. Nothing in them reaches ChatMD.

One file for each PC shows who has a note open: the person’s display name, the PC’s name, which notes are open (as codes made from their paths) and the time, refreshed every two minutes. The Showing who has a note open control turns it off.

Each person’s save journal records every save made in ChatMD: the time, the note’s path and a fingerprint of its contents, plus the display name and the PC’s name while showing who has a note open is on. Your sync service may keep earlier versions of these files.

Claude Code on the web, inside ChatMD

With Claude Code as the AI tool, Ask can search the web and read web pages, and whole-note editor assist can suggest changes. Claude Code asks ChatMD before each search, each new site and each change, and ChatMD asks the person. Each person may choose to always allow web search, named sites or any site, and to apply suggestions without review, in Settings › AI on their PC; every use is still listed in the conversation. The Web inside ChatMD setting above (AllowAIWebInChatMD) decides how far they may go: allow-always-ok (the default) lets them choose; ask keeps every search, site and change asked, with no always and no apply without review; off turns the web off, and Ask answers from notes only.

ChatMD answers Claude Code through a small helper that listens on this PC only (127.0.0.1, a new port and key for each conversation), under the path /chatmd-session/. Where Claude Code’s managed-mcp.json is deployed, Claude Code cannot load that helper, so web in Ask and whole-note suggestions are unavailable on those PCs; Ask still answers from notes and editor assist still works on a selection.

Where Claude Code’s managed settings allow only listed MCP servers, add this entry for ChatMD’s helper:

{"serverUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:*/chatmd-session/*"}

Settings at each AI company that affect ChatMD Studio

Each person’s AI runs under their own account or key, so your organisation’s settings at each AI company decide what works. These are the ones we know of, from each company’s own documentation as read on 3 October 2026. They change, so when something stops working, check the source under each heading.

OpenAI API keys

A restricted key needs read access to models (api.model.read) for the model list and for “Check at provider” in Secrets. Ask needs only one more permission: Responses: Write (measured on 4 October 2026 with a restricted key; Chat completions is not needed). Every other permission can stay at None.

OpenAI answers 429 for a reached spend limit, for credit that has run out and for a usage limit, each with its own error code, as well as for too many requests at once. Trying again in a moment helps only with too many requests at once.

A project with data residency, for example in Europe, is reached at its own regional address, such as eu.api.openai.com. A key stored in Secrets always goes to api.openai.com, so for such a project set Your organisation’s AI to https://eu.api.openai.com/v1 in OpenAI format instead. Projects that need mutual TLS (mtls.api.openai.com with a client certificate) are not supported.

ChatMD Studio asks OpenAI not to store conversations (store: false), with a stored key and through Your organisation’s AI on an OpenAI address. This does not change how long OpenAI keeps requests for abuse monitoring.

Source: developers.openai.com/api/docs

xAI API keys

xAI keys are deny-by-default: a key can do only what its own permissions allow. Listing models is a permission of its own (models). A key with only the Chat endpoint answers Ask, web search included (measured on 4 October 2026); without Models, the model list and “Check at provider” in Secrets cannot work. xAI’s mutual-TLS address (mtls.api.x.ai) is not supported.

Source: docs.x.ai

Claude API keys

A key that is not tied to one workspace must name a workspace on every request, or Anthropic refuses it. Create each person’s key inside one workspace. Through Your organisation’s AI, you can instead send the workspace as a fixed header:

anthropic-workspace-id: wrkspc_…

Fable and Mythos need 30-day data retention, so an organisation with zero data retention cannot use them.

Source: platform.claude.com/docs

Codex in a ChatGPT workspace

A workspace admin must turn on “Allow members to use Codex locally”, or Codex will not run on members’ PCs, ChatMD Studio’s runs included.

Your workspace’s Codex requirements override the settings ChatMD Studio passes to Codex. Where they do not allow what ChatMD asks for, such as its approval or web search setting, Codex falls back to a setting they allow.

GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Sol and Luna are off by default in Enterprise and Edu workspaces.

Codex’s documentation has moved: the old developers.openai.com/codex pages now lead to learn.chatgpt.com/docs.

Source: learn.chatgpt.com/docs

Claude Code on managed PCs

Three of Claude Code’s managed settings can change or stop what ChatMD Studio runs through it:

• allowManagedPermissionRulesOnly: Claude Code ignores the permission rules ChatMD sets for its runs and follows only yours, including whether it asks before reading a web page.
• Managed hooks run inside ChatMD’s runs too, and ChatMD cannot turn them off. A hook that answers permission requests can answer before ChatMD asks the person.
• disableSideloadFlags: Claude Code exits instead of starting a conversation that loads ChatMD’s helper (passed with --mcp-config), so web in Ask and whole-note suggestions stop working on that PC.

Source: code.claude.com/docs

Antigravity

Google says Antigravity is for personal Google accounts. Google’s terms may not allow another company’s app, such as ChatMD Studio, to use Antigravity’s sign-in, and Google may suspend an account it finds breaking them. To keep Antigravity off company PCs, leave antigravity out of AI tools allowed (AllowedAIProviders).

Source: antigravity.google/terms

Verify on one PC before rolling out further

Before applying a policy across your fleet, confirm it reaches an actual ChatMD Studio window: an ordinary registry write does not by itself prove a packaged Store app can see it.

1. As an administrator, run: reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\ChatMD\Studio" /v AIMode /t REG_SZ /d off /f
2. Start ChatMD Studio from the Start menu. Starting the installed program file directly skips the Store identity and would pass this check either way.
3. Open Settings › Privacy. A Managed settings section should list AI, set to Off by Windows policy.
4. Remove the test value: reg delete "HKLM\Software\Policies\ChatMD\Studio" /v AIMode /f, then start ChatMD Studio again. The Managed settings section should be gone.

Import the policy templates into a test Group Policy object, or a test group of one device in Intune, and repeat this check there before pointing either at every PC.

Updates and uninstalling

Updates come through the Microsoft Store, the same as any other Store app; ChatMD Studio has no update setting of its own. Whatever already controls Store updates for your organisation, through Intune or Group Policy, controls updates for ChatMD Studio too.

In the Microsoft Store version, uninstalling removes the application and its own data. A vault is an ordinary folder of files, wherever a person chose to open it, never inside the app's own install or profile folder, so removing ChatMD Studio does not touch it.