An MCP (Model Contex Protocol) Server to play and control movies using VLC.
Vlc MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on Vlc directly instead of describing what you should do. An MCP (Model Contex Protocol) Server to play and control movies using VLC.
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server to play and control movies using the VLC media player. Use any MCP client to control play videos remotely (e.g. awesome-mcp-clients)
Once Vlc is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:
Testing — Use mcp-client-for-testing to test the tools of the server using the json config using the localYou will need 5 environment variables: ROOT_VIDEO_FOLDER, VLC_HTTP_HOST, VLC_HTTP_PORT, VLC_HTTP_PASSWORD, DISPLAY. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.
Installation goes through your MCP client rather than a global install: point it at mcp-client-for-testing on PyPI and it is fetched when the client starts. The copy-paste blocks for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor are further down this page.
Among the developer tooling options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. Vlc's toolset — Testing — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow.
SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Testing | Use [mcp-client-for-testing](https://github.com/piebro/mcp-client-for-testing) to test the tools of the server using the json config using the local path. |
{
"mcpServers": {
"vlc": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["mcp-client-for-testing"],
"env": {
"ROOT_VIDEO_FOLDER": "your-value",
"VLC_HTTP_HOST": "your-value",
"VLC_HTTP_PORT": "your-value",
"VLC_HTTP_PASSWORD": "your-value",
"DISPLAY": "your-value"
}
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| ROOT_VIDEO_FOLDER | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| VLC_HTTP_HOST | Endpoint or connection string the server talks to. | Optional |
| VLC_HTTP_PORT | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| VLC_HTTP_PASSWORD | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| DISPLAY | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
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