Connect an AI assistant with MCP

What This Is

MCP is the standard plug that lets an AI assistant call another product's tools directly, so you stop copying links and transcripts between windows. QuickSnip runs an MCP server at one URL, and an assistant connected to it can search your library, read a recording back as text, and upload a file for you.

What Works Today

Not every AI app can carry an API key yet, so check yours before you start.

Client	Works today
Claude Code	Yes, one command
Cursor	Yes, a JSON config file
Windsurf	Yes, a JSON config file
VS Code with GitHub Copilot	Yes, a JSON config file
The Claude desktop app and claude.ai	Only if Claude has enabled request headers for your account
ChatGPT	Not yet, there is nowhere to put an API key

What the Assistant Can Do

Four tools, and the limits on each are worth knowing before you wire anything up.

Read a recording from its link. Give the assistant a share link or a recording id and it gets the transcript, the chapters, and a set of still frames, without downloading the video. This works only on recordings whose link is set so anyone with the link can watch. A private recording, a password-protected one, a recording inside a team that restricts access by email domain, and a link that never existed all come back the same way, as not available, so an assistant cannot use this to discover whether a private recording exists.

List your recordings. Most recent first, across every folder unless the assistant names one. It returns 20 at a time and 50 at most, and it only ever returns recordings you own.

Search your recordings. This matches the title and the AI summary, so it finds your onboarding walkthrough by name but not a phrase spoken halfway through a video. Searching the full transcript is not supported yet. You get 5 results by default and 20 at most.

Upload a file. The assistant hands QuickSnip the file contents and gets a share link back. Uploads are private unless the assistant is told to make one public, so nothing becomes shareable by accident. The file has to be 8 MiB or smaller, which rules out full-length screen recordings, and uploading needs a Pro or Team plan. For anything bigger, use the CLI instead, covered in Using QuickSnip from an agent or script.

Listing, searching, and uploading all need you to name an organization. The assistant never guesses which one, so have your organization id ready before you start.

Rate limits apply per API key. You get 60 tool calls a minute and 1,000 an hour, and searches are capped at 20 a minute on top of that. Past any of those, the assistant gets a wait-and-retry error rather than a wrong answer.

Create an API Key

The MCP server authenticates with the same API key the QuickSnip CLI uses, and the CLI is how you create one. There is no page in the dashboard that shows a key.

1. Install the CLI. It needs Node 20 or later.

npm i -g quicksnip

2. Log in. This opens your browser once, and the key is created and stored when you sign in.

quicksnip login

3. Print the key. On macOS and Linux it lives here.

cat ~/.config/quicksnip/credentials.json

On Windows, use this instead.

type %APPDATA%\quicksnip\credentials.json

The file lists one entry per server. Copy the apiKey value under https://quicksnip.com. It is 36 characters long, a run of letters, numbers and dashes, and it does not expire until you revoke it.

If you would rather start from the dashboard, click your name at the bottom of the sidebar and choose Account. The Agents & CLI card there gives you the same login command.

Find Your Organization Id

Listing, searching, and uploading all need an organization id. The CLI prints every organization you belong to, one per line, id first.

quicksnip orgs

Paste the id you want into your assistant's instructions, or just tell the assistant to use that organization when you ask it something.

Connect Your Assistant

The server lives at one address, and every client needs the same two things, that URL and your key in an Authorization header.

https://quicksnip.com/api/mcp

Wherever you see YOUR_KEY below, paste the key you copied. Restart the client after a config change, because that is what makes it read the file again.

Claude Code

One command adds it.

claude mcp add --transport http quicksnip https://quicksnip.com/api/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY"

That adds QuickSnip to the current project only. Add --scope user to the same command to get it in every project instead. Then confirm it connected.

claude mcp list

The add command does not test your key, so this list is the real confirmation. Note that your key appears in the command itself, so avoid running it where your terminal is being recorded or shared.

Cursor

Add the server to ~/.cursor/mcp.json to use it everywhere. The project-level .cursor/mcp.json works too, but that file usually gets committed, so keep your key out of it.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quicksnip": {
      "url": "https://quicksnip.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add the server to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. The address field has a different name here.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quicksnip": {
      "serverUrl": "https://quicksnip.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code with GitHub Copilot

Add the server to .vscode/mcp.json in your project. The top-level key here is servers rather than mcpServers.

