OpenShorts

Name: OpenShorts
Price: 12 USD

Self-hosted AI clip generator with an eight-tool MCP server for clipping, captioning, and publishing shorts.

AdaptableOperable Business appWeb app Hybrid PythonTypeScript MCP server License: MIT (cloud/ directory under a commercial license)

Turns long videos into 9:16 clips with Gemini moment detection, face-tracked reframing, faster-whisper subtitles, ElevenLabs dubbing, and Upload-Post publishing. Runs from docker compose on your own machine or as a hosted plan; both expose the same /mcp endpoint.

Use it when

I publish a weekly podcast and want clips cut, captioned, and posted without a $20/mo clipper subscription
I want an agent to turn every new livestream VOD into shorts overnight on my own GPU box

Gotchas

The cloud/ directory is under a commercial license, not MIT; GitHub shows the license as 'other' for that reason
CPU-only by default: 5 to 8 minutes per 8-minute video; NVIDIA Container Toolkit needed for NVENC
Self-hosted /mcp only answers while your machine is on; the hosted endpoint at mcp.openshorts.app needs an osk_ API key
Provider keys go into the dashboard Settings, not .env

Last activity Sep 2, 2026. Fit: adaptable 3, operable 2.

Editions

Self-hosted · Free open source

Clonegit clone https://github.com/mutonby/openshorts
ImageContainer

Cloud Free · Free closed source

HostedOpen the hosted app

Cloud paid · $12 per month closed source

HostedOpen the hosted app

For agents: JSON · Markdown

Adaptable: what is yours to change

Make it yours

Config only25 things to edit

Copy .env.example to .env. Point LLM_BASE_URL and LLM_MODEL at Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible server to drop the Gemini dependency; tune WHISPER_MODEL, TRANSCRIBE_BACKEND, FFMPEG_ENCODER, and QUALITY_GATE_MIN_HEIGHT; add AWS_S3_BUCKET for backup. Provider keys for Gemini, fal.ai, ElevenLabs, and Upload-Post are entered in the dashboard Settings page.

Env vars: LLM_BASE_URL LLM_MODEL LLM_API_KEY LLM_SCORE_BATCH LLM_TIMEOUT WHISPER_MODEL WHISPER_DEVICE WHISPER_COMPUTE TRANSCRIBE_BACKEND ASR_GPU_CONCURRENCY FFMPEG_ENCODER QUALITY_GATE_MIN_HEIGHT GEMINI_MODEL_THUMBNAIL GEMINI_IMAGE_MODEL AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY AWS_REGION AWS_S3_BUCKET AWS_S3_PUBLIC_BUCKET YOUTUBE_COOKIES DEBUG_LOGS PAID_PROXY_DAILY_MB
Config files: .env docker-compose.yml docker-compose.override.yml
Prompt files: none
Accounts you need: Google AI Studio (Gemini)fal.ai (AI Shorts only)ElevenLabs (dubbing only)Upload-Post (publishing only)AWS (optional S3)

Source

github.com/mutonby/openshorts
MIT (cloud/ directory under a commercial license) license
Last commit Sep 2, 2026
3,833 stars

Operable: what an agent can drive

Interface

OfficialMCP serverpublished by the builderremote or local

How an agent can drive an Operable Listing, in five levels: native (built for the agent as the primary interface), official (the Builder ships an agent interface), wrapped (a third party wraps the software's API), config (an agent can only drive it by editing files), gui (screen control only). An interface is official only when it is published by the same organization that ships the software. GUI-level Listings are allowed and sorted last.

Docs: www.openshorts.app/mcp
Tools: process_video create_upload get_job_status list_clips get_quota add_subtitles recut_clip publish_clip

Reach

Partial coverage. 5 of 9 jobs reachable through the stated interface.

Job	Through the interface	Evidence
Generate clips from a long video	Reachable	MCP tools process_video, create_upload, get_job_status, list_clips
Restyle subtitles	Reachable	MCP tool add_subtitles (classic or karaoke)
Recut a clip	Reachable	MCP tool recut_clip
Publish or schedule to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube	Reachable	MCP tool publish_clip through Upload-Post
Check plan quota	Reachable	MCP tool get_quota
Generate AI Shorts with UGC actors	Not reachable	No MCP tool covers the AI Shorts pipeline; dashboard only
YouTube Studio: titles, thumbnails, descriptions	Not reachable	No MCP tool; dashboard only
Dub clips into other languages	Not reachable	Dubbing is a dashboard feature; not among the eight MCP tools
Force a reframing layout per video	Not reachable	README: layout forced from the dashboard; no MCP parameter documented

Code stack

Languages: PythonTypeScript
Frameworks: FastAPIViteffmpegMediaPipeYOLOv8faster-whisper
Package manager: pip
Database: none
Hosting target: Dockeropenshorts.app
Built: Unknown (recorded, never ranked)

Model stack

Providers: Google Geminiany OpenAI-compatible LLM through LLM_BASE_URLElevenLabsfal.ai
Models: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Litefaster-whisperFlux 2 ProHailuo 2.3 Fast
Keys you need: GEMINI_API_KEY (entered in dashboard Settings) LLM_API_KEY AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
Prompts live in: none

Skills

A Claude Code plugin that teaches an agent to generate and publish short videos through OpenShorts.

Kind: bundled
Paths: skills/openshorts/SKILL.md
Install: /plugin marketplace add mutonby/openshorts

Evidence and confidence

Field	Where it was seen	Confidence
formFactor	README: dashboard at localhost:5175 served by FastAPI backend	95%
executionModel	README: fixed pipeline; Gemini or a local LLM picks moments and layouts	90%
operability	openshorts.app/mcp: eight tools, Streamable HTTP, published by OpenShorts; self-host serves the same endpoint	90%
effort	.env.example documents every variable with comments; docker compose is the only install	90%
editions	README table: self-hosted free forever MIT; hosted free 20 min/mo with watermark; paid from $12/mo to $59/mo	90%
active	GitHub pushedAt 2026-09-02	–
reach		85%

Open questions

Does the self-hosted MCP accept a bearer token or run open on localhost only?
Is the AI Shorts pipeline reachable through the REST API even though it is not an MCP tool?

Sources

www.openshorts.app/ sourcing:video-streaming:community
github.com/mutonby/openshorts sourcing:video-streaming:community
www.openshorts.app/mcp analysis