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DocumentationMCP server

Plainly MCP server

Connect your AI tools to Plainly using the Model Context Protocol , a standard protocol for connecting Large Language Models (LLMs) to platforms and APIs.

What is Plainly MCP?

Plainly MCP is Plainly’s official MCP server, that allows your AI assistants and code agents to interact with Plainly platform, enabling you to:

  • Browse and search for designs and custom projects available on your Plainly account
  • Get details of a specific design or custom project, such as required and optional parameters, preview links, aspect ratios, etc.
  • Submit renders with all needed parameters
  • Check the render status and report error or preview links

Getting started

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have met the following requirements:

Setup

Connect your AI tools to Plainly by following these steps:

Manual configuration

This is an example of a configuration for the Plainly MCP Server:

{
	"plainly": {
		"command": "npx",
		"args": ["-y", "@plainly-videos/mcp-server@latest"],
		"env": {
			"PLAINLY_API_KEY": "<PLAINLY_API_KEY>"
		}
	}
}

Replace <PLAINLY_API_KEY> with your actual Plainly API key.

Cursor

Using the button below, you can add the configuration to your Cursor settings automatically. Make sure to replace <PLAINLY_API_KEY> with your actual Plainly API key in the next step.

Add to Cursor
  1. Open Cursor, and create a .cursor directory in your project root if it doesn’t exist.
  2. Create a .cursor/mcp.json file if it doesn’t exist and open it.
  3. Add the configuration and replace <PLAINLY_API_KEY>.
{
	"mcpServers": {
		"plainly": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "@plainly-videos/mcp-server@latest"],
			"env": {
				"PLAINLY_API_KEY": "<PLAINLY_API_KEY>"
			}
		}
	}
}
  1. Save the configuration file.
  2. Open Cursor and navigate to Settings > Cursor Settings > MCP & Integrations. You should see a green active status after the server is successfully connected.

Windsurf

  1. Open Windsurf and open the Cascade assistant.
  2. Tap on the box (Customizations) icon, then the Configure icon in the top right of the panel to open the configuration file.
  3. Add the configuration and replace <PLAINLY_API_KEY>.
{
	"mcpServers": {
		"plainly": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "@plainly-videos/mcp-server@latest"],
			"env": {
				"PLAINLY_API_KEY": "<PLAINLY_API_KEY>"
			}
		}
	}
}
  1. Save the configuration file and reload by tapping Refresh in the Cascade assistant.
  2. You should see a green active status after the server is successfully connected.

Visual Studio Code (Copilot)

Using the button below, you can add the configuration to your VS Code settings automatically. Make sure to replace <PLAINLY_API_KEY> with your actual Plainly API key in the next step.

Add to VS Code
  1. Open Visual Studio Code and open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+P).
  2. Type in MCP: Open User Configuration and select it.
  3. Add the configuration and replace <PLAINLY_API_KEY>.
{
	"servers": {
		"plainly": {
			"command": "npx",
			"args": ["-y", "@plainly-videos/mcp-server@latest"],
			"env": {
				"PLAINLY_API_KEY": "<PLAINLY_API_KEY>"
			}
		}
	}
}
  1. Save the configuration file and click the Start button that appears inline above the Plainly server definition.
  2. Open Copilot chat and switch to “Agent” mode. You should see a tool icon that you can tap on to confirm the MCP tools are available.

Next steps

Your AI tool is now connected to Plainly using MCP. Try asking your AI assistant to create a video for you using one of your designs or custom projects.

prompt
I want to create an e-commerce video for a new product.
Can you propose some designs and provide me with a preview link for each of them?

You can also look at the example video below that demonstrates how to prompt an AI assistant.

Source code

The Plainly MCP Server is an open-source project. You can find the full source code on GitHub , where you can make contributions, open issues, request features, etc.

There you can also find the installation instructions, features, changelog , developer guide, and other useful information.

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