Runsheet MCP

runsheet-mcp

The local MCP server for Runsheet, the YouTube autopilot. It connects Claude, Cursor or any MCP client to your YouTube channel, and uploads videos from your own machine straight to YouTube.

npx -y runsheet-mcp

Published on npm as runsheet-mcp. No install step, no dependencies, Node 20 or newer.

Claude makes your videos: the Claude Code plugin

This repository is also a Claude Code plugin marketplace. The runsheet plugin carries its own copy of this server, started with node so it is up at once (no npm lookup), and adds six skills your own Claude runs:

/plugin marketplace add KalpeshMahida0212/runsheet-mcp
/plugin install runsheet@runsheet

Paste a Runsheet API key when it asks, then say "Fill next week's Shorts" or "Make a five minute video on how I plan my week". It can run every week with no one there; see plugins/runsheet/skills/runsheet-shorts. More at https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in/claude.

What it does

• Uploads a video file from your disk to YouTube and schedules it. The file is streamed from your machine straight to Google. It never touches Runsheet's servers.
• Lists the video files in a folder, with size, duration, orientation and whether a thumbnail sits next to each one, so the model can see what there is to upload.
• Forwards every other Runsheet tool to the hosted server with the same key: reading your channel and running order, writing titles, descriptions, tags and chapters, thumbnails, and scheduling.

Why a local server as well as the hosted one

Runsheet also has a hosted MCP server at https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in/api/mcp. For reading your channel, writing copy and scheduling, that is the simpler option: nothing to run on your machine. Setup is at https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in/mcp.

This package exists for the one thing a hosted server cannot do. MCP carries JSON-RPC messages and has no file channel, and a remote server cannot read your disk, so uploading a video is impossible over a hosted endpoint. A process running on your own machine can do both.

Your video never touches Runsheet's servers

To upload, this server asks Runsheet to open a YouTube resumable upload session, then streams the file from your disk directly to Google. Runsheet sees the title, description, tags and a session URL. It never receives a byte of the video. That is the same path the upload in Runsheet's website takes.

Setup

1. Make an API key

Sign in at https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in, open Settings, then API keys, and create a key.

• To upload, tick the Upload from this machine permission. Without it, uploads are refused.
• Tick any other permissions you want the forwarded tools to have. New keys are read only unless you tick more.
• The key starts with rsk_live_ and is shown once. Permissions are fixed when a key is made, so a leaked read-only key can never gain write access. To change permissions, make a new key.

2. Add the server to your client

The key goes in the RUNSHEET_API_KEY environment variable.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env RUNSHEET_API_KEY=rsk_live_your_key_here --transport stdio runsheet -- npx -y runsheet-mcp

Cursor: add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (all projects) or .cursor/mcp.json (one project).

Claude Desktop: add this to claude_desktop_config.json, found through Settings, Developer, Edit Config. It lives at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS and %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "runsheet": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "runsheet-mcp"],
      "env": { "RUNSHEET_API_KEY": "rsk_live_your_key_here" }
    }
  }
}

Any other MCP client that can launch a stdio server takes the same command, arguments and environment variable.

The tool list is fetched from Runsheet when the server starts, so a tool added to Runsheet appears here without a new version of this package.

Requirements

• Node 20 or newer.
• ffprobe is optional. It ships with ffmpeg. With it, Short versus long video is detected from the file's dimensions. Without it, pass kind yourself.

Tools

Local, only in this package:

A thumbnail is picked up automatically if an image sits next to the video with the same name, or is named thumbnail or thumbnail_16x9 (.png, .jpg, .jpeg or .webp, under 2MB).

Forwarded to the hosted server, subject to your key's permissions:

• Reading your channel, running order, library and playlists
• Character counting, line breaks and bold text
• Titles, hooks, descriptions, channel descriptions, tags and chapters
• Typeset thumbnails, and generated thumbnail artwork with its own permission
• Scheduling, retitling, retagging, playlist filing, and saving ideas to the Ideas list

Two things it will not do

It cannot make anything public on the spot. You choose who can watch each upload with privacy: public goes up private and YouTube makes it public itself at a publish time at least fifteen minutes away, unlisted goes up now for people with the link, and private goes up now as a private draft. Public right now is left to you, in Runsheet or Studio. This is enforced on Runsheet's server, not by a prompt, because a model that publishes the wrong file to a real audience cannot take it back.

It deletes nothing on its own. Deleting a video is a separate permission on the hosted server, never ticked by default: it needs the video's exact title and always waits ten minutes with an Undo emailed to the creator.

Upload limits

Until Runsheet's YouTube API compliance audit clears, uploads are capped at:

• 25 a day per Runsheet account, and
• 80 a day across all of Runsheet.

A large batch uploads up to the limit and then stops, with a message saying when the allowance returns. YouTube's quota resets at midnight Pacific time.

Environment variables

RUNSHEET_URL exists for development against a local copy of Runsheet. You will not need it. Your key is sent to whatever address it names, so never point it at a server you do not trust.

Troubleshooting

"RUNSHEET_API_KEY is not set": the key is not reaching the process. Most clients need it under env in the server config rather than in your shell.

"This API key does not have the upload permission": make a new key with Upload from this machine ticked. Existing keys cannot be upgraded.

"That API key is not valid, or it has been revoked": the key was mistyped or deleted. Make a new one under Settings, API keys.

The client shows no tools: check your client's MCP logs. This server writes its diagnostics to stderr and never to stdout, because anything on stdout that is not a JSON-RPC message corrupts the stream.

npx is not found on Windows: some clients cannot launch npx directly. Use "command": "cmd" and "args": ["/c", "npx", "-y", "runsheet-mcp"].

Privacy Policy

The full policy is at https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in/privacy. In short, for this extension:

• What it collects. Nothing of its own. It runs on your machine and sends your API key, and the arguments of the tools you call, to Runsheet at https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in. When you upload, the video file is streamed from your disk straight to YouTube through a Runsheet upload session; the file itself never passes through or is stored on Runsheet's servers.
• How it is used and stored. Runsheet stores your email, the metadata of videos you plan or publish (titles, descriptions, tags, schedule times), a daily count of views on your own videos, and your API key only as a SHA-256 hash. It records that an AI generation happened and what it cost in credits, to keep your balance, but not the text you sent. Thumbnails the AI designer draws are stored so you can attach them later.
• Third parties. YouTube (Google) receives the uploads and metadata changes you make, through the YouTube Data API. Google's Gemini API receives the text of drafting and thumbnail requests to produce them. Runsheet does not sell or share your data, and does not use YouTube data for advertising.
• Retention. Disconnecting a channel in Runsheet deletes its tokens and what Runsheet recorded for it. Your account and everything in it are deleted within seven days of asking. A revoked API key stops working immediately.
• Contact. kalpesh@buildifyapp.in

Links

• Runsheet: https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in
• MCP setup guide: https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in/mcp
• Issues: https://github.com/KalpeshMahida0212/runsheet-mcp/issues

License

MIT. See LICENSE.