Codex
How to let Codex watch a video
Run `codex mcp add playhead --url https://mcp.tryplayhead.com/mcp`, then `codex mcp login playhead` to sign in. Both write to ~/.codex/config.toml, so the CLI, the IDE extension and the desktop app all pick it up.
One command
codex mcp add playhead --url https://mcp.tryplayhead.com/mcp
codex mcp login playheadFree plan: 50,000 credits a month, no card needed.
What this changes
The login is a separate command and it is not optional. Without it the connector refuses every call, so a configuration that looks right produces no tools at all. The upside of Codex's design is that one file serves all three: the terminal, the extension and the app share ~/.codex/config.toml, so this is done once rather than three times.
Setting it up
- 01
Add the server
codex mcp add playhead --url https://mcp.tryplayhead.com/mcp
- 02
Sign in
codex mcp login playhead opens a browser. Without this step the server is registered and cannot be used.
- 03
Check it took
codex mcp list should show playhead. If the tools are missing in a running session, restart it.
Things worth asking it
Every one of these comes back with the second attached, so you can open the video at that moment and check it yourself.
- Watch this clip and list the on-screen text with timestamps.
- At what second does the camera move in this shot?
Ask once wide, then as narrow as you like
The first question is the one that watches the video, and it costs the most. Every question after it reads what that look already found, so it comes back quickly and costs a fraction. Ask six things about one advert and you pay for one reading and five follow-ups.
Codex does this for you. It keeps the handle from the first answer and sends it back with the next question, so you can simply keep asking.
Questions
- `codex mcp add` says it needs a command, not a URL
- Then the CLI predates the `--url` flag, which arrived in codex-cli 0.146. Upgrade, or write the entry into ~/.codex/config.toml by hand: a `[mcp_servers.playhead]` block with `url` and `auth = "oauth"`. OpenAI's published MCP page still describes the older behaviour.
- It is added but no tools appear
- The login is a second command. `codex mcp add` only records the address; `codex mcp login playhead` is what obtains the token, and without it this server answers 401 and Codex lists nothing.
Or somewhere else
One account, every client. The connection is attached to you rather than to a machine, so adding a second one costs nothing.