Anysphere · Code editor

Cursor + Motion

The AI-first code editor, where MCP servers are declared in a JSON file and appear in the agent's tool list. Point it at Motion and one sentence becomes a finished animation, rendered in your own browser.

No registrationNo watermarkNo paywall

Setup

Connect Cursor to Motion

One endpoint, no key and no account. This is the part that differs between clients — a different file in a different place, and half of them name the same field differently. Pairing, underneath, works the same way wherever you are, and there are two of those depending on whether you have Motion open.

MCPhttps://motion.frapea.com/mcp

1
Create the config
For one project, .cursor/mcp.json in its root. For every project, ~/.cursor/mcp.json. A remote server needs no type field — just the URL.
.cursor/mcp.json
```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "motion": {
      "url": "https://motion.frapea.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```
2
Check the tools arrived
Settings → MCP should list Motion with its tools. If it does not, reload the window — Cursor reads this file on startup.

Then, the same for every client

Pair the session with Cursor

Two ways in, and the only thing that decides between them is whether you have a Motion tab open right now. Neither needs a key or an account.

If Motion is already open

Carry the code to your agent

1Click Connect MCP, top right. The panel shows a line beginning Connect me to Motion with code, with eight characters like K7M4-P2Q9.
2Paste that whole line into your agent — the sentence, not just the code. It is worded so the agent knows which tool to call and what to pass it.
3Good for ten minutes, and once. The code stops working the moment it is spent.

Open Motion

If it is not

Let the agent start without you

1Say start a Motion session for me. Worded so it does not collide with the line above — that one carries a code, and an agent given the same words without one will try it, fail, and have to back out.
2It can compose immediately — you do not need the tab to exist yet. Open the link when you want to watch, or when it asks you to.
3Anything that has to SEE the result, or touch your photos, waits for that tab. The agent knows to wait rather than to nag.

Then say what you want in one sentence. The frames appear in the tab while you keep working wherever you were.

When it doesn’t take

Two things go wrong, and it is almost always one of them

Motion is not in Settings → MCPCursor reads mcp.json at startup. Reload the window. Check you edited .cursor/mcp.json in the project you have open, not another one.

It appears but errors on connectA type field. A remote server in Cursor takes the bare url and nothing else — "type": "http" is VS Code's shape, and configs get copied between the two.

Neither of those? The endpoint answers a plain tools/list over POST. If that comes back, the server is fine and the problem is in the config — paste this page into Cursor and let it work out which line.

What it gets you

Why this pairing, and not just any of them

The config can live in the repository rather than in your home directory, which is the difference between setting this up once and setting it up on every machine.

The animation is built from the same context as the code — Cursor can read the component it is going to sit next to and match its type and colours.
Project-scoped config means a repository can carry its own Motion connection, so anyone who clones it gets the same tools with no setup.
Cursor asks before each tool call by default, so the first time you hand a render surface to an agent you can watch what it does with it.

What you just handed it

16 tools, and one of them is looking at the result

Cursor now has the whole set: it writes the composition as code rather than filling in a template, renders real frames and checks them, and never has to receive your footage to know what is in it.

All 16 tools Cursor can call

What comes back

One sentence to final animation

Each of these was a single line said to an agent, rendered by the same runtime Cursor would be driving. They change as you read — point at one to play it.