Fast Video Cataloger

Fast Video Cataloger MCP server

Search, view and tag your local video library from an AI assistant.

Fast Video Cataloger keeps a searchable catalog of your own video files on Windows: scene thumbnails, keywords, transcripts and faces. This MCP server lets an assistant such as Claude work with that catalog. You ask for footage in your own words; the assistant searches, looks at the actual shots and does the filing for you.

• Find videos and moments by what was said, with timecodes
• Find scenes by describing the picture ("a drone shot over a city at night"), nothing tagged first
• Fetch scene thumbnails so the assistant can see and judge a shot
• With an Editor key: add or remove keywords, build bins, index new videos

It runs against the Fast Video Cataloger server on your own computer. No video is uploaded; the assistant receives the titles, transcript lines and scene images it asks for.

More: MCP server for your video library

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11 (x64)
• Fast Video Cataloger 10.4 or later. The free 30-day trial works. fvc-mcp.exe is also installed with the program, together with the .NET 10 runtime it needs.
• Your catalog shared through the Fast Video Cataloger server: in the program, open the start page's Server section and click Setup. The assistant connects to the server, not to the desktop program, so it works with the program closed.
• An API key: Manage Users in the same Server section. Viewer to search and read, Editor to also tag and build bins.

Install

Claude Desktop: one click

Download fvc-mcp-<version>.mcpb from Releases and open it. Claude Desktop asks for the server address (leave http://localhost:8754 when the server runs on this computer) and your API key.

Claude Desktop: config file

Use the copy installed with Fast Video Cataloger. In claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fast-video-cataloger": {
      "command": "C:\\Program Files\\FastVideoCataloger\\fvc-mcp.exe",
      "env": {
        "FVC_SERVER_URL": "http://localhost:8754",
        "FVC_API_KEY": "fvc_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add fast-video-cataloger --env FVC_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8754 --env FVC_API_KEY=fvc_your_key_here "--" "C:\Program Files\FastVideoCataloger\fvc-mcp.exe"

Keep the quotes around "--" in PowerShell.

Gemini CLI

gemini mcp add fast-video-cataloger "C:\Program Files\FastVideoCataloger\fvc-mcp.exe" -s user -e FVC_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8754 -e FVC_API_KEY=fvc_your_key_here

Full setup, things to try and troubleshooting: Connect an AI Assistant (MCP).

Configuration

Variable	Meaning
FVC_SERVER_URL	Address of your catalog server. Default http://localhost:8754.
FVC_API_KEY	The API key.
FVC_MCP_LOG_LEVEL	Warning by default; Information or Debug when a connection will not come up. Logs go to stderr.

Tools (23)

Tool	What it does
search_videos	Find videos by free text or by keyword.
search_scenes	Find individual scenes, with their timecodes.
search_scenes_semantic	Find scenes by describing the picture, or scenes that look like a given one. Needs the visual search index and, for descriptions, the Visual search model on the server.
search_transcripts	Find spoken words, with their video and timecode.
search_actors	Find people by name or tag.
list_keywords	Every keyword in the catalog, so the assistant knows what it can search for.
get_video	One catalog entry in full.
get_video_scenes	A video's scene thumbnails in timecode order.
get_video_transcript	The transcript as timed lines.
get_video_tags, get_video_actors	Keywords and cast.
get_scene_image	The thumbnail image itself, so the assistant can see the shot.
catalog_stats, list_bins, get_bin_videos	Catalog size, the build serving it, and existing bins.
tag_video, tag_scene	Add keywords to a video or a single scene. Editor key.
untag_video, untag_scene	Remove named keywords again. Editor key.
create_bin, add_video_to_bin	Build a collection. Editor key.
index_video, list_videos_needing_indexing	Index catalog entries that have no thumbnails yet. Editor key.

It cannot delete videos or bins, take a video out of a bin, play video or drive the player.

Source

src/FvcMcpServer is the source of the fvc-mcp.exe shipped with Fast Video Cataloger, copied from each release. It is a thin client over the Fast Video Cataloger server's REST API: it holds no state and every tool is one or two REST calls. Build with the .NET 10 SDK:

dotnet publish src/FvcMcpServer -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained false -p:PublishSingleFile=true

Released builds are code-signed by VideoStorm Sweden AB. Issues and pull requests are welcome; the code here follows the version in Fast Video Cataloger, so accepted changes ship with the next release.

License

MIT for the source in this repository, see LICENSE. Bundled packages: THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. Fast Video Cataloger itself is commercial software with a free 30-day trial.