ReelScribe

ReelScribe MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that connects AI assistants to ReelScribe — transcribe Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, and YouTube videos directly from Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and other MCP-compatible clients.

Setup

Hosted connector (Cloudflare Workers)

The endpoint is https://reelscribe.app/api/mcp. Add it as a remote connector in Claude or as an MCP connection in ChatGPT developer mode, then sign in to your ReelScribe account and approve access. Directory publication is a separate review process.

Hosted transcription returns a requestId immediately. Use get_transcription with that ID to retrieve the transcript after processing; submitting a duplicate returns the existing transcript. Account administration is available on the website.

Deploying

1. Deploy the accompanying ReelScribe API OAuth change, including the Convex includeRetention response on /admin/get-user-by-clerk-id.
2. In the production Clerk instance, create and advertise the custom scope reelscribe:mcp, with consent text explaining permission to read transcripts and credit balance, and submit transcriptions that spend credits. Enable CIMD client onboarding, require S256 PKCE, and set the default scopes to reelscribe:mcp. For expanded workflows register an optional separate reelscribe:manage scope, retained under its existing name for compatibility. Its consent text must explain only batch/channel submissions that spend credits. Default scopes are reelscribe:mcp reelscribe:manage; a single-video client may request only reelscribe:mcp. Existing connections must explicitly approve the extra transcription permission on reconnect. Keep opaque access tokens enabled. Allow the intended clients to request the custom scope; enable DCR only for clients needing it.
3. Authenticate Wrangler with permission to deploy Workers in the SIÁN account. If Wrangler lists multiple accounts, set CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID to that account.
4. Run bun run typecheck, bun test, bun run worker:build, then bun run worker:deploy.
5. Verify /health, the public OAuth metadata, an unauthenticated /mcp 401 challenge, and the complete sign-in and transcription flow in both clients.

The branded URL is forwarded by the ReelScribe website to the existing Cloudflare Worker with branded=1, which selects matching OAuth resource metadata. The original https://reelscribe-mcp.sian-agency.workers.dev/mcp endpoint and its OAuth discovery remain available for existing connections. The domain is managed outside Cloudflare, so a direct Worker custom subdomain would require DNS changes.

The Worker holds no shared user API key or Clerk secret. It forwards each caller's token to ReelScribe's API, which verifies it with Clerk and resolves only that token's user. The base OAuth scope permits transcript, credit and job reads and single-video submission. Batch/channel submissions require separately granted reelscribe:manage consent. Despite its legacy name, this scope grants only transcription submission. Even existing management grants cannot access downloads, deletion, analytics or settings.

Local stdio setup remains available below.

1. Get an API Key

Sign up at reelscribe.app (25 free credits) and generate an API key from your API settings.

2. Configure Your MCP Client

Add to your MCP client configuration:

Claude Desktop (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{

"mcpServers": { "reelscribe": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "reelscribe-mcp-server"], "env": { "REELSCRIBE_API_KEY": "rs_your_api_key_here" } } } }

Claude Code (~/.claude.json or project .mcp.json):

{

"mcpServers": { "reelscribe": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "reelscribe-mcp-server"], "env": { "REELSCRIBE_API_KEY": "rs_your_api_key_here" } } } }

Cursor (Settings > MCP):

{

"mcpServers": { "reelscribe": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "reelscribe-mcp-server"], "env": { "REELSCRIBE_API_KEY": "rs_your_api_key_here" } } } }

Available Tools

| transcribe_bulk | Submit a URL list (including URLs read from CSV); tier limits and 1 credit per new video apply. | | transcribe_instagram_channel | Paid Instagram channel scraping, 1–50 reels and optional date filter. Can continue a channel with older reels or new posts. | | list_jobs | Read progress and page through owned batch/channel jobs. |

The nine tools focus on transcription. Downloads, library management, retries, cancellation, analytics, settings and billing are available in the web app. Batch and channel submissions require an API key or explicit additional reelscribe:manage transcription consent; legacy base-only OAuth tokens cannot perform them. Facebook comments remain unsupported. Since 2.3.0 the tools also accept Threads, LinkedIn, X and Bluesky links.

