InstantClips MCP

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InstantClips turns an e-commerce product into short-form vertical video for TikTok, Instagram Reels and Stories. It runs a hosted MCP server, so Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, the Claude app, ChatGPT or any other MCP client can do what the web app does: import a product, draft the plan, and generate the video.

This is not a text-to-video generator. InstantClips reads the product page — photos, price, details — and builds the ad from what is actually there. The plan is written first and shown to you; the video follows the plan. That is why it is cheap enough to run across a catalogue, and why the result is the product you sell rather than a guess at it.

Free to start: the welcome credits cover the first video, and there is no card to enter. After that, one-time credit packs, or an Agency membership for anyone running several brands. See pricing.

• Where it fits. Beside a scheduler (Postiz, Buffer) that posts what comes back. Beside an attribution tool that tells you which hook worked. Instead of an editor when you have a product page and no footage.
• Not for. Cinematic hero films. A presenter reading your script. Horizontal 4K. Products with no page and no photos.
• Built for. Shopify sellers, dropshippers, brands and agencies running social for several stores at once.

The product server stays hosted. This repository contains its connection guide, registry metadata, example HTTP client and a small open-source stdio adapter for clients that cannot connect to a remote server directly. The adapter answers initialization, ping and tool discovery from a generated snapshot, then sends authenticated tool calls to the hosted endpoint. The hosted server remains the source of truth; the product implementation is not duplicated here.

Endpoint

Paste one address into your assistant and sign in when it asks. That is the whole setup. The first time it calls, the server sends you to sign in to InstantClips and approve the assistant; there are no keys to copy. Every assistant you approve is listed under Authorized apps in settings, where you can disconnect it.

The connection is to your own account: same brands, products, credits and plan limits as the web app. Signing in creates an account if you do not have one, with credits for the first video.

Opening the endpoint in a browser returns the setup page rather than a protocol error, with one-click install buttons for Cursor and VS Code.

Install

Connect to the hosted endpoint directly whenever your client supports Streamable HTTP; it takes you through sign-in on first use. Use a token and the stdio adapter (under "No browser?" below) only for scripts and automated runners that cannot open a sign-in page.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http instantclips https://app.instantclips.ai/mcp

Then run /mcp inside Claude Code and choose InstantClips to sign in.

Codex

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml, which covers the CLI, the app and the IDE extension together:

[mcp_servers.instantclips]
url = "https://app.instantclips.ai/mcp"

Then run codex mcp login instantclips to sign in.

Cursor and VS Code

One-click install buttons are on the setup page. They open the app, add InstantClips, and sign you in on first use.

Claude app and ChatGPT

Claude app: add a custom connector with this address and sign in when it asks. ChatGPT on the web: turn on Developer mode under Settings, Apps, Advanced, then add the address as a connector; on a Business or Enterprise workspace an admin publishes it as an app for everyone instead. The ChatGPT desktop app takes the same address under Settings, MCP servers, and shares it with Codex.

Any other MCP client or agent

OpenClaw, Hermes, or an agent you wrote yourself: point it at the address over Streamable HTTP. The server announces its sign-in flow the standard way, so a client that follows the spec needs nothing else. Anything that cannot open a sign-in page uses a token instead, below.

No browser? Use an access token

Scripts, CI jobs and agents that cannot open a sign-in page authenticate with a long-lived token instead. Mint one at app.instantclips.ai/settings#ai-access. It gives full access to your account, so keep it out of anything you commit.

With a token, the same clients look like this:

# Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http instantclips https://app.instantclips.ai/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

# Codex, in ~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.instantclips]
url = "https://app.instantclips.ai/mcp"
http_headers = { Authorization = "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" }

To keep the token out of the Codex file, swap the header for bearer_token_env_var = "INSTANTCLIPS_TOKEN" and export it in your shell instead. The Claude app takes a token as a request header on the connector (request headers are still in beta); ChatGPT connectors sign in through the sign-in flow rather than a pasted key. Any other client sends an Authorization: Bearer header. Nothing on the wire is InstantClips-specific.

Stdio-only clients and headless runners

The instantclips-mcp npm package is a thin stdio-to-HTTPS adapter. It serves initialization and tool discovery locally for a fast, credential-free cold start, then reads the token from the environment and sends tool calls to InstantClips:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instantclips": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "instantclips-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "INSTANTCLIPS_TOKEN": "YOUR_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

For an automated connectivity check, including the live tool names:

INSTANTCLIPS_TOKEN="your-token" npx -y instantclips-mcp --check --json

The token is accepted only through INSTANTCLIPS_TOKEN, never as a command-line argument, so it does not appear in the process list. It is required for tool calls, but not for initialize, ping, or tools/list. Node.js 20 or newer is required.

Starter prompts

Five to begin with. Swap in a link or a product name.

1. "Make a video ad for this product: [URL]"
2. "Import every product on this collection page and draft plans for all of them. Don't generate anything yet."
3. "Show me the plan for [product] and rewrite the hook to lead with the price."
4. "Make three videos for [URL] with three different hooks, so I can test them."
5. "Which of my brands is this product for? Then make the video."

Tools

The workflow, in order:

1. Import — import_product_from_url for a store page, or create_product_from_images when there is no page to read.
2. Wait for the draft — poll get_product until the import and the plan have finished.
3. Read and steer it — the plan comes back as text: hook, content focus, format, execution guidelines, restrictions. update_video_direction edits it, redraft_video_direction asks for another angle.
4. Generate — generate_video.
5. Collect — poll get_video for the finished MP4 and a public share link.

Brands work the same way: list_brands, create_brand, set_product_brand. Every video is drafted in a brand's voice, so an import whose storefront matches no existing brand stops and asks rather than guessing.

Each tool's exact parameters are published by the hosted server. The generated manifest/instantclips-mcp.json snapshot lets stdio clients and registries inspect those same schemas without a credential. Maintainers refresh it with INSTANTCLIPS_TOKEN="..." npm run sync:manifest; npm run check:manifest fails when the committed snapshot differs from the live server. Run python example.py tools below when you specifically want to print the live schemas over HTTP.

Credits

Importing a product, drafting the plan and editing it are all free. generate_video is the only tool that spends credits, and it requires your explicit go-ahead — the tools report the cost first. An agent cannot quietly run up a bill. See pricing.

example.py

A dependency-free MCP client — Python 3.9+, standard library only, no pip install. It authenticates with a token, since a script has no browser to sign in with.

export INSTANTCLIPS_TOKEN="your-token"

python example.py tools                 # every tool, with its live input schema
python example.py call list_brands '{}' # call one tool with JSON arguments

tools is the one to run first: it prints the real parameter names and types for every tool, which is what you need before scripting the workflow above.

Links