Does the deeplink work if Cursor is not open?

Yes. If the click does nothing at all, Cursor is not installed on this machine. The server URL is on the install page for pasting in by hand.

Can it read text in a screen recording?

Yes. The first answer finds the moment. Ask again with a window of one second and that second comes back at 1560 pixels wide, which is the size at which small UI text stays legible to a model. Name a corner with region and the text is larger again.

Cursor

How to let Cursor watch a video

Click Add to Cursor and it writes the MCP server into Cursor's settings. From then on the agent can call watch_video on any link or on a file in the workspace.

Add to CursorAdds the server to Cursor's MCP settings.

Free plan: 50,000 credits a month, no card needed.

What this changes

The reason this is useful inside an editor is bug reports. Somebody sends a 40-second screen recording of something going wrong; the agent watches it, finds the frame where the UI breaks, reads the error text off the screen, and starts from the line of code that produced it. Without something that can see the recording, that whole chain begins with you writing a description of what you just watched.

Setting it up

01
Click the install button
It opens Cursor and adds the server to your MCP configuration. If nothing happens, Cursor is not installed. Paste the URL into Settings, MCP instead.
02
Sign in
The first tool call opens a browser to approve the connection. It is once per machine.
03
Drop a recording into the chat
A path in the workspace or a URL. Ask what happens, and at what second.

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 ./bugs/report-441.mov. At what second does the list stop rendering?
Read the error message visible in this screen recording.
In this design reference clip, describe the transition between the two states step by step.

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.

Cursor 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.

How a session works What a question costs

Questions

Does the deeplink work if Cursor is not open?: Yes. If the click does nothing at all, Cursor is not installed on this machine. The server URL is on the install page for pasting in by hand.
Can it read text in a screen recording?: Yes. The first answer finds the moment. Ask again with a window of one second and that second comes back at 1560 pixels wide, which is the size at which small UI text stays legible to a model. Name a corner with region and the text is larger again.

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.

ClaudeWeb, desktop and mobile. Opens the connector dialog with the URL filled in.
Claude CodeOne command in the terminal, then /mcp to sign in.
```
claude mcp add --transport http playhead https://mcp.tryplayhead.com/mcp
```
No deeplink exists for the terminal, so this is the install.
ChatGPTTurn on Developer mode under Settings, Connectors, Advanced first.
VS CodeOpens VS Code and adds the server to your MCP configuration.
CodexTwo commands in the terminal. The second one signs you in.
```
codex mcp add playhead --url https://mcp.tryplayhead.com/mcp
codex mcp login playhead
```
Both write to ~/.codex/config.toml, which the CLI, the IDE extension and the desktop app share.

Claude guide Claude Code guide ChatGPT guide VS Code guide

Stop describing the video to your agent.

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