Cognition · Code editor

Windsurf + Motion

The editor formerly from Codeium and now Cognition's, whose Cascade agent reads MCP servers from a config file in your home directory. Point it at Motion and one sentence becomes a finished animation, rendered in your own browser.

No registrationNo watermarkNo paywall

Setup

Connect Windsurf 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
Edit the MCP config
~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. Windsurf calls the field serverUrl, which is where most configs copied from a Cursor guide go wrong.
~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "motion": {
      "serverUrl": "https://motion.frapea.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```
2
Refresh the server list
Open the MCP panel in Cascade and refresh. Motion's tools should appear without restarting the editor.

Then, the same for every client

Pair the session with Windsurf

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

Cascade cannot see MotionThe field is serverUrl. A block pasted from a Cursor guide will say url, and Windsurf ignores it without complaint.

The config is right and nothing happenedRefresh the MCP panel in Cascade. It does not re-read the file on save.

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 Windsurf and let it work out which line.

What it gets you

Why this pairing, and not just any of them

Cascade is the most willing of these to take a long brief and keep going, which is what a multi-scene piece actually needs.

Cascade runs long, multi-step jobs without asking at every turn, which suits a ten-scene composition better than a single title card.
The plugin panel lists Motion's tools once the config lands, so you can see what the agent has been given before you ask for anything.
Cascade keeps a running plan you can watch, so a long brief shows you where it has got to rather than going quiet for a minute.

What you just handed it

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

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