Popcorn for AI agents

What you can build

• Original AI-generated short films, ads, and explainers

  Describe the story, audience, or goal — Popcorn writes the script, generates clips, narrates, scores, and edits.

• Reaction videos

  Hand Popcorn a YouTube/TikTok URL and get a host reacting to the clip with original commentary and lip-sync.

• UGC-style talking-head videos

  Use a designed or cloned voice with an avatar host to produce ad-style or testimonial videos.

• Mash-ups and remixes

  Pull clips from 1700+ supported sites (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc.) and splice them with newly generated footage.

• Edits driven by scene clipping

  Clip a portion of an existing video by exact time range or by AI-detected scene, then re-narrate, re-score, or re-style it.

• Music videos and AI-scored content

  Generate visuals to fit a track, or generate a custom track to fit visuals — both directions are supported.

Capabilities

• Video generation via Kling, Veo, Sora, Seedance, and HeyGen avatars
• Text-to-speech via ElevenLabs
• Voice cloning and voice design
• Lip-sync for talking-head and avatar shots
• Music generation and licensed background scores
• Auto-generated captions and animated text overlays
• ffmpeg-based composition, transitions, and final render
• Scene clipping by time range or AI-detected scene
• Source-video downloads from 1700+ sites (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc.)

Connect via MCP

Popcorn exposes a Model Context Protocol server at:

https://api.popcorn.co/mcp

Option 1 — OAuth one-click (recommended)

Paste the URL into your agent and approve in the browser. No keys to copy.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "popcorn": {
      "url": "https://api.popcorn.co/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Option 2 — API key (bearer token)

Generate a key from your Popcorn profile (avatar → ⋯ → API Keys → Generate key). Keys start with pk_live_.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "popcorn": {
      "url": "https://api.popcorn.co/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_POPCORN_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Per-client setup (Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Zed, Tasklet) lives in the MCP setup guide. Comprehensive product and API docs are at docs.popcorn.co.

MCP tool reference

• list_projects(limit?, offset?)

  Lists the account's projects, newest first, with the caller's role on each. Start here: every video is made by a project's Showrunner — the AI producer that runs the project — and the other project tools need its `project_id`.

• create_project(title?)

  Starts a new project by hiring a Showrunner for it; the Showrunner then interviews the user in the project chat. Use only when the user has no project or asks for a new one, and confirm first — every call creates another project.

• get_project(project_id)

  Returns one project plus the Showrunner managing it (name, job title, onboarding status). An onboarding status other than `complete` means the Showrunner is still being set up.

• send_message_to_project_showrunner(project_id, message, thread_id?)

  How videos get made and changed: send the user's full request to the project's Showrunner, exactly as the user would type it in the project chat. Returns as soon as the message is accepted; the Showrunner's turn runs asynchronously and can take minutes. Poll `get_project_chat_messages` for the reply.

• get_project_chat_messages(project_id, thread_id?, limit?, before_index?)

  Reads a project chat thread's transcript, newest first, so you can see the Showrunner's reply. Poll every 20–30 seconds after sending. Page backwards with `before_index`.

• get_project_chat_threads(project_id)

  Lists a project's chat threads, most recently active first. Usually unnecessary — the two tools above default to the most recently active thread.

• get_movie(id)

  Reads a movie the Showrunner reported: status, and when `completed` the final `video_url` plus an editable `studio_url`. Share both with the user.

• get_movie_messages(id)

  Reads a movie's production transcript — what the studio did while making it.

• list_movies(limit?, offset?)

  Lists movies belonging to the authenticated account, most recent first.

• get_balance()

  Returns the credit balance available to the authenticated account.

Polling and result contract

1. send_message_to_project_showrunner returns as soon as the message is accepted. The user's Showrunner then works asynchronously; a video typically takes 3–10 minutes.
2. Poll get_project_chat_messages(project_id) every 20–30 seconds. Relay the Showrunner's questions and send the answers back the same way. When it reports the finished movie, get_movie(id) returns video_url and studio_url.
3. Critical: if status is completed but video_url is missing or null, production stopped before delivering the final video. Do not report success — ask the Showrunner with send_message_to_project_showrunner to finish it. The old create_movie and send_movie_message tools are retired.

Example briefs

• 15-second reaction video to https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ — host is upbeat, surprised tone.
• 30s UGC ad for a phone-anxiety app, talking-head style, ElevenLabs voice "Adam", call-to-action at the end.
• 60s explainer about how a transformer attention head works, animated diagrams over a calm narrator.
• 20s mash-up: clip the 1:23–1:43 segment of <youtube-url>, overlay new narration, add captions.

Frequently asked questions