Guides

From nothing to a posted reel.

Six short guides covering everything SurgeScribe does. Start with the first one — the rest only matter once you are connected.

Connect your assistant

One URL, pasted once. There is no API key to generate and nothing to copy out of a database — if a set-up guide tells you to paste a key from somewhere, it is out of date.

Your connection URL

https://www.surgescribe.com/api/mcp

The same URL for everyone. Your dashboard has a copy button for it.

In ChatGPT

1
Open connector settings
Settings → Connectors → Add. You need a ChatGPT plan that supports connectors; the option will not appear otherwise.
2
Paste the URL above
Leave every other field alone. ChatGPT registers itself with us automatically — that is what dynamic client registration is for, and it is why you have no client ID to enter.
3
Approve the connection
You will be sent to SurgeScribe to sign in and approve. Approving issues a token scoped to SurgeScribe alone — it cannot read your email or change your password.
4
Check it took
Ask it to start a new SurgeScribe project. If it comes back with a project, you are connected. The connection also appears under Settings → Account → Connected apps.

In Claude

1
Add a custom connector
Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector.
2
Paste the same URL and approve
Identical flow. Claude registers itself and sends you here to sign in and approve.

If you were once told to paste something from Supabase, ignore it. Early on there was no authorization server of our own, so assistants asked for a client ID that only the account owner could find. That is fixed — anyone can connect with the URL alone.

Make your first video

You do not need to learn a syntax. Describe the video the way you would describe it to an editor.

1
Ask for the video
Something like: Make me a 20-second vertical reel announcing our Saturday sale. Bold type, dark background, three shots. Your assistant writes the copy, art-directs it and builds the project here.
2
Let it bring the imagery
Images your assistant generates are stored free. Generating them here costs credits, so the cheaper path is to let the assistant do what it is already good at, and hand us the files.
3
Look at a frame
Ask for a preview at a specific time, or a contact sheet across the whole timeline. What you see is what the export will contain.
4
Export
Ask it to export. Rendering runs in the background — you can close the tab and collect the file from the project's export history.

How to direct an edit

Every one of these is a real instruction the engine executes exactly. Say them in your own words; your assistant translates.

Cutting

Split that clip at 1.4 seconds
Trim half a second off the front
Freeze the last frame for 800ms
Ramp shot two from 1x to 0.4x

Type

Bring the headline in word by word
Stagger the characters by 40ms
Mask-reveal the subtitle from below
Tighten the tracking as it lands

Look

Warm the grade half a stop
Add a vignette and light grain
Motion blur at a 180 degree shutter
Cross-dissolve between shots two and three

Sound

Duck the music under the voiceover
Fade the music out over the last second
Voiceover in Hindi
Drop the bed 6dB from four seconds

Edits apply as whole transactions: either every part lands or none of it does, and each one becomes a revision you can restore. An instruction the engine cannot execute is refused with a reason rather than half-applied.

Preview and export

A preview frame is not an approximation. It comes from the same composition and renderer as the MP4, so reviewing a still is reviewing the export.

1
Preview a moment, or the whole thing
Ask for a frame at an exact time, or a contact sheet of several times at once. A sheet is cheaper than the same frames one at a time.
2
Export the film or a single clip
You can render the whole timeline, or any one scene as its own MP4 — starting at zero, with its audio correctly re-cut rather than sliced out of the middle.
3
Collect it later
A minute of 1080×1920 takes a few minutes. Rendering outlives your request, so close the tab if you like; every export stays in the project's history with a link.

How credits are spent

You are only charged when SurgeScribe spends money on your behalf. Editing is free, however much of it you do.

Free

Every edit, revision and restore. Projects, assets and export history. Storing images and audio your assistant generated.

Per second

Exporting an MP4, and generating footage. Both bill by the second because that is how they cost us.

Per call

Preview frames, and generating an image, voiceover or music bed here.

Refunded

Anything that fails to produce a file. Work is charged before it starts, so an empty balance is caught up front rather than partway through.

Current rates are on the pricing page.

When something goes wrong

The five things that actually go wrong, and what to do about each.

My assistant asks for a client ID or an API key: It does not need one. Remove the connector and add it again with just the URL above — that flow registers the client automatically. A guide that tells you to copy a key from a dashboard predates our authorization server.
The connector will not add at all: Check your plan supports connectors, and that you pasted the URL with no trailing slash or extra path. If it still refuses, the assistant usually shows an error from our side — send it to us and we can tell you exactly what it hit.
An export failed: Its credits were refunded automatically; nothing to claim. Ask for the render again — most failures are transient. If the same project fails twice, send us the project and we will look at the job.
The export is taking a long time: A few minutes for a minute of 1080×1920 is expected. It renders in the background whether or not you are watching, and lands in the project's export history when it is done.
An assistant I do not recognise is connected: Revoke it in Settings → Account → Connected apps. It takes effect immediately and does not sign you out anywhere else.

Still stuck? Tell us what happened — include what you asked for and what came back.