GitHub Copilot · Code editor

VS Code + Motion

Visual Studio Code with Copilot in agent mode, which reads MCP servers from a workspace file and asks before it runs a tool. Point it at Motion and one sentence becomes a finished animation, rendered in your own browser.

No registrationNo watermarkNo paywall

Setup

Connect VS Code 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 workspace config
.vscode/mcp.json in the project root. The key is servers, not mcpServers — VS Code differs from Cursor here, and the wrong one fails silently. type is required for a remote server.
.vscode/mcp.json
```
{
  "servers": {
    "motion": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://motion.frapea.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```
2
Start it, and pick the tools
VS Code shows a Start action above the server entry. Motion's tools then appear in Copilot's tool picker, where you choose which the agent may use.

Then, the same for every client

Pair the session with VS Code

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

The server never startsThe key is servers, not mcpServers. VS Code reads a different shape to every other client here and fails silently on the wrong one.

The tools do not appear to Copilottype is required for a remote server, and the tools have to be selected in Copilot's tool picker — they are per-agent, not global.

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 VS Code and let it work out which line.

What it gets you

Why this pairing, and not just any of them

You pick which of Motion's tools the agent may touch, from Copilot's own tool picker — useful the first time you hand a render surface to an agent.

Agent mode shows you each tool call before it happens, so you can watch exactly what Motion is being asked to do.
.vscode/mcp.json is committed with the project, so a team shares one connection instead of eight identical local setups.
The tool picker is per-agent, so Motion can be available to the agent doing the release notes and not to the one refactoring your auth.

What you just handed it

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

VS Code 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 VS Code 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 VS Code would be driving. They change as you read — point at one to play it.