Ffmpeg MCP

What video-creator/ffmpeg-mcp MCP server does

The video-creator/ffmpeg-mcp MCP server gives an MCP client access to common local media operations through FFmpeg command-line functionality. Its tools cover file discovery, metadata inspection, editing, composition, playback, resizing, and frame extraction. The project is intended for workflows involving files stored on the local machine rather than a hosted media service.

The server can recursively search a directory for a complete filename or a filename without its suffix. It can then report a video's duration, frame rate, codec, width, and height. Editing operations return paths to generated files, allowing later tool calls to use those outputs.

How it works

The video-creator/ffmpeg-mcp MCP server communicates through the stdio transport. An MCP client starts the local process and sends tool requests with file paths and operation parameters. The README shows a Cline configuration that invokes the project with uv, points --directory at the checked-out repository, and runs the ffmpeg-mcp entry point.

Most operations accept explicit input and output paths. Concatenation accepts a list of files and an output path; when the listed videos have matching properties such as dimensions and frame rate, the server automatically uses a faster synthesis mode. Playback uses ffplay and accepts a playback rate and loop count.

Setup and configuration

The documented setup is local and requires downloading the repository, changing into its directory, and running uv sync. The Cline example uses a 60-second timeout, stdio transport, and an empty automatic-approval list. Its directory argument must be changed to the actual location of the checkout; the example path is not a ready-to-run value.

The README states that current support is limited to macOS, including both ARM64 and x86_64 systems. It does not document Windows or Linux support, hosted deployment, authentication, API keys, or environment variables. The supplied material also does not specify a license.

Tools and capabilities

The video-creator/ffmpeg-mcp MCP server currently documents these tools:

• find_video_path recursively locates a media file under a directory and returns its full path.
• get_video_info returns duration, FPS, codec, width, and height.
• clip_video trims a file using a start time, end time, or duration and returns the resulting path.
• concat_videos combines a list of video files into a specified output path.
• play_video plays supported video or audio formats with a selected rate and repeat count.
• overlay_video places one video over another with a relative position and x/y offsets.
• scale_video resizes a video; a dimension of -2 preserves the aspect ratio for that dimension.
• extract_frames_from_video saves PNG, JPG, or WEBP images at a requested sampling rate, with an optional maximum frame count.

For frame extraction, an FPS value of zero requests every frame; positive values control the sampling interval as described by the project. A zero frame limit removes the maximum.

Limitations and notes

The documented platform scope is macOS only. The project describes additional features as planned, so the listed tools should be treated as the currently supported surface. Operations work with local paths and depend on command-line media utilities referenced by the project, including FFmpeg and ffplay. The README does not provide details about codec compatibility beyond examples of formats supported for playback, such as MOV, MP4, AVI, MKV, and 3GP.