Comment extraction

Set includeComments: true on transcribe_video to request a selection of top comments alongside a new Instagram, TikTok or YouTube transcription. It is off by default and the total cost remains 1 credit. Pinned and creator comments are prioritized where available; YouTube does not expose a pinned flag. Facebook comment extraction is unsupported. This is not a full comment-thread export.

Completed results include a comments array with text, author, likes, isPinned and isCreator; it is null when no comments were returned. stats.comments is the video's total comment count, separate from those rows. Existing matching transcripts are reused as-is, without adding new comments.

{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXUPEow4Itw", "includeComments": true }

Pagination

list_transcriptions returns a page, never a whole library. Pass nextCursor back as cursor while hasMore is true to walk the rest.

The API does not report a library total, so this server does not invent one: libraryTotal is a number only when a response provably covers the entire result set (first page, no further pages), and null otherwise. For a library-wide figure, get_credits reports library.completedTranscriptions — itself a bounded count, flagged with library.isCapped when the real number is higher.

Transcripts in list results are 500-character previews with the full length in transcriptChars; call get_transcription with an id to read one in full.

Storage and retention

There is no storage quota. Per-tier count limits were retired on 2026-07-31 — a library is bounded by time instead, and get_credits reports the retention that applies to the account (unlimited while subscribed, a rolling window otherwise). Transcriptions created before the policy date are never auto-deleted.

Supported Platforms

• Instagram — Reels, Posts (/p/), IGTV (/tv/)
• TikTok — Videos, short links (vm.tiktok.com, vt.tiktok.com)
• YouTube — Videos, Shorts, short links (youtu.be)
• Facebook — Videos (/watch?v=, /videos/), Reels, short links (fb.watch)
• Threads — Video posts (threads.com / threads.net, share links)
• LinkedIn — Public video posts (/posts/, /feed/update/, embed links)
• X — Video posts (x.com / twitter.com, t.co, fxtwitter-style mirrors)
• Bluesky — Video posts (bsky.app/profile/…/post/…)

Example Usage

"Transcribe this TikTok video: https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/123456"

"Check my credit balance"

"List my completed transcriptions"

"Did I already transcribe this video? https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123/"

Pricing

• Free: 25 credits on signup
• Creator: $9.99/mo — 1,000 credits
• Agency: $24.99/mo — 3,000 credits
• Enterprise: $59.99/mo — 10,000 credits

Each transcription costs 1 credit. View pricing

Changelog

2.4.0

• list_transcriptions filters by Reel Board topic and subTopic, and shows each reel's topic. Only sorted reels have one.
• owner now ignores capitals, spaces and @, and matches the handle or the display name.
• transcribe_instagram_channel continues a channel with direction: older for reels you do not have yet, newer for posts since your latest one.

2.1.0

• Optional includeComments on transcribe_video for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, forwarded through the existing API without an extra credit charge.
• Typed comment rows in retrieved transcripts; unsupported Facebook requests are rejected before creating a job.

2.0.0

Compatibility with the ReelScribe /v1 API changes of 2026-07-31. 1.0.5 and earlier report wrong numbers against the current API and should be upgraded.

Breaking:

• list_transcriptions no longer reports total. That field became the length of the page when the endpoint went cursor-paginated, so 1.0.5 answered "how many transcriptions do I have?" with the page size — 100 for a library of 2,000 — and nothing in the response revealed it. Replaced by returned (this page), libraryTotal (a number only when the response covers everything, otherwise null), hasMore and nextCursor.
• list_transcriptions returns 500-character transcript previews plus transcriptChars, not full transcript text. Use get_transcription for the full text.
• get_credits no longer reports storage.limit. Per-tier storage caps were retired; the API now returns -1 ("no limit") for every tier, which rendered as "unlimited" and hid a real 30-day retention window. Replaced by library.completedTranscriptions / library.isCapped and a retention block.

Added:

• cursor and limit parameters on list_transcriptions (default 20, max 200).
• Facebook video and Reel URLs are validated locally, which the API has accepted all along — validate_url and transcribe_video used to reject them before a request was made.
• search_transcriptions reports matchesReturned and states that its window is bounded, so found: false is no longer readable as "never transcribed".

Links

• ReelScribe
• API Documentation
• MCP Protocol

License

MIT