Remotion MCP Server Is Shut Down: What to Use Instead

The Remotion MCP server is gone. Remotion shut down its hosted MCP server on October 26, 2026, and its MCP documentation page now says so at the top. If a tutorial tells you to add remotion-documentation to Claude Code or Cursor, that config now points at nothing. The official replacement is Remotion Agent Skills, which you add with one command, plus ready-made plugins for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and others.

Here's the short version:

• What it was: a documentation lookup server. It helped your editor's AI answer Remotion questions. It never rendered video.
• Why it closed: stale data, Remotion paying the token bill, and agents that didn't call it reliably.
• What to use now: Agent Skills (/remotion-docs, /remotion-create, /remotion-render and more), or the Remotion plugin for your coding agent.
• The one MCP piece left: Remotion Studio exposes WebMCP tools, but among the major agents only Codex supports them today.
• Licence: Remotion is free for individuals and very small companies. Bigger organisations need a company licence, and that includes teams making videos with AI agents.

Below: setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Cursor, then a full prompt-to-MP4 walkthrough.

What the Remotion MCP server was (and what it never did)

Remotion is a framework for making videos with React. You write components, Remotion turns each frame into an image, and it encodes the result into a video file. That code-first design is why it pairs so well with coding agents: an agent that can write React can, in principle, write a video.

The Remotion MCP server was a narrower thing than most people assume. Earlier versions of the docs described it as a way to make "your editor's AI Chat better at understanding Remotion." Under the hood, Remotion's documentation was indexed into a vector database using CrawlChat, and the npm package @remotion/mcp connected your editor to that hosted index under the server name remotion-documentation.

So it could answer questions like which props <Sequence> takes. It could not create a project, write a composition, open a preview or render a file. Your coding agent did all of that. If you came here hoping for an MCP server that turns a prompt into a video, that tool never existed in Remotion's official lineup.

One more detail that matters if you're following an old guide: Remotion's official setup instructions only covered Cursor and VS Code. Any Claude Code or Claude Desktop config you saw came from a third party.

Why Remotion shut down its MCP server

Remotion deprecated the server in July 2026 and set a shutdown date of no earlier than August 31. The final shutdown came on October 26, 2026. The GitHub issue that planned it and the docs page give the same four reasons:

The third point is the useful lesson. If you've read our guide to what MCP is, you know a server only helps when the model decides to call it. A skill that tells the agent when to look things up gets around that.

What replaced it: Agent Skills, plugins and WebMCP

Remotion now offers three paths. Only one is still MCP.

Agent Skills

The Remotion Agent Skills are a set of instructions your coding agent loads when it works on a Remotion project. They replace the MCP server and go further, covering creating and rendering, not just docs.

The ones you'll use most:

• /remotion-docs searches the Remotion documentation and fetches any page as Markdown. This is the old MCP server's job.
• /remotion-create starts a new project or composition from a prompt.
• /remotion-markup covers how to write the React for compositions, animations, layout, fonts and timing.
• /remotion-studio launches the preview.
• /remotion-render renders a video or a still.
• /remotion-best-practices bundles all of them, for when you're not sure which one applies.

There are also specialist skills for captions, map animations, making elements editable in Studio, upgrading Remotion, and building a product on top of it. The source lives in the remotion-dev/skills repo.

If you're new to skills, the short version: a skill is a folder of instructions the agent reads only when the task calls for it. Nothing runs in the background, and there's no server for anyone to host.

Plugins for Claude Code, Cursor and others

A plugin is the same skills, packaged so you install them once rather than per project. Remotion maintains plugins for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot CLI and Kimi Code. If you use one of those agents, this is the least fiddly route.

WebMCP: the part that's still MCP

If you specifically want an agent to control Remotion over a tool protocol, WebMCP is the closest thing left. Remotion Studio, the browser-based preview, exposes tools that let an agent open compositions, play and seek, read the on-screen error with source-mapped stack traces, inspect element outlines, install npm packages, and transcribe audio or remove a video's background.

Two caveats. WebMCP is a draft web platform API, not the same thing as a regular MCP server you add to a config file. And Remotion's docs say that among the major agent harnesses, only Codex supports it so far. Claude Code and Cursor can't use these tools yet. Remotion also notes that the tools' inputs and outputs aren't stable.

How to set up Remotion in Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Cursor

Every command below comes from Remotion's own documentation.

If you still have the old MCP configured

Remotion's migration steps are short:

1. Remove remotion-documentation from your editor's MCP configuration.
2. From inside your Remotion project, run npx remotion skills add.
3. Ask your agent to use /remotion-docs when it needs current documentation. Restart the agent if it doesn't see the new skills.

Claude Code

You have two options. Install the skills into a single project with npx remotion skills add, or install the plugin so it's available everywhere. The Claude Code plugin docs give these terminal commands:

claude plugin marketplace add remotion-dev/claude-code-plugin
claude plugin install remotion@remotion

Restart Claude Code, open a session in the folder where you want your video, and call the plugin's create skill with your prompt:

/remotion:remotion-create Make a promo video for a record store

Note the remotion: prefix. Plugin skills are namespaced; skills added directly to a project are not.

Claude Desktop

The Remotion plugin also installs from the Claude desktop app, but only in the Code side of the app. Remotion's steps: select Code, open Customize in the sidebar, go to Plugins → Discover, search for remotion, and click Add next to the listing from remotion-dev/claude-code-plugin. Claude confirms the plugin is installed and ready.

Remotion doesn't document a setup for the regular Claude chat. Remotion needs a project folder and Node.js, which is what Claude Code provides. If you want MCP servers in Claude's chat side for other tasks, that's a separate setup covered in our Claude Desktop MCP guide.

