MCP server

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) gives agents direct runtime access to Transloadit tools.

For most teams, the fastest happy path is self-hosted MCP via stdio:

If you cannot run npx in your environment, use the hosted endpoint https://api2.transloadit.com/mcp with Authorization: Bearer <token>.

Generate the token in another trusted environment (for example your backend, CI, or local shell), then pass it to your agent runtime:

You can also mint tokens via POST /token or the Node.js SDK.

For client config examples (Claude, Cursor, VS Code/Copilot), auth details, tool docs, limits, and hosted vs self-hosted behavior, see the MCP Server SDK page.

Agent Skills

Agent Skills are markdown files (SKILL.md) that teach agents how to accomplish tasks step by step.

In practical terms, an MCP server is an API surface an agent can call at runtime (via a local or hosted MCP process), while skills are version-controlled playbooks that tell an agent what to do, in what order, and how to verify it. Skills do not add new tool access by themselves. They codify how you want the agent to use the tools available in your environment (MCP, CLI, SDKs) in a consistent way.

• Use MCP for embedded, repeatable execution (uploads, Assemblies, polling, results).
• Use skills for human-directed, one-off work (setup, scaffolding, templates, migrations).

They also complement each other. A skill can standardize a workflow and then instruct the agent to use MCP (or a local CLI fallback) for the actual execution.

Install with the Skills CLI

This installs all 7 Transloadit skills into your project:

• docs-transloadit-robots: Offline lookup for Transloadit Robots and their parameter docs/examples via the `transloadit` CLI. Use to draft or validate `steps` JSON without guessing robot names/params.
• integrate-asset-delivery-with-transloadit-smartcdn-in-nextjs: Add Transloadit Smart CDN URL signing to a Next.js App Router project (server-side signing route + optional client demo page).
• integrate-uppy-transloadit-s3-uploading-to-nextjs: Add Uppy Dashboard + Transloadit uploads to a Next.js (App Router) app, with server-side signature generation and optional /s3/store export.
• transform-encode-hls-video-with-transloadit: One-off HLS encoding (local video -> HLS renditions + playlist) using Transloadit via the `transloadit` CLI. Prefer Builtin Templates (`builtin/encode-hls-video@latest`) and download outputs locally via `-o`.
• transform-generate-image-with-transloadit: One-off image generation (prompt -> image file) using Transloadit via the `transloadit` CLI. Prefer Builtin Templates (`builtin/generate-image@latest`) and download outputs locally via `-o`.
• transform-remove-background-with-transloadit: One-off background removal (local image -> transparent PNG) using Transloadit via the `transloadit` CLI. Use a minimal `/image/bgremove` steps JSON and download the result to an explicit `.png` path via `-o`.
• transloadit: Main entry-point skill for Transloadit. Route to the right `integrate-*`, `transform-*`, or `docs-*` skill, and prefer executing via `npx -y @transloadit/node ...` (CLI) for deterministic behavior.

Auto-discovery

The skills catalog is also discoverable at transloadit.com/.well-known/skills/index.json, following the Agent Skills Discovery RFC. This means you can also install with:

Manual installation

Clone or symlink the transloadit/skills repo into your agent's skills directory:

Agent	Path
Claude Code	.claude/skills/
OpenAI Codex	.codex/skills/
Gemini CLI	.gemini/skills/
Cursor	.cursor/skills/
Windsurf	.codeium/windsurf/skills/

llms.txt

Transloadit publishes an llms.txt file, a structured index of all Robot documentation following the llms.txt standard. Agents and LLMs can fetch this file to get an up-to-date overview of every Robot, its parameters, and links to the full docs.

A detailed variant is available at llms-full.txt, which includes complete Robot documentation inline rather than linking out.

Which approach should I use?

Approach	Best for	Setup time
Hosted MCP	Production agent workflows, team setups	2 minutes
Self-hosted MCP	Air-gapped environments, local dev	5 minutes
Agent Skills	Teaching agents Transloadit best practices and patterns	2 minutes
llms.txt	Giving any LLM context about Transloadit Robots	Zero (just fetch the URL)

These approaches complement each other. Use the hosted MCP server for tool access, install skills for workflow guidance, and point your LLM at llms.txt when it needs Robot documentation.