AI Agents

MCP server

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

For most teams, the recommended starting point is self-hosted MCP via stdio:

TRANSLOADIT_KEY=MY_AUTH_KEY TRANSLOADIT_SECRET=MY_SECRET_KEY npx -y @transloadit/mcp-server 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:

npx -y @transloadit/node auth token --aud mcp

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.

Automation paths

Transloadit agent tooling is useful beyond chat-based coding agents. It gives teams a few practical ways to run the same media workflow from local scripts, CI jobs, operations consoles, and autonomous agents:

• CLI: use @transloadit/node when a human or CI job needs a repeatable command to create an Assembly, wait for completion, and collect results.
• MCP: expose a narrow Transloadit tool surface to embedded or hosted agents that should not get shell access. The agent can inspect Robot docs, lint Assembly Instructions, create Assemblies, and follow status updates through the MCP server.
• Agent Skills: keep team-specific media workflow playbooks in version control for agents that already have useful tools, such as terminal access, MCP, the CLI, or SDKs. Skills tell the agent which Templates, verification steps, and fallbacks to use, but do not grant new capabilities by themselves.
• llms.txt: give any LLM a current map of Transloadit products, solutions, integrations, developer resources, and learning content before it proposes an Assembly.

For production automation, keep credentials in your trusted environment and let agents call a self-hosted MCP server or your own backend. Hosted MCP is convenient when the agent runtime cannot start local processes, while the CLI remains the simplest option for deterministic jobs in CI.

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 as reusable, human-directed playbooks for tasks such as setup, scaffolding, templates, and 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

npx skills add transloadit/skills

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:

npx skills add https://transloadit.com

Manual installation

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

llms.txt

Transloadit publishes an llms.txt file, a compact, site-wide routing index following the llms.txt standard⁠. It covers products and services, solutions, integrations, media and task indexes, developer and learning resources, and support.

For Robot-specific discovery, use /docs/robots/llms.txt. The legacy llms-full.txt compatibility file includes complete Robot parameter schemas inline, but it is large. Prefer llms.txt for discovery and fetch only the linked Markdown pages relevant to the task.

Which approach should I use?

These approaches complement each other. Use self-hosted MCP for tool access in most setups, or hosted MCP when the agent runtime cannot start local processes. Install skills for workflow guidance, and point your LLM at llms.txt when it needs Transloadit documentation.