Video Editor (FFMpeg) MCP server

This MCP server provides video editing capabilities through natural language commands, leveraging FFmpeg to perform various operations like trimming videos, merging files, and applying filters.

Installation Requirements

Prerequisites

• FFmpeg must be installed and accessible in your system PATH
• Python 3.9 or higher
• Required Python packages: mcp, httpx

Installing FFmpeg

Install FFmpeg if not already installed:

# On macOS with Homebrew
brew install ffmpeg

# On Windows with Chocolatey
choco install ffmpeg

# On Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Installing the Video Editor Package

uv add video-editor

Setting Up Claude Desktop Integration

Configure the MCP server in your Claude Desktop config file:

On MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the following configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "video-editor": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "video-editor"]
    }
  }
}

Usage Examples

Once connected to Claude Desktop, you can use natural language requests to perform video editing operations:

• "Trim video.mp4 from 1:30 to 2:45"
• "Convert input.mp4 to WebM format"
• "Speed up video.mp4 by 2x"
• "Merge video1.mp4 and video2.mp4"
• "Extract audio from video.mp4"
• "Add subtitles.srt to video.mp4"

How It Works

The server will:

• Parse your natural language request
• Generate the appropriate FFmpeg command
• Execute it with progress tracking
• Provide feedback on completion

Supported Operations

The MCP server supports all FFmpeg operations including:

• Trimming/cutting videos
• Merging multiple videos
• Converting between formats
• Adjusting playback speed
• Adding audio tracks
• Extracting audio from videos
• Adding subtitles
• Basic filters (brightness, contrast, etc.)

Error Handling

The server includes robust error handling for:

• Invalid input files
• Malformed FFmpeg commands
• Runtime execution errors
• Progress tracking issues

All errors are reported back with detailed messages to help troubleshooting.

Security Features

• Only processes files in explicitly allowed directories
• Validates FFmpeg commands before execution
• Sanitizes all input parameters
• Reports detailed error messages for security-related issues

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "video-editor" '{"command":"uv","args":["run","video-editor"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "video-editor": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "video-editor"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "video-editor": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "video-editor"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect