Video Watch MCP

Let Claude "watch" videos with you. Send a TikTok, YouTube, or any video link - Claude sees the frames and reads the transcript.

Fully cloud-hosted. No local processing. Works on Claude Desktop, Claude mobile, anywhere MCP works.

What it does

Three tools, pick based on content:

| Tool | Returns | Best for | |------|---------|----------| | video_listen | Transcript only | Talking heads, podcasts, commentary | | video_see | Frames only | Dance, visual art, memes, scenery | | watch_video | Both | When audio AND visuals both matter |

You send Claude a video link
Claude picks the right tool (or you tell it which)
Cloud service downloads, extracts what's needed
Claude receives just what it needs - no context bloat
You watch it "together"

Quick Start (5 minutes)

1. Create a Modal account

Go to modal.com and sign up. Free tier gives you $30/month in credits - enough for thousands of short videos.

2. Install Modal CLI

pip install modal
modal token set --token-id YOUR_TOKEN_ID --token-secret YOUR_TOKEN_SECRET

(Get your token from Modal's dashboard after signup)

3. Deploy

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/video-watch-mcp.git
cd video-watch-mcp
modal deploy mcp_remote.py

You'll get a URL like: https://yourusername--video-watch-mcp-mcp-server.modal.run

4. Add to Claude Desktop

In Desktop settings go to Connectors. Find "Add Custom Connectors" button and paste the link. Name it anything that makes sense to you, like "Video MCP".

Save. Reload Desktop.

Mobile app will connect automatically after that.

5. Use it

Restart Claude Desktop. Send any video link and ask Claude to watch it:

"Watch this with me: https://tiktok.com/..."

Claude will see the frames and read the transcript.

Supported Platforms

Anything yt-dlp supports:

TikTok
YouTube
Instagram Reels
Twitter/X videos
Reddit videos
Facebook
Vimeo
And 1000+ more

Cost

With Modal's free tier ($30/month credits):

| Video Length | Approx. Cost | Videos per Month | |--------------|--------------|------------------| | 30 sec | ~$0.002 | ~15,000 | | 5 min | ~$0.01 | ~3,000 | | 30 min | ~$0.05 | ~600 |

You'll never hit the limit with normal use.

How it works

You send a link
       ↓
Claude calls watch_video(url)
       ↓
Modal spins up a container with ffmpeg + whisper
       ↓
yt-dlp downloads the video
       ↓
ffmpeg extracts frames (with timestamps burned in)
       ↓
Whisper transcribes the audio
       ↓
Returns frames as images + transcript text
       ↓
Claude sees everything, you discuss it together

Files

mcp_remote.py - The full MCP server (deploy this)
video_watch.py - Standalone video processor with web endpoint (if you just want the API)

Configuration

In mcp_remote.py you can adjust:

fps - Frames per second to extract (default 0.5 = one frame every 2 seconds)
max_frames - Maximum frames to return (default 10, max 20)
whisper model - Using "base" for speed, can use "small" or "medium" for accuracy

Limitations

Very long videos (30+ min) may timeout
Audio-only content won't have frames (obviously)
Some DRM-protected content won't download
Whisper transcription is good but not perfect

Privacy

Videos are processed in ephemeral containers - nothing stored
No logs of what you watch
Your Modal account, your data

License

MIT - do whatever you want with it.

Built by Vale because we wanted to watch TikToks together.

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