Toads for AI assistants

Toads is a screen recorder and video editor for the Mac. This repository connects an AIassistant, such as Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any other MCP app, to Toads, so you can ask for an edit inplain words: "tidy this up, add captions and a title, zoom in on the demo and export an MP4". The assistant makes theedit inside Toads, one step at a time, and you watch it happen.

Every change is a normal Undo step in Toads.
You approve which project, folders and export location the assistant can reach.
Your original recordings are never changed.
Everything runs on your Mac. Toads is a local MCP server; there is no account to sign in to and no cloud server.

This repository holds the connection files and documentation. The Toads app itself is downloaded fromtoads.io/download.

What an assistant can do

Find and understand your videos: list and open projects, read the transcript, look at frames or a contactsheet of a whole edit, and see the timeline, scenes, layout and audio waveform.
Clean up: remove filler words ("um", "uh") and long pauses in one step, cut or restore words straight from thetranscript, and fix misheard words.
Edit the timeline: split, trim, speed up, reorder, duplicate and remove clips, cut out a stretch, and insertanother video.
Make it look good: zooms, cursor and click effects, backgrounds, canvas shape (16:9, square, vertical), cameralayouts and camera background removal.
Text and effects: titles and text in the built-in styles, stickers, spotlights, pictures, GIFs, sounds andmusic.
Captions and export: generate and style captions, save caption files, and export the finished video.

Requirements

A Mac with macOS 15 or later.
The website edition of Toads, 4.0.0 or later, from toads.io/download (7-day freetrial, then a license). The Mac App Store edition does not include the assistant connection.
In Toads, open Settings › AI assistants and turn the connection on.

Set up

The easiest way is from Toads itself: Settings › AI assistants has one-click setup for the Claude app, Claude Codeand Codex, and Copy Settings for other apps. Move Toads to your Applications folder first.

Claude app: click Add to Claude in Toads' settings, or download Toads.mcpb from thelatest release and open it. Then start a new chat.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --scope user toads -- /Applications/Toads.app/Contents/MacOS/toads-mcp

Gemini CLI:

gemini extensions install https://github.com/854Labs/toads

Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Zed and other MCP apps: add this server to the app's MCP settings (also inmcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "toads": {
      "command": "/Applications/Toads.app/Contents/MacOS/toads-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

The first time a new app connects, Toads asks you to allow it. Then ask the assistant to start with Toads' status,and it will request access to the project you want to edit.

Privacy Policy

The Toads connection runs entirely on your Mac. The toads-mcp program talks to your assistant app over standardinput and output, and to the running Toads app over a local connection. It does not send anything to 854 Labs.

What the assistant can see: only what you approve. Whatever Toads gives the assistant can reach thatassistant's AI provider: transcripts, frames it asks for, project, file and folder names, document excerpts, text inyour project, template names and Speaker Notes, and, if you allow recording, screen and window titles, thumbnailsand device names. Your assistant app may keep its own chat history.
What stays on your Mac: your original videos and files. Toads keeps no copies of your projects anywhere else.
What Toads sends: nothing, except Pixabay stock searches if you turn on "Search Pixabay"; the search words gothrough Toads' server to Pixabay. No analytics.

Full details: Toads Privacy Policy andAI assistants: privacy and limits.

Support

Guide: toads.io/docs/ai-assistants
Help: toads.io/support or [email protected]

License

The files in this repository are MIT licensed (see LICENSE). The Toads app is commercial software from854 Labs LLC.

Toads for AI assistants