From zero to your first AI-assisted change.

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit on the engineering PC.
• Siemens TIA Portal V19 or V21, licensed, with the Openness option installed (it is part of the TIA Portal setup). Preview build for TIA Portal V19 only. V21 support comes with the full release.
• Your Windows user in the local group “Siemens TIA Openness”. The installer adds you; sign out and back in once afterwards.
• An AI app that supports MCP: Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code.
• Administrator rights for the install (Windows asks once).

Option A, one line. Open PowerShell (no need to run it as administrator) and paste:

irm https://tiatool.dev/install.ps1 | iex

The script downloads the installer, checks its SHA-256 against the published checksum, and starts setup. It stops if the checksum doesn't match.

Option B, manual. Download TIATool-Setup.exe, then verify it against the SHA-256 published on /download.sha256 before you run it:

Get-FileHash .\TIATool-Setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256

The hash must match the published one exactly. If it doesn't, don't run the file and email us. The preview installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows may warn before running it; the checksum is how you know the file is ours.

What setup does:

1. Installs to C:\Program Files\TIATool and adds that folder to your PATH.
2. Detects which TIA Portal Openness versions are on the PC.
3. Adds you to “Siemens TIA Openness”.
4. Runs tiax-agent init as you: a PC check, your licence key, and registration in Claude Desktop, Cursor and VS Code. The log is in %LOCALAPPDATA%\TIATool\install-init.log.

Nothing is uploaded: TIATool runs on your PC. It uses the Openness files of your own TIA Portal installation.

Open a new terminal (so the PATH change applies) and check the PC:

tiax-agent doctor

It reports TIA Portal, Openness, your group membership and the licence state. Fix anything it flags before going on.

To run the first-run steps again (PC check, licence, AI app registration):

tiax-agent init

Licence key. Paste it when asked, or activate it later:

tiax-agent license activate YOUR-KEY

No key yet? TIATool needs an active licence: without one every tool refuses and tells you how to activate or buy one. The doctor, init, setup and licence commands always work. Check anytime with tiax-agent license status.

TIATool has no free tier and no trial. A seat is €99.99 a month or €999.99 a year, and it runs on one PC. Buy it on the pricing section. The key is in your account after payment. Activate it with tiax-agent license activate.

Setup already registered TIATool. To redo it for specific apps:

tiax-agent setup --client claude,cursor,vscode

It adds a tiatool server and keeps your other servers. A backup of each config file is written first (.bak).

• Claude Desktop: quit it fully (also from the tray), start it again, and check that the tools list shows tiatool.
• Cursor: restart, then look for tiatool under Settings → MCP.
• VS Code: restart, then open the MCP servers list in the chat view and start tiatool if it isn't running.
• Claude Code: register it from a terminal with claude mcp add tiatool -- "C:\Program Files\TIATool\tiax-agent.exe" mcp.

The entry it writes for Claude Desktop looks like this:

{ "mcpServers": { "tiatool": { "command": "C:\\Program Files\\TIATool\\tiax-agent.exe", "args": ["mcp"] } } }

Quick test: ask your assistant “Run tia_status.” It should answer with the TIATool version and what it can see.

Use a copy of a project for this, with a short path such as C:\TIA\MyProject (TIA Portal refuses long paths). Close the project in the TIA Portal window first: TIATool won't work on a project that is open in the TIA user interface.

1. Export and scan. Ask “Export C:\TIA\MyProject\MyProject.ap19 and scan it.” The assistant runs export_project then refresh_scan, which creates a local cache. From now on, questions don't need TIA Portal open.
2. Ask questions. “List the blocks”, “Who writes Pump_01_Run?”, “What does OB1 call?” (list_blocks, who_writes_tag, what_block_calls). LAD and FBD networks are flagged when they could not be rendered completely.
3. Create a workspace. “Create a workspace for this project and set the baseline.” (workspace_init, baseline_set). The workspace keeps the plan, assumptions, decisions and a journal of every write.
4. Generate from a template. “Show the templates” (template_list). Then describe the equipment, e.g. Pump_01 with a DOL motor and Valve_01 on/off, and ask the assistant to draft the equipment model, validate it and generate (model_validate, model_generate). You get FBs, instance DBs, tag tables, HMI files, alarms and docs in a build folder.
5. Preview, then build. “Build the generated folder, preview first.” (build_from_source in preview mode). Review the plan, then let it build and compile (compile_project). A backup is taken before every write.
6. Verify. “Export again and verify the change against the baseline.” (verify_change). It checks that only the intended blocks changed and that interfaces and retain settings are intact.
7. Restore if needed. “Restore the last backup into a new folder.” (restore_backup). Every write keeps its own timestamped backup.

Steps 1–4 and 6 only read the cache. Steps 5 and 7 write to the project. Siemens does not open all of TIA Portal, so some calls depend on the project, the panel and the TIA version, and the assistant says when one cannot be done.

• Export my TIA project and list its blocks.
• Who writes the tag Pump_01_Run, and in which network?
• Which blocks does OB1 call, and which blocks are never called?
• Explain FB_Conveyor in plain words: inputs, outputs, and what happens on a fault.
• Create a workspace for this project and set the current state as the baseline.
• Show me the equipment templates you have, then describe a pump template.
• Generate Pump_01 and Pump_02 from the motor template and Valve_01 from the on/off valve template. Preview first.
• Build the generated sources into the project, compile, and tell me what broke.
• Verify the change against the baseline: did anything change that I didn't ask for?
• Audit this project against the coding standard and list the top findings.
• That failed. Explain the error.

When something fails, ask your assistant “Explain this error” and paste the message. TIATool looks it up in its knowledge base (explain_error) and returns the cause and the fix.

Access denied / not in the Openness group

Setup adds you to “Siemens TIA Openness”, but Windows only applies it after you sign out and back in. Then run tiax-agent doctor again.

The project is open in TIA Portal

TIATool refuses to work on a project that is open in the TIA Portal window, so it can’t fight you for it. Close the project (or TIA Portal) and retry.

“Security error” or “timed out” when opening a project

Usually a leftover TIA Portal process from an earlier run. Close TIA Portal, end any remaining Siemens.Automation.Portal processes in Task Manager, and retry.

Path too long

TIA Portal limits project paths. Copy the project to a short folder such as C:\TIA\ and work there.

Windows warns about the installer

The preview isn’t code-signed yet. Check the file first: Get-FileHash .\TIATool-Setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256 must match the hash on /download.sha256. If it doesn’t match, don’t run it and tell us.

Answers look out of date

The cache is a snapshot. TIATool warns when it is stale; ask for a new export and scan (export_project, refresh_scan).

tiax-agent doctor shows errors

Each line names the problem: TIA Portal or Openness not found, group membership, licence. Fix the first one, then run doctor again. Install details are in %LOCALAPPDATA%\TIATool\install-init.log.

Licence activation fails

TIATool activates against tiatool.dev. The message shows the HTTP status and a short reason. Check your internet connection or company proxy, then run tiax-agent license activate <KEY>. Version 0.7.0-preview.5 used a wrong default server and crashed at the AI-clients step; install the current preview.

The AI app doesn’t show the tools

Fully restart the app. If it still doesn’t appear, run tiax-agent setup --client claude (or cursor, vscode) and restart again.

Windows Settings → Apps → TIATool → Uninstall. The uninstaller deactivates the licence on this PC first, so you can activate it on another one.

Your AI app configs keep the tiatool entry; remove it there if you like. Workspaces, exports and backups in your project folders are yours and are not touched.