Does a render launched by an agent cost extra?

No. It is billed exactly like a render you click yourself: the model provider charges your own API key at its list price. Agent access itself is neither metered nor marked up.

What can the token do — and not do?

It acts as your account for the work: it shoots takes on your provider keys, inside your rate limits. It cannot read or change those keys, issue or revoke tokens, or touch billing — those routes turn an agent token away. Everything else you can do it can do too, including deleting a project. So revoking a leaked token in the same dialog shuts the door from that moment on; your password and keys are untouched, but look over your projects for what it did before that.

Which agents work with it?

Anything that speaks MCP over stdio: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and the growing list of MCP-capable tools. The server is a plain Node file, so it runs anywhere Node 20+ runs.

Is there a plain REST API?

The MCP server is a thin client over the studio's REST API using the same Bearer token, so the API exists — but MCP is the supported surface. The raw routes aren't a documented contract yet and may change without notice.

The studio, driven by an agent

Longtake is a cloud AI video studio built on the Seedance models — and every account can hand the controls to an AI agent. The studio ships an MCP server (Model Context Protocol, the open standard agents speak), so Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or any other MCP client can create projects, cast characters with locked voices, launch renders and read back the results. Same account, same keys, same prices — just with an agent at the desk.

Works withAny MCP client over stdio — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor

AuthA personal agent token (cf_…), issued and revoked in the studio

BillingIdentical to the UI: your provider keys, list price, no markup

What an agent can do

Thirteen tools over the studio's API — enough to run a whole shoot without opening the interface.

Tool	What it does
`studio_overview`	Projects, folders, scenes, characters and assets — the whole studio at a glance
`create_project` · `create_folder` · `create_scene`	Set up the production structure: project → episode → scene
`create_character`	Cast a character with a portrait and a locked voice sample
`generate_mocap`	Generate a four-view character sheet (Seedream / Nano Banana Pro)
`upload_asset`	Add reference images and audio to the project library
`generate_video`	Launch a take: prompt with @mentions, model, resolution, duration, variants — or a 480p draft on Seedance 2.5
`finish_draft`	Render a Seedance 2.5 draft again in 1080p as the same shot — one live final per draft, within 7 days
`take_status` · `scene_takes`	Follow renders: status, video file, last frame, token spend
`cancel_take`	Delete a take — a still-queued one is cancelled before it bills
`estimate_cost`	Price a generation before running it, from the exact token formula

An agent prompt then reads like a call sheet: “Create a project called Nordic Noir, cast a detective with a gravelly voice, and shoot three 5-second takes of him on a rainy pier at 480p — tell me what each cost.”

Security model

The token is issued in the studio: account menu → API keys → Agent access — MCP. It signs in as you — your projects, your provider keys, your rate limits — and nothing else: it cannot issue or revoke tokens, and revoking it in the same dialog kills the agent's access without touching your password or keys. The studio stores only a hash of it.

Billing stays yours. A render launched by an agent is billed exactly like one you click yourself: the model provider charges your own API key at list price. Agent access itself costs nothing on top — there is no separate metering and no markup.

Set it up

Issue a token

In the studio: account menu → API keys → Agent access — MCP → create. Copy the cf_… value — it is shown once.
Get the server

It is on npm as longtake-mcp and listed in the official MCP Registry as io.github.svatrous/longtake, so npx fetches it — nothing to download. Prefer a file? The same server is a single Node file with two dependencies:
```
curl -O https://longtake.studio/mcp-server.cjs
npm i @modelcontextprotocol/sdk zod
```
Source, README and licence (MIT): github.com/svatrous/longtake-mcp.

Register it with your agent

For Claude Code:

claude mcp add longtake \
  -e STUDIO_URL=https://longtake.studio \
  -e STUDIO_TOKEN=cf_your_token \
  -- npx -y longtake-mcp

Any other MCP client takes the same command and the same two environment variables — as JSON, for Cursor, Codex or Claude Desktop:

{ "mcpServers": { "longtake": {
    "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "longtake-mcp"],
    "env": { "STUDIO_URL": "https://longtake.studio", "STUDIO_TOKEN": "cf_your_token" } } } }

With the downloaded file instead of the package: -- node mcp-server.cjs.

Questions

Does a render launched by an agent cost extra?: No. It is billed exactly like a render you click yourself: the model provider charges your own API key at its list price. Agent access itself is neither metered nor marked up.
What can the token do — and not do?: It acts as your account for the work: it shoots takes on your provider keys, inside your rate limits. It cannot read or change those keys, issue or revoke tokens, or touch billing — those routes turn an agent token away. Everything else you can do it can do too, including deleting a project. So revoking a leaked token in the same dialog shuts the door from that moment on; your password and keys are untouched, but look over your projects for what it did before that.
Which agents work with it?: Anything that speaks MCP over stdio: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and the growing list of MCP-capable tools. The server is a plain Node file, so it runs anywhere Node 20+ runs.
Is there a plain REST API?: The MCP server is a thin client over the studio's REST API using the same Bearer token, so the API exists — but MCP is the supported surface. The raw routes aren't a documented contract yet and may change without notice.

Before the agent can shoot, the studio needs your keys:

BytePlus — video generation What a take costs Field notes from production