DevMotion Docs

Your first video, in four commands

DevMotion is HTML-first. Scaffold a project, edit it in the visual Studio or let an AI agent build it for you, and render an MP4 — all on your machine. Copy this and go:

Terminal
npm i -g @devmotion/cli      # install once
devmotion init my-video      # scaffold a project
cd my-video
devmotion preview            # open the visual Studio
devmotion render             # export output.mp4

What each command does

Step 1

Install

npm i -g @devmotion/cli

One global install. Node ≥ 20 is the only requirement — ffmpeg and Chromium come bundled.

Step 2

Create

devmotion init my-video

Scaffolds a project: a devmotion