MCP server

REST suits a fixed integration where your code decides every step. MCP lets an agent choose tools as it works: inspect footage, edit, look at the frames it produced, fix what is wrong, and export. Both run on the same engine and the same accounts.

Connect your client#

Clients that support OAuth (Claude and ChatGPT connectors, for example) only need the URL: they discover the authorization server from the 401 response and ask you to sign in. Every plan can connect this way. Personal API keys and live developer keys need Studio.

claude mcp add --transport http vidmoat https://api.vidmoat.com/api/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $VIDMOAT_KEY"

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vidmoat": {
      "url": "https://api.vidmoat.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_VIDMOAT_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Discover the tools#

Let the client initialise and call tools/list. Use the names and input schemas it returns rather than a list copied from an old example: tools are added often.

curl --fail-with-body -sS https://api.vidmoat.com/api/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VIDMOAT_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}'

There are over eighty core tools: projects, editing, previews, analysis (shots, faces, audio, dead air, on-screen text), transcription, generation, stock media, renders, scheduling and more. Two of them reach everything else:

• search_agent_capabilities finds a capability by describing it, including the tools of plugins you have installed.
• call_plugin calls a plugin tool. To list a plugin's tools directly in tools/list, add ?scope=<plugin_namespace> to the endpoint URL.

get_command_schema returns the same command vocabulary as GET /v1/schema/commands.

Give it a usable brief#

Use my product footage to make a 20-second vertical launch video.
Start with the product reveal, then show three benefits.
Use our orange brand accents and readable captions.
Keep music beneath the narration. Do not generate paid media
without telling me the cost. Preview the opening, each text
change and the ending before exporting.

Say the audience, duration, aspect ratio, source media and any budget. A style reference guides the edit; it does not have to appear in the finished video. Character references are optional: use them when continuity matters.

Review, then export#

Have the agent inspect the source, apply edits, review rendered frames and correct visible problems. A successful edit call is not proof that the composition looks right. edit_project accepts previewAt (up to three timestamps) and returns those frames with the result, so the model sees what it did in the same turn. Check the finished export too. You can open the same project in the Vidmoat editor and adjust the timeline yourself.

Limits#

• Plan features, ownership and credit costs apply to each tool exactly as in the editor. Generation tools state their cost.
• MCP requests share a limit of 60 a minute per account. Over it you get 429 with Retry-After.
• A JSON-RPC batch carries at most 10 messages, and each tools/call after the first counts against the limit again.