Vimeo MCP Server & CLI

What is the Vimeo MCP server & CLI?

The Vimeo MCP server & CLI is a free, open source program that lets AI agents read and organize your Vimeo library for you, in 2 ways. The MCP server is what an AI app like Claude, Codex or Cursor connects to, through MCP (Model Context Protocol), the open standard AI apps use to call outside tools.

You ask in plain language. Your AI picks the right tool, and the server makes the call to Vimeo's API, with your own token.

The CLI is the same program as commands. vimeo-cli list-videos runs the same code your AI runs when you ask what's in your library, whether an agent like Claude Code runs it or you do.

What can you ask it?

Once it's set up, you ask the way you'd ask an assistant. These are real prompts it handles:

Try asking
What's in my Vimeo library, and how much of it is unfiled?
Read the transcript of the workshop and write show notes.
Generate chapter markers for that talk from its transcript and add them.
Move every video with Workshop in the title into the Workshops folder.
Which videos are set to public that shouldn't be?
Which of my videos have no tags?

The fourth one shows why this is useful. Filing a back catalog on vimeo.com is one drag per video, and here it's one call for up to 100.

How to install the Vimeo MCP server

Pick your app in the box at the top of this page. Each one is a single command or a pasted block, after you create a Vimeo personal access token.

Set up Vimeo

The server uses a personal access token from your own Vimeo app. It takes about 2 minutes.

Set it as VIMEO_PAT in your app's config. To revoke it, delete it in the same Authentication section, and it stops working everywhere at once.

Check that it works

Run the doctor. It checks the token, names any missing scope, and says which plan the account is on.

npx -y @thenavidm/vimeo-mcp-cli doctor

A delete that fails with a permission error almost always means the token lacks the delete scope. Scopes can't be added, so generate a new token.

Use the Vimeo CLI

The CLI is the same 43 tools as commands. AI agents that run commands, like Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode, use it on their own, and you can type the same commands in a terminal or a script.

Every tool name becomes a command with dashes, so add_videos_to_folder runs as vimeo-cli add-videos-to-folder.

npm install -g @thenavidm/vimeo-mcp-cli
vimeo-cli
vimeo-cli get-me
vimeo-cli search-videos --query "workshop"
vimeo-cli get-transcript --video-id 1096473192

The bare vimeo-cli lists every command, and vimeo-cli <command> --help shows what a command takes. The 6 deletes and posting a comment ask for --confirm first, like they do for your AI.

These flags work on every command:

A script can branch on the exit code:

MCP server or CLI: which one?

Both are the same program with the same 43 tools. The difference is when your AI pays for them, in the tokens it reads.

An app that loads every tool up front sends the full list with every message, whether you mention Vimeo or not. Claude Code doesn't by default: its tool search sends only the tool names and the server's instructions, and loads a tool's full definition when your AI reaches for it.

The CLI costs nothing until Vimeo comes up. Then your agent reads its skill file once and runs the commands it needs. With the skill added, Claude Code also lists its one-line description with every message, about 210 tokens.

When the whole conversation is about Vimeo, the gap closes. Then the MCP server is the better experience, because you ask in plain language and your AI never has to look up a command.

How to spend less

In Claude Code, leave tool search on, which it is unless you've set ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH=false.

Turn the server off when you aren't using Vimeo, with your AI app's own switch. VIMEO_READ_ONLY=1 cuts it to the 17 reading tools.

Or install the CLI and connect the server later, on the days it earns its place. Every tool stays in reach, and the standing cost drops to nothing.

Every number here was measured on September 27, 2026 in Claude Code 2.1.257 with Claude Opus 5. It's the same one-line prompt with and without the server connected, once with tool search off so every tool loads, and once with Claude Code's default. The skill was measured the same way, and other apps and models count tokens a little differently.

How Vimeo actually behaves

A few things on Vimeo's side explain most surprises.

Scopes are frozen

A token can't gain a scope later, and Vimeo's permission error doesn't name the missing one. A failing delete looks like a missing video, which is why the doctor names the scope.

A video lives in exactly one folder

Adding a video to a folder moves it. A showcase is different: a video can be in any number of showcases, and adding it there moves nothing.

Some things depend on your plan

Lifetime plays work on every plan. Views over time and finish rate come from Vimeo's analytics, which only paid plans have, and a free account gets a plain sentence saying so rather than an error.

Uploads keep processing

upload_video returns the video's ID right away while Vimeo transcodes it. Check the status on get_video until it reads available.

Every Vimeo tool

All 43 tools, grouped the way the repo groups them. 17 only read, and 26 change something in your Vimeo library.

Videos

Folders

Showcases

Chapters

Captions and transcripts

Comments

Account, stats and settings

Is the Vimeo MCP server safe?

Writes work from the start, because organizing a library is the point of the tool. The ones that can't be undone ask first.

The 6 deletes and add_comment ask for a confirm check first, marked Asks first in the tool tables above, because a comment is public the moment it posts. delete_videos_too on a folder deletes the videos themselves, so it goes through the same check.

Make it read-only

Set VIMEO_READ_ONLY=1 and the write tools aren't registered at all, leaving 17. VIMEO_ALLOW_DESTRUCTIVE=0 keeps ordinary writes and blocks the deletes and comments.

Keep a log of every write

Set VIMEO_AUDIT_LOG to a file path. The server writes one line per attempted write, allowed or blocked.

Your data

There's no server of ours in between. The server runs on your computer and talks to Vimeo's API directly.

It stores nothing: no session, no cache and no database. The only file it writes is the audit log, and only when you set VIMEO_AUDIT_LOG. Whatever your AI reads, it sends to its own model provider, like anything you paste into a chat.

Vimeo MCP server settings

Every setting is an environment variable in your app's config. Only the token is required.

Troubleshooting

Run the doctor first. It names the step that failed and the fix.

If the server doesn't show up in your app at all, run the command your app runs, in a terminal, and read the error.