FFmpeg Video Manipulation MCP server

This MCP server uses FFmpeg command-line functionality to provide video manipulation capabilities through a structured dialogue interface. It enables local video search, trimming, concatenation, playback, and other video processing functions.

Installation Guide

Prerequisites

Make sure you have FFmpeg installed on your macOS system (ARM64 or x86_64 architectures are supported).

Installation Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/video-creator/ffmpeg-mcp.git
   cd ffmpeg-mcp
   uv sync
   

2. Configure the MCP server in your client configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "ffmpeg-mcp": {
         "autoApprove": [],
         "disabled": false,
         "timeout": 60,
         "command": "uv",
         "args": [
           "--directory",
           "/path/to/your/ffmpeg-mcp",
           "run",
           "ffmpeg-mcp"
         ],
         "transportType": "stdio"
       }
     }
   }
   

   Note: Replace /path/to/your/ffmpeg-mcp with the actual path where you downloaded the ffmpeg-mcp directory.

Available Tools

Find Video Path

Recursively searches for a video file in a specified directory.

Parameters:

• Directory path
• File name (can be without extension)

Get Video Information

Retrieves video metadata like duration, fps, codec, width, and height.

Parameters:

• Video path

Clip Video

Trims a video to a specified segment.

Parameters:

• File path
• Start time
• End time or duration

Concatenate Videos

Combines multiple video files into one.

Parameters:

• List of video files
• Output path

If the videos have similar properties (width, height, frame rate), quick mode synthesis is automatically used.

Play Video

Plays video/audio files using ffplay.

Parameters:

• Video path
• Speed (playback rate)
• Loop count

Supports many formats including mov, mp4, avi, mkv, and 3gp.

Overlay Video

Overlays one video on top of another.

Parameters:

• Background video path
• Overlay video path
• Output path
• Position (relative location)
• dx (x offset)
• dy (y offset)

Scale Video

Resizes a video to specified dimensions.

Parameters:

• Video path
• Width (use -2 to maintain aspect ratio)
• Height (use -2 to maintain aspect ratio)
• Output path

Platform Compatibility

Currently, this MCP server only supports macOS platforms (both ARM64 and x86_64 architectures).

How to add this MCP server to 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 > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

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

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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 explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.