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Make videos in Windsurf

Connect Idea to Motion to Windsurf and you can ask for a video the same way you ask for anything else. Windsurf writes the script, plans each scene and writes the animation code; we synthesize the voiceover, time it to the words, render the animation and hand back an MP4. It speaks Streamable HTTP directly, so connecting is one config entry carrying an API key in an Authorization header.

  1. 1Mint a connection key below.
  2. 2Add the config entry to your client and reload it.
  3. 3Connect a voice key, then ask for a video in chat.

01Connect Windsurf

Generate a connection key if this client needs one, then add the server.

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Chat apps

Editors & IDEs

Terminal

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Set up Windsurf

Generate a key, then add the server.

Docs
1

Generate a connection key

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2

Add it to Windsurf

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ideatomotion": {
      "serverUrl": "https://api.ideatomotion.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer vai_YOUR_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Generate a key above to replace vai_YOUR_KEY.

  • Command Palette → “Windsurf: Configure MCP Servers”, or the hammer icon in Cascade.
  • Cascade caps at 100 active tools; past that, servers silently fail to load.

Where the config lives

The exact names Windsurf reads, and what happens when one of them is wrong.

Windsurf reads its MCP servers from a JSON file — ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. The entry goes under mcpServers, with the endpoint in serverUrl. Those names are not what every other client uses, and getting one wrong is not an error, it is silence: the file parses, Windsurf starts, and the server never appears.

Config file
~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
Format
JSON
Root key
mcpServers
Endpoint field
serverUrl
Your key
Written into the file as an Authorization header
Fastest route
Hand-edit the file below, or let the agent write it for you
After saving
Reload or restart Windsurf — MCP config is read when the client starts

02Connect your voice

Narration is synthesized on your own ElevenLabs, Cartesia or Sarvam AI key. Silent motion graphics need none.

Your voice key

Idea to Motion generates the voiceover on your own text-to-speech account. Add an ElevenLabs, Cartesia or Sarvam AI key — it's stored encrypted and never shown again. Rendering is blocked until a key is connected.

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What Windsurf can actually do

Where the line between your assistant and the platform falls, and why it falls there.

Ask for a video from Windsurf's agent panel the same way you ask for a change to the code — the tool calls run beside your editor, and you approve the plan there.

  • It writes the content — a narrated script, a silent shot list, or a keep-and-drop cut plan for a video you upload — and hands it back for approval. Nothing is produced until you say yes.
  • It directs every scene, then writes a self-contained Remotion component for each one. Submitted code is validated and run in a sandbox before it is accepted, so a mistake comes back as a tool error it can fix rather than a broken video.
  • It renders stills of its own scenes on our servers and looks at them, which is why it can correct a card sitting across someone's face without you screenshotting anything.
  • We do the parts a language model should not be doing: voice synthesis, word-level timing, captions, music, assembly and the final render.
  • There is deliberately no export tool. Exporting spends money and picks a quality tier, so it stays a click you make on the platform — and a video you have already paid for re-exports for free.
All 31 MCP tools

A worked example

Type it into the agent panel, in the same thread you use for code.

“Make a 30-second vertical video announcing the dashboard we just shipped.”

What comes back

  1. 1It opens a picker: the looks play as short clips, the narrator voices have samples you can hear, and you choose. Clients that cannot draw a panel get the same list as text.
  2. 2It writes the script and shows it to you. Tell it what to change and it rewrites — the video does not start until you approve.
  3. 3It directs and writes each scene, checking stills as it goes. This is the long part, and it is mostly quiet: a scene submission legitimately holds its request open while the server renders.
  4. 4The finished video appears in your projects here. Watch it, ask for adjustments in the same conversation, then export it from the platform.

Troubleshooting Windsurf

The ways this goes wrong, and most of them go wrong silently.

It loads on its own but disappears once your other servers are on

Cascade caps out at 100 active tools, and past that servers silently fail to load — nothing is reported. This server contributes 31 of them, so a couple of large servers alongside it can push you over the line. Turn off the ones you are not using for this task, or scope them per project.

Windsurf starts fine and the server never appears

Check the names in ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. The entry belongs under mcpServers, and the endpoint goes in serverUrl. These differ between clients — some read mcpServers, some servers, some context_servers — and a wrong one is not an error: the file parses, Windsurf starts, and the server is simply never loaded. Copy the snippet in step 1 rather than adapting one from another client's documentation.

It says it cannot connect, or every tool call comes back 401

A key that is wrong, truncated or revoked gets a 401, and most clients report that as a failed connection rather than as an auth problem. Keys are shown once and stored hashed, so there is no way to read an old one back — generate a fresh one in step 1, then paste the new key over the old one in the config and reload Windsurf. Paste the whole vai_ string including the prefix; the old key can be revoked from the same panel.

You saved the config and nothing changed

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json is the file Windsurf reads for this; a copy anywhere else is never opened. Create it if it does not exist yet, keep the surrounding JSON valid — a trailing comma takes the whole file down, not just this entry — and reload Windsurf, which reads MCP config at startup.

The tools work but it cannot produce the voiceover

Narration and transcription run on your own ElevenLabs, Cartesia or Sarvam AI key rather than ours, so a narrated or recorded video needs one connected — step 2 on this page, or the set_voice_key tool from inside Windsurf. Silent motion graphics need no voice key at all, so "make it a silent motion graphic instead" is a valid way past this.