A Model Context Protocol server that lets AI coding assistants edit videos in CapCut and OpenCut.

Connects to Cursor, Claude Desktop, Codex CLI, Antigravity, OpenCode, and KiloCode over stdio.

50 tools total, all of which honor dryRun: true by default (the safe setting).

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ AI Client (Cursor / Claude / Codex / Antigravity / OpenCode / KiloCode)  │
└───────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    │ JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio (MCP)
                                    ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ mcp-video-editor (this server, Node.js)                                  │
│   ┌─────────────┐   ┌─────────────┐   ┌─────────────┐   ┌─────────────┐  │
│   │ 50 MCP tools │ → │ adapters/   │ → │ safety/     │ → │ utils/      │  │
│   │ project,     │   │ capcut.ts   │   │ backup.ts   │   │ paths.ts    │  │
│   │ timeline,    │   │ opencut.ts  │   │ validator.ts│   │ fs.ts       │  │
│   │ text, ...    │   │ facade.ts  │   │ dry-run.ts  │   │ id.ts       │  │
│   └─────────────┘   └─────────────┘   └─────────────┘   └─────────────┘  │
└──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────┘
               ▼                                                   ▼
   %LOCALAPPDATA%\CapCut\User Data\             %USERPROFILE%\Documents\OpenCut\projects\
   Projects\com.lveditor.draft\<id>\                       <id>.json
   draft_content.json

The server normalizes both CapCut drafts and OpenCut projects into a single EditorProject shape, mutates it in memory, and writes back via the editor-specific adapter. Unknown vendor fields round-trip through raw so nothing is lost on save.

• Dry-run by default. Every write tool takes dryRun: true unless you pass dryRun: false. The in-memory cache is mutated so the AI can immediately query the new state, but no file is touched.
• Backups before writes. When dryRun=false, the target file is copied to ~/.mcp-video-editor/backups/<date>/<timestamp>__<filename>.<rand>.bak before overwrite. Backups are never auto-deleted.
• Schema validation. Reads validate the vendor file shape; writes validate the normalized project (clip overlap, dangling material references, negative durations, etc.) and refuse on violation.
• Destructive ops require explicit confirmation. delete_project requires confirm: true or it refuses.
• Atomic writes. All disk writes go through tmp file + rename so a crashed write never leaves a half-written draft.

# 1. Clone or copy this folder somewhere, e.g. C:\Users\you\mcp-video-editor
cd C:\Users\you\mcp-video-editor

# 2. Install + build
npm install
npm run build

# 3. Run the installer — it writes configs into all 6 AI clients
pwsh -File scripts/install-windows.ps1
# Or install for just Cursor + Claude:
pwsh -File scripts/install-windows.ps1 -Clients "cursor,claude"

Then restart each AI client. You'll see video-editor listed in the client's MCP panel.

cd ~/mcp-video-editor
npm install
npm run build
bash scripts/install-unix.sh
# Or: bash scripts/install-unix.sh --clients cursor,claude

If you'd rather wire up clients by hand, copy the relevant snippet from configs/ into each client's expected config location:

Replace YOUR_USERNAME in the snippets with your Windows username (the installer does this for you).

Override default locations if you keep your projects elsewhere.

After wiring up Cursor, in Agent mode:

You: "Open my latest CapCut draft, add a 2-second text overlay saying 'Hello from Cursor' at the start, and save it."

Cursor (calls list_projects → open_project → add_text → save_project): ✓ Opened CapCut project "My First Edit" (id=draft_abc123, duration=12_345_000us, 3 tracks, 8 materials). ✓ [DRY-RUN] Add text "Hello from Cursor". In-memory cache updated; NOT written to disk. Use save_project to persist. ✓ Would you like me to actually persist these changes? (Pass dryRun: false.)

You: "Yes, persist it."

Cursor (calls save_project with dryRun: false): ✓ Saved CapCut project "My First Edit" (3 tracks) to %LOCALAPPDATA%\CapCut\User Data\Projects\com.lveditor.draft\draft_abc123\draft_content.json (backup: %USERPROFILE%.mcp-video-editor\backups\2026-10-26...\draft_content.json.abc123.bak)

mcp-video-editor/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts                 # Entry point
│   ├── server.ts                # MCP server setup + tool registration
│   ├── tools/                   # 50 tools across 7 categories
│   │   ├── index.ts              # Tool registry
│   │   ├── project.ts           # list/create/open/close/save/duplicate/delete
│   │   ├── timeline.ts          # tracks, clips, splits, trims, speed, volume, visibility
│   │   ├── text.ts              # text overlays, styling, positioning
│   │   ├── effects.ts           # transitions, filters, effects, stickers, animations
│   │   ├── audio.ts             # audio clips, fade in/out, denoise
│   │   ├── export.ts            # export profiles, render queue, status polling
│   │   └── inspect.ts           # read-only project state queries
│   ├── adapters/
│   │   ├── types.ts             # EditorProject normalized shape
│   │   ├── capcut.ts            # CapCut draft_content.json reader/writer
│   │   ├── opencut.ts           # OpenCut project JSON reader/writer
│   │   └── facade.ts            # Unified open/save/list/create
│   ├── safety/
│   │   ├── backup.ts            # Pre-write file backups
│   │   ├── validator.ts         # Schema validation
│   │   └── dry-run.ts           # Dry-run executor
│   ├── notifications/
│   │   └── events.ts            # Render + project-change event bus
│   └── utils/
│       ├── paths.ts             # Windows path resolution
│       ├── fs.ts                # Atomic JSON writes, retry-on-EBUSY
│       └── id.ts                # uid, time formatters
├── configs/                     # Client config snippets (one per AI client)
├── scripts/
│   ├── install-windows.ps1      # Windows installer
│   └── install-unix.sh          # macOS/Linux fallback
└── docs/
    ├── ARCHITECTURE.md
    ├── TOOLS.md
    └── CLIENT_SETUP.md

npm install          # install deps
npm run build        # tsc -> dist/
npm run typecheck    # tsc --noEmit
npm run dev          # run via tsx (no build step)
npm run inspect      # launch with MCP inspector (requires npx mcp-inspector)

Smoke-test the server locally:

echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"0.0.0"}}}' \
  | node dist/index.js

You should see a JSON-RPC response with serverInfo: { name: "mcp-video-editor", version: "1.0.0" }.

• CapCut has no official API. This server reads/writes CapCut's draft_content.json directly. CapCut must be closed (or at least not actively editing the same draft) when you call save_project with dryRun: false, otherwise the file may be locked — the server retries 3× on EBUSY but may still fail.
• CapCut version drift. CapCut changes its draft schema across versions. The adapter preserves unknown fields via raw, so round-tripping older drafts is generally safe, but new CapCut-only fields may be ignored on write.
• OpenCut schema. OpenCut's project format is still evolving. The adapter tolerates both flat tracks and nested timeline.tracks shapes; the writer always emits the flat form (OpenCut ≥ 0.5).
• Export is not actually rendering. export_project writes an export task JSON and emits renderProgress notifications, but the actual MP4 render must be triggered by opening the draft in CapCut and pressing Export (CapCut will pick up the latest draft). For OpenCut, if a local OpenCut dev server is running on a known port, you can extend tools/export.ts to POST to its /api/export endpoint.
• No UI automation. If you need to drive CapCut's GUI (open menus, click filters), pair this server with a UI-automation layer (AutoHotkey on Windows).

MIT