AI agents

Everything you can do in FilmCraft’s menus, buttons and sliders is a command. An AI assistant can run the same commands through FilmCraft’s MCP server, so it can cut, trim, grade, mix and export a sequence the way you would. Any assistant that supports MCP (the Model Context Protocol) works, such as Claude Code.

The MCP server is part of filmcraft-cli, FilmCraft’s command-line tool.

Find filmcraft-cli

Install	Where it is
Windows installer	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\ArtCraft\FilmCraft\filmcraft-cli.exe (or C:\Program Files\ArtCraft\FilmCraft\ if you installed for everyone). It isn’t on your PATH.
Linux .deb or .rpm	/usr/bin/filmcraft-cli
macOS	A separate download: filmcraft-cli-<ver>-macos-universal.zip on the release page

Use the CLI from the same release as the app.

Without a window

In this mode the assistant works on a project without FilmCraft open. Add the server to Claude Code like this:

claude mcp add filmcraft -- filmcraft-cli mcp --project /path/to/film.fcproj

On Windows, give the full path to filmcraft-cli.exe. Leave out --project to start with an empty project, or use --demo to try it on the demo project.

The server doesn’t save by itself: ask the assistant to save the project when it’s done. Don’t have the same project open in FilmCraft at the same time. Whichever saves last replaces the other’s work.

Caution

The MCP server can read and write any file your account can. Only connect assistants you trust, and keep a copy of important projects.

With the app open

The assistant can also drive the FilmCraft window you are looking at, and take screenshots of it. This needs a private token that FilmCraft and the assistant share:

1. Make a token of 64 random hexadecimal characters, and put it in the FILMCRAFT_CONTROL_TOKEN environment variable.
2. From that same terminal, start FilmCraft with filmcraft --control 9876.
3. Connect the assistant with filmcraft-cli mcp --bridge 127.0.0.1:9876, started from an environment that has the same token.

FilmCraft only listens on your own computer, and only with a valid token. Make a new token for each session, and don’t save it in shared files.

Good to know

• Edits made by an assistant can be undone like your own.
• The full list of commands is in filmcraft-cli commands.
• The technical reference is in FilmCraft’s agents guide and control protocol.