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How to Connect MockClip to Claude and ChatGPT (MCP Setup Guide)

·6 min read

Claude and ChatGPT can now drive MockClip directly — describe a conversation in plain English, get back a pre-filled animation editor URL, preview, export. This guide walks through the 2-minute setup for both clients.

MockClip ChatGPT template showing a Claude-style conversation

What is MCP and why use it?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a standard way for AI assistants to call external tools. Once MockClip is connected, you can say things like "Make a fake Tinder animation with three profiles, swipe right on the last one and make it a match" and the assistant returns an editor link ready to preview and render.

No screen recording, no manual data entry, no back-and-forth — prompt in, video editor out.

Step 1 — Get a free API key

  1. Sign up or sign in at mockclip.com (Google or GitHub).
  2. Visit mockclip.com/account.
  3. Click Generate. The raw key appears once (starts with sk_mc_). Copy it now — you won't see it again. If you lose it, just revoke and generate a new one.
  4. The page also shows a ready-to-paste Claude Desktop JSON snippet with your key pre-filled.

Step 2 — Connect Claude Desktop

Option A — GUI (recommended, ~1 minute):

Claude Desktop's "Add custom connector" dialog currently only has a URL field (no separate Bearer-token field), so we embed your key directly in the URL.

  1. Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector.
  2. Paste the Claude Desktop URL shown on your account page — it looks like https://mockclip.com/api/mcp?key=sk_mc_....
  3. Leave OAuth fields empty.
  4. Save. Restart Claude Desktop once.

Treat that URL like a password — anyone with it can call MCP as you. Revoke on /account if it leaks.

Option B — config file (advanced):

If you'd rather keep the key in headers instead of the URL, paste this into claude_desktop_config.json (Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\\Claude\\):

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

Restart Claude Desktop. Ask it: "What MCP tools do you have available?" — you should see the MockClip tools listed.

Step 3 — Connect ChatGPT (Pro / Team / Enterprise)

  1. ChatGPT → Settings → Connectors → Add MCP server.
  2. URL: https://mockclip.com/api/mcp
  3. Authorization: Bearer sk_mc_YOUR_KEY_HERE
  4. Save. The MockClip tools become available in new chats.

Free ChatGPT can't add MCP connectors — OpenAI gates that feature to paid plans. If you're on free ChatGPT, use Claude Desktop instead; Claude is free too.

Available tools

Once connected, your assistant has these tools:

  • create_chatgpt_conversation
  • create_imessage_conversation
  • create_whatsapp_conversation
  • create_instagram_dm_conversation
  • create_tinder_animation
  • create_reddit_thread
  • create_phone_call
  • create_phone_call_notification
  • create_imessage_notification

Each returns a URL that opens the MockClip editor with your animation pre-filled. Preview, tweak, export as MP4.

Example prompts

  • "Make me a fake ChatGPT conversation where someone asks for career advice and gets a helpful reply."
  • "Create an iMessage between 'Mom' and me where she's asking when I'm coming home for dinner."
  • "Build a Tinder animation with 3 profiles — swipe right on the last one and make it a match."
  • "Fake a Reddit thread in r/AskReddit with a funny top comment chain."

Free vs Pro

Identical tool set on both plans. Differences:

FreePro
Watermark on exportYesNo
Rate limit5 calls / min60 calls / min
Active keys33
All 9 tools✅✅
Image URLs (Unsplash, DALL·E, etc.)✅✅

Upgrade to Pro is a one-time payment.

Troubleshooting

  • 401 Unauthorized: key is mistyped, missing the Bearer prefix, or was revoked. Re-check at /account.
  • 429 Rate limit: you're over 5/min (free) or 60/min (Pro). Wait 60 seconds.
  • Tools don't appear: restart your MCP client fully after adding the connector.
  • Image fields empty in export: image URLs must be from the supported hosts list (Unsplash, Imgur, Cloudinary, DALL·E, etc.). Others are dropped silently.

Scripting & CI — download videos programmatically

Because export is fully client-side (the MP4 is rendered in your browser, not on our servers), a plain curl against a shortlink won't give you an MP4 — it'll return the editor page HTML. To fetch videos from scripts, a CI job, or agentic tools like Claude Code, drive a headless browser. MockClip's shortlinks already auto-run the export on load, so the script just needs to open the URL and catch the resulting download.

Minimal Playwright example (Node.js):

npm install playwright
npx playwright install chromium

// fetch-mockclip.js
const { chromium } = require("playwright");

(async () => {
  const [url, out = "out.mp4"] = process.argv.slice(2);
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const ctx = await browser.newContext({ acceptDownloads: true });
  const page = await ctx.newPage();
  await page.goto(url);
  const download = await page.waitForEvent("download", { timeout: 120_000 });
  await download.saveAs(out);
  await browser.close();
  console.log("Saved", out);
})();

Run it:

node fetch-mockclip.js "https://mockclip.com/e/abc123" my-video.mp4

This works for any MockClip shortlink — whether generated by the MCP server, copy-pasted from a chat, or built by your own tooling. Pair it with the MCP server in Claude Code and you have a fully programmatic "prompt → MP4 on disk" pipeline.

Security

We're actively tracking the latest MCP specification and rolling out the most compatible, secure auth flows (including OAuth 2.1 with PKCE) as clients add support — the goal is to shrink the attack surface to near zero. Until every major client supports the Bearer-token field natively, the URL-embedded key is a pragmatic fallback. Treat it like a password, and revoke on /account if it ever leaks.

Next steps

Connected? Try your first prompt. For more ideas, see AI conversation video content ideas or the best AI content creation tools for 2026.

Related MockClip templates and guides

Once the integration is wired up, the most common workflow is driving the ChatGPT template from a prompt, then refining the output in the editor. For background on the template itself, read how to create a fake ChatGPT conversation video and the streaming-text animation guide. MCP also covers other templates — try prompting for a fake iMessage conversation to see it work across surfaces.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is MockClip MCP free?

Yes. You can connect and use MockClip from Claude or ChatGPT on the free plan — exports just include a small MockClip watermark. Pro removes the watermark and raises the rate limit from 5 calls/min to 60.

Does it work with free ChatGPT?

No. Adding MCP connectors in ChatGPT requires a Pro, Team, or Enterprise plan — that's an OpenAI limit, not ours. Claude Desktop works on any tier.

What if my key stops working?

A 401 usually means the key was revoked or mistyped. Go to mockclip.com/account, revoke the old one, generate a new one, and paste it into your client again.

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