{
  "servers": {
    "quicksnip": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://quicksnip.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Any Other Client

Most other clients take the Cursor shape above, an mcpServers object holding a url and a headers object. If yours asks you to pick a transport, choose Streamable HTTP, or the plain HTTP option if that is the only wording offered. Do not pick SSE, and do not pick the option that runs a local command.

The Claude Desktop App and claude.ai

Claude's own apps can take a custom connector that carries an API key, but only if Claude has enabled request headers for your account.

1. Open Settings, go to connectors, and add a custom connector.
2. Paste https://quicksnip.com/api/mcp as the URL.
3. For authentication, choose No sign-in.
4. Under Request headers, add a header named Authorization with the value Bearer YOUR_KEY.

Claude sends exactly what you type in that value, so the word Bearer and the space after it both matter. Authentication cannot be changed after a connector is created, so to swap the key you remove the connector and add it again.

If the dialog has no Request headers section, the feature is not enabled for your account and there is no other way to hand Claude the key. Use Claude Code instead, which works for everyone.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT cannot reach QuickSnip yet. Its connectors only accept a server that either signs you in with OAuth or needs no sign-in at all, and there is no field anywhere for an API key. QuickSnip's server needs a key, so the two cannot meet until QuickSnip supports signing in with OAuth, which it does not do today.

Try It

Once the server shows up in your client, ask it for something ordinary. Any of these make a good first test.

Summarize the QuickSnip recording at https://quicksnip.com/s/CdU5nkL1CogC3oh

Search my QuickSnip recordings for the checkout bug and tell me what the most recent one covers

Upload this screenshot to QuickSnip and give me the share link

The first one works on any public QuickSnip link, including one a colleague sent you. The second and third need your organization id, so include it if the assistant asks.

Privacy and Safety

Your key acts as you. It is the same key the CLI and the desktop app use, so it can do everything they can, not only the four MCP tools. Treat it like a password. Never commit it to a repository and never paste it into a chat message.

Nothing becomes public on its own. Uploads through MCP are private by default. Reading a recording by link only ever works on recordings you or someone else already set to anyone with the link, and an assistant cannot change the sharing on a recording that already exists.

The assistant cannot delete or rename anything. The four tools above are the whole surface. There is no delete, no move, no sharing change, and no access to billing or team settings.

Revoke a key whenever you want. This invalidates it on the server and removes the local copy, so every client using it stops working immediately.

quicksnip auth revoke

Logging in again issues a fresh key.

quicksnip login

Deleting your QuickSnip account removes every key with it.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What it means
"User not authenticated"	The Authorization header is missing, or the key is wrong. Check for a truncated paste or a stray space, and confirm the header reads Bearer then a space then the key.
"An API key is required"	The request arrived with a browser session instead of an API key. MCP needs an API key from quicksnip login.
The client never lists any QuickSnip tools	It did not connect. Confirm the URL ends in /api/mcp, then restart the client, which is what picks up a config change.
"Unsupported MCP-Protocol-Version"	This only shows up on a request sent after the connection is already open, never while connecting. QuickSnip's handshake always succeeds and settles on a revision it speaks (2025-06-18, or one of the two before it), even when your client offers something newer. Seeing this afterward means a later request reused a revision the handshake never agreed to. Restart the client so it picks up the negotiated revision.
The assistant says a recording is not available	Its link is not set to anyone with the link, or it has a password, or the owning team restricts access by email domain. The same three rules are explained in Using QuickSnip from an agent or script.
"Rate limit exceeded"	You passed 60 calls a minute, 1,000 an hour, or 20 searches a minute. The error carries the number of seconds to wait.
"upgrade_required" on an upload	Uploading needs a Pro or Team plan. Everything else on this page works on the free plan.
"payload_too_large"	The file is over 8 MiB. Upload it with the CLI instead.
"org_not_accessible"	The organization id is wrong, or you are not a member of it. Run quicksnip orgs for the right one.
"query_too_short"	A search needs at least two characters.
A search finds nothing you know is there	Search covers titles and AI summaries, not transcript text. Try a word from the title.