What is a live artifact in Claude?

A live artifact is a Claude artifact that connects to real-time data sources via MCP (Model Context Protocol). Unlike standard artifacts, which are static once generated, live artifacts fetch fresh data each time they open. They're available in Claude Cowork on Pro and above plans.

What is MCP in Claude artifacts?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets Claude connect to external data sources and tools. In the context of artifacts, MCP connections let a live artifact pull real-time data — from a database, API, or service — each time it loads, instead of using a static data snapshot.

Do live artifacts require Claude Pro?

Yes — live artifact connections via MCP are available on Claude Pro and above plans. Standard artifacts (without live data connections) are available on the free tier.

Can I share a live artifact?

Yes — you can publish a live artifact the same way as a standard one. Viewers don't need a Claude account to see the output. ShareDuo's MCP integration also lets Claude push artifacts directly to ShareDuo from the conversation.

Claude Live Artifacts: What They Are and How to Use Them

Live artifacts are Claude artifacts connected to real-time data sources via MCP (Model Context Protocol). Where a standard artifact captures a snapshot of data at the moment Claude generates it, a live artifact fetches fresh data each time it loads — making it useful for dashboards, status pages, analytics views, and anything where the data changes between sessions. Live artifacts are available in Claude Cowork on Pro and above plans.

For background on standard artifacts, see the complete Claude artifacts guide.

What makes a live artifact different

A standard Claude artifact is static. If you ask Claude to build a sales dashboard from a CSV you pasted into the chat, the numbers in that dashboard are fixed at whatever was in the CSV. The artifact doesn't update when the underlying data changes.

A live artifact has an active MCP connection. Instead of using data Claude processed during generation, the artifact calls an MCP server at load time and pulls current data. Open it today and it shows today's numbers. Open it tomorrow and it shows tomorrow's. The artifact's structure and logic stay constant; only the data changes.

What you can build with live artifacts

Live artifacts are well suited to use cases where freshness matters:

Real-time dashboards — pull metrics from a database or analytics API on each load
Status pages — show current system health, uptime, or incident state
Analytics views — display live campaign, sales, or product data without manual refresh
Live data tables — query a database and render results as a formatted table
Inventory or pricing displays — show current stock levels or prices from a live source

The constraint is that the data source must be accessible via an MCP server. If your data lives in a database, API, or service that has an MCP connector, you can wire it to a live artifact. If it's in a spreadsheet you update manually, a standard artifact with periodic regeneration is usually simpler.

How to create a live artifact

Live artifacts require Claude Cowork (Pro or above) and an MCP server connection. Here's the setup flow:

Enable Claude Cowork — available on Pro and Team plans. Open a Cowork session from the Claude sidebar.
Connect an MCP server — in Cowork settings, add the MCP server URL for your data source. If the MCP server requires auth, you'll provide credentials here.
Describe the artifact — in the Cowork chat, tell Claude what you want to build and which MCP-connected data to use. Example: "Build a dashboard showing this week's signups and revenue, pulling from the analytics MCP server."
Claude generates the artifact — the artifact is created with live MCP data bindings. A preview loads with the current data.
Publish or share — use the Publish button the same way you would for a standard artifact. See what Publish does for details on sharing options.

Live artifacts vs standard artifacts

	Standard Artifact	Live Artifact
Data	Snapshot at creation time	Real-time via MCP
Plan required	Free	Pro or above
Publish as public link	Yes	Yes
Requires MCP server	No	Yes
Static HTML export	Yes	Limited

One practical note on static HTML export: a standard artifact downloads as a self-contained HTML file with all data baked in. A live artifact's HTML skeleton can be exported, but the live data connections won't function outside of Claude's MCP environment — the artifact needs the MCP server to be running and accessible to fetch its data.

How ShareDuo's MCP server works

ShareDuo has its own MCP server at mcp.shareduo.com. It exposes two tools — push_artifact and delete_artifact — that let Claude push artifacts directly to ShareDuo from inside a Cowork conversation, without manually downloading and uploading HTML.

The workflow: in Claude Cowork, you connect the ShareDuo MCP server. When you're happy with an artifact, you ask Claude to push it to ShareDuo. Claude calls push_artifact, which uploads the HTML to ShareDuo and returns a public URL. You can set expiry windows, password protection, and other options as part of the push call — all without leaving the conversation.

The resulting ShareDuo link works the same as any other ShareDuo link: publicly accessible, no account required for viewers, with noindex and view analytics built in. For context on how other AI tools handle artifacts and sharing, see the comparison with Grok Studio.