How to connect Claude to your video and audio library

The short answer

Index your library with a local app, then connect that app to Claude as an MCP server. In MediaFind that's Settings → Connect to AI agents: add it to Claude Desktop, or copy the command for Claude Code, then restart the client. Claude can then search your recordings, ask questions of them and read transcripts, while the media itself stays on your disk.

What MCP is, briefly

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting AI apps to outside tools and data. A client such as Claude Desktop starts a server, sees which tools it offers, and calls them during a conversation. A server can run locally and talk to the client directly on your machine, with no hosted endpoint. Anthropic's help center has a guide to getting started with local MCP servers in Claude Desktop, including where to see which servers are connected.

Why not just upload the files?

Chat uploads are limited in size and are one-off: you'd have to upload the same recordings again for each question, and Claude still needs a transcript to work with. A local index does the heavy work once, on your computer, and hands Claude only the relevant snippets with timestamps. That's faster, works across hundreds of hours, and keeps the source files off anyone's server.

How to do it in MediaFind

The MCP server is built into the MediaFind app, so there's nothing extra to install. There's no working pip package; use the app.

1. Add a folder of video or audio to MediaFind and let it index. The agent searches the library you've built in the app.
2. Open Settings → Connect to AI agents.
3. For Claude Desktop, click Add to Claude Desktop, then quit and restart Claude Desktop. For Claude Code, copy the claude mcp add command shown and run it in a terminal. Cursor and other MCP clients use the same command and arguments.
4. In Claude, ask something like find where we discussed the Q3 budget in my recordings and summarize it.
5. Claude calls MediaFind's tools (search, ask, read a transcript) and cites the files and timestamps it got back.

What Claude can see

Every tool runs on your computer, but whatever a tool returns goes into Claude's context, and from there to Anthropic because Claude is a cloud AI. Search results include text such as transcript lines, summaries and on-screen text; asking for a transcript returns that transcript. Claude gets the results it asks for, not your media files. The AI agents page explains a setting that limits the server to returning only where each hit is and how well it matched.

Claude can also save to and search a MediaFind memory library, which pairs well with importing your Claude history.

Troubleshooting

• If the server shows as failed to start, keep the full path to the app in the config; apps launched from the Dock don't see your terminal's PATH.
• Restart the client fully after changing its config.
• On Linux, install the .deb rather than the AppImage so the agent can start the app later.
• Nothing indexed yet? The agent will find nothing; add a folder in the app first. More detail in how the MCP server works.

Frequently asked questions

Can Claude search my local video files?

Not by itself. Connect a local MCP server that has indexed them, such as MediaFind, and Claude can search the transcripts and visuals and get timestamps back.

Are my videos uploaded to Claude?

No. The media stays on your computer. Claude receives only the results it asks for, such as transcript lines, which do go to Anthropic as part of the conversation.

Does this work with Claude Code and Cursor?

Yes. MediaFind's Settings, Connect to AI agents covers Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor.

Can I install the MediaFind MCP server with pip?

No. The server is built into the MediaFind app. The package name on PyPI is only a placeholder.