Cursor

Install the Remotion plugin from the Cursor Marketplace, then restart Cursor or run Developer: Reload Window. After that, Cursor loads the relevant skills automatically when you ask for a Remotion video. You can also call the main skill directly:

/remotion-best-practices Make a promo video for a record store

End-to-end example: from prompt to rendered MP4

Here's the full loop using Remotion's documented beginner flow with Claude Code. You need Node.js and a coding agent installed first. Remotion points out that most coding agents need a paid subscription.

1. Create a blank project.

npx create-video --yes --blank my-video
cd my-video

2. Add the skills and start the preview.

npx remotion skills add
npm run dev

npm run dev opens Remotion Studio, where you'll watch the video update as the agent edits it.

3. Start your agent in a second terminal and prompt.

cd my-video
claude

Then ask for something specific. A prompt with a duration, a size and a look works better than a vague one:

/remotion-create A 5-second 1080p title card for a record store called
Vinyl Week. Black background, the name fades in over the first second,
then a thin orange line draws under it.

4. Review what it wrote. The agent writes a React component and registers it as a composition. The exact code varies from run to run. Here is a simplified, illustrative version of the kind of component you'll get:

import {AbsoluteFill, interpolate, useCurrentFrame} from 'remotion';

export const VinylWeek: React.FC = () => {
  const frame = useCurrentFrame();
  const opacity = interpolate(frame, [0, 30], [0, 1], {
    extrapolateRight: 'clamp',
  });

  return (
    <AbsoluteFill style={{backgroundColor: 'black', justifyContent: 'center', alignItems: 'center'}}>
      <h1 style={{color: 'white', fontSize: 140, opacity}}>Vinyl Week</h1>
    </AbsoluteFill>
  );
};

useCurrentFrame() returns the frame number, and every animation is a function of it. At 30 fps, frames 0 to 30 are the first second. The composition that registers this component sets durationInFrames, fps, width and height, so a 5-second video at 30 fps is 150 frames.

5. Iterate in plain language. Watch Studio and correct what's off: "make the line thicker," "hold the final frame for an extra second," "use Inter for the title." This is where the skills earn their keep. /remotion-markup steers the agent toward patterns that work in Remotion, such as driving every animation from the frame number rather than from CSS transitions, which can drift or flicker in a frame-by-frame render.

6. Render. Ask the agent to use /remotion-render, or run the CLI command from Remotion's render docs yourself:

npx remotion render VinylWeek

Leave out the composition ID and Remotion shows a picker. You can also render from the Render button in Studio.

If you'd rather plan a video's beats and scenes before any code gets written, the HyperFrames Video Blueprint skill does exactly that step. It's a planning skill adapted from HeyGen's HyperFrames, which was itself inspired by Remotion.

Limits worth knowing

It's still code. You're shipping a React project. When a render fails, someone reads a stack trace, and the floor is a working Node.js setup and a terminal.

Agents still guess. Skills reduce wrong API calls; they don't eliminate them. Check timing in Studio before you render, especially on longer videos.

Renders happen on your machine unless you set up cloud rendering. Remotion offers server-side rendering and Remotion Lambda for that, which add their own setup and cloud costs.

Remotion's licence: check it before you use it at work

Remotion's code is public on GitHub, but it isn't under a standard open-source licence. According to the Remotion licence, you can use it for free if you are an individual, a for-profit organisation with up to 3 employees, a non-profit, or an organisation still evaluating Remotion and not yet using it commercially.

Everyone else needs a Company License. Remotion's License & Pricing page describes it as usage-based: per-seat for people who create videos by hand, and per-render for teams building automated video products. The seat option explicitly covers making videos in a local environment including using AI agents and Remotion Studio. So if you work at a company of four or more people and you're prompting Remotion videos with Claude Code, the licence applies to you.

The licence also bars reselling or relicensing your own modified version of Remotion.

FAQ

Is there a Remotion MCP server I can still install?

No. The hosted server behind @remotion/mcp shut down on October 26, 2026. Configs that point to it won't return anything. Install the Agent Skills with npx remotion skills add and use /remotion-docs instead.

Can Claude make Remotion videos without the MCP server?

Yes. The MCP server never made videos. Claude Code writes the React code, and the Remotion skills or plugin guide it. Install the plugin, open a project folder, and prompt with /remotion:remotion-create.

What's the difference between Remotion MCP and Remotion WebMCP?

The MCP server was a hosted documentation index you added to your editor. WebMCP is a set of tools exposed by a running Remotion Studio in your browser, letting an agent play, seek, read errors and inspect compositions. WebMCP is current; the MCP server is not.

Do I need the plugin and the skills?

No. The plugin already includes the Agent Skills. Pick the plugin to have Remotion available in every session, or npx remotion skills add to scope the skills to one project.

Is Remotion free for commercial use?

For individuals and organisations with up to 3 employees, yes, under the Free License terms. Larger for-profit companies need a Company License.

Key points

• The Remotion MCP server shut down on October 26, 2026. Remove remotion-documentation from your config.
• The replacement is Remotion Agent Skills, available as a project install or as a plugin for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and others.
• The full loop is: create a project, add skills, prompt the agent, review in Studio, render with /remotion-render or npx remotion render.
• WebMCP is the only MCP-style option left, and only Codex supports it among the major agents.
• Companies above 3 employees need a Remotion Company License, including for AI-agent workflows.

For more servers that are still running, see our list of the best MCP servers.

If the setup step is where you keep stalling, Taku mirrors a working AI setup into a desktop workspace and runs it, so you can start from something a power user already got working instead of rebuilding their environment. Taku is in Beta, and the Mac app is available now.