Design and print with an agent

These are live compose links. Each one builds the design on the server and drops you into the editor with it loaded:

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or your own agent

The connector is one URL. Add it to an AI app and ask for a cover in plain words; the app searches the title, builds the design and hands you a link that opens in the designer:

https://vhs.texs.org/mcp

claude mcp add --transport http tapercraft https://vhs.texs.org/mcp

Signed out, the connector builds designs with no account. The first time you ask for more (saving to your dashboard, your own artwork, previews, print files) the app sends you to a page here to sign in and approve it, once. Disconnect any time under Account Settings → Connected apps. Scripts and other clients can use an API key instead.

Compose tools no account

Account tools API key

Every tool reports what it applied and what it did not (applied / unsupported), so an agent can tell you the truth about the design it hands you.

The simplest integration is a URL. GET https://vhs.texs.org/api/compose with query parameters redirects to the designer with the design built:

https://vhs.texs.org/api/compose?format=slipcover&q=Predator+1987&finish=clean

A link degrades gracefully: one invalid optional field is dropped rather than failing the design, and an unmatched search still lands in the right designer.

Create a key under Account Settings → API Keys. Keys start with tc_live_, are shown once, carry the scopes read, design:write and export, and can be revoked any time. Send one as a Bearer token on the MCP request or any /api/v1 call:

claude mcp add --transport http tapercraft https://vhs.texs.org/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer tc_live_…"

# REST twin of the get_account tool
curl https://vhs.texs.org/api/v1/account -H "Authorization: Bearer tc_live_…"

Your own artwork on the panels

Ask describe_format for the panel sizes, generate or pick the images, upload each one, then compose or save with the refs. A whole-sheet background, one image per panel, and a custom studio logo are all fields of the same intent:

# 1. upload (multipart, ≤ 4 MB; JPEG at quality 80–85 is plenty)
curl -X POST https://vhs.texs.org/api/v1/uploads \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer tc_live_…" \
  -F "file=@front.jpg" -F "name=cereal-front"
→ { "ref": "upload:2d8d3355-…", "width": 1536, "height": 2752, … }

# 2. compose and save in one call
POST https://vhs.texs.org/api/v1/designs
{ "name": "Predator Crunch", "format": "slipcover",
  "content": { "type": "movie", "query": "Predator 1987" },
  "images": { "panels": {
    "front": { "ref": "upload:2d8d3355-…", "fit": "fill" },
    "back":  { "ref": "upload:e41f26e0-…", "fit": "fill" } } } }
→ { "designId": "…", "url": "…", "applied": [ "content", "images.panels.front", … ] }

Uploads land in Your Uploads, the same library every picker in the designer shows. Saved designs keep their own copies of the images they use, so deleting an upload later never breaks a design. The library holds a per-plan number of images; at the limit, list_uploads and delete_upload make room.

Stickers, shapes and text — rebuilding a specific cover

The same intent places decals and free text at percent-of-sheet positions, so an agent can rebuild a cover the user shows it. list_decals gives the ids and pixel sizes, describe_format the panel rectangles and the size units. An RCA/Columbia-style black slipcover with a red frame, in one call:

POST https://vhs.texs.org/api/compose
{ "format": "slipcover", "content": { "type": "movie", "query": "Ghostbusters 1984" },
  "style": { "finish": "plain", "background": { "color": "#0b0b0b" }, "labelColor": "#e8dcc0" },
  "layout": { "hide": ["poster", "title", "tagline", "productionLogos"] },
  "decals": [
    { "id": "04-rounded-rectangle", "x": 28.6, "y": 59.7, "scale": 541, "stretch": 32,
      "layer": "under", "colorize": "solid", "color": "#d3232a" },
    { "id": "04-rounded-rectangle", "x": 28.6, "y": 59.7, "scale": 523, "stretch": 31,
      "layer": "under", "colorize": "solid", "color": "#0b0b0b" },
    { "id": "rcacolumbia!", "x": 28.6, "y": 25.2, "width": 5.2 },
    { "id": "tmdb-logo-hzZaNFDIURV51vMsNYGKc7Uguymj.png", "x": 28.6, "y": 79.9, "width": 33 },
    { "ref": "upload:fbc0b77f-…", "x": 28.6, "y": 52, "width": 30, "layer": "under" } ],
  "texts": [
    { "text": "COLUMBIA PICTURES PRESENTS", "x": 28.6, "y": 30.2, "width": 30, "size": 1.05,
      "weight": 700, "color": "#e8dcc0", "letterSpacing": 1 },
    { "text": "BILL MURRAY   DAN AYKROYD\nSIGOURNEY WEAVER", "x": 28.6, "y": 74.2, "width": 34,
      "size": 1.7, "weight": 700, "color": "#e8dcc0" } ] }

The tmdb-logo-… id is the film's real wordmark from get_content, which lists a title's posters, logos and stills the same way. A decal or text block is placed by its center; width is percent of the sheet width, a text size percent of the sheet height. Two stacked solid-colour rounded rectangles make a frame. An upload placed as a decal needs the key that owns it; a catalog id that does not exist is an error, never a blank.

See it, then export it

Renders run headlessly and take 15 to 60 seconds. A preview is a downscaled image of the whole sheet, open to every plan, and on MCP get_export returns it inline so the agent can look at its own work. Preview after each save, fix, then queue the print file:

POST https://vhs.texs.org/api/v1/designs/<designId>/export   { "output": "preview" }
→ 202 { "jobId": "0c1d2e3f-…", "status": "queued" }

GET  https://vhs.texs.org/api/v1/exports/0c1d2e3f-…
→ { "status": "done", "file": { "url": "https://…", "mimeType": "image/webp",
                                 "widthPx": 1568, "heightPx": 1340, "bytes": 212844 } }

POST https://vhs.texs.org/api/v1/designs/<designId>/export   { "output": "png" }
→ 202 { "jobId": "f945a6c4-…", "status": "queued" }

GET  https://vhs.texs.org/api/v1/exports/f945a6c4-…
→ { "status": "done", "file": { "url": "https://…", "mimeType": "image/png",
                                 "widthPx": 6440, "heightPx": 5504, "bytes": 19166146,
                                 "expiresInSeconds": 3600 } }

pngis the format's full-resolution Original PNG at 600 DPI, pdf its design-size PDF. A free account gets TIER_REQUIRED for those two: designing, uploading, saving and previews work on every plan, the print file needs a membership. The download link lasts an hour and the file a day; after that the job reads expired.

Errors and limits

Errors are application/problem+json with a stable code: API_KEY_REQUIRED, API_KEY_INVALID, FORBIDDEN_SCOPE, QUOTA_REACHED, TIER_REQUIRED, LIBRARY_IMAGE_LIMIT. Quotas are per account and per day, shared with your browser use; a key never widens what your plan allows. Request bodies over 4.5 MB are refused before the API sees them, so keep uploads at or under 4 MB.

REST reference

Every MCP tool has an HTTP twin. Keyed routes take Authorization: Bearer tc_live_… and answer with CORS open, so they work from a browser extension as well as a script. GET https://vhs.texs.org/api/compose (no params) returns the full intent schema: formats, text fields, style options, hideable fields, image fields.

POST https://vhs.texs.org/api/compose
{ "v": 1, "format": "slipcover",
  "content": { "type": "movie", "query": "Predator 1987" } }

→ { "url": "…", "applied": [...], "unsupported": [...] }

27 composable formats

Video formats compose from a movie or show and take the full text, style, layout and image surface; audio formats build the complete design (cover art, tracklist, QR code) from the album alone and take font and colors. Every format links to its own free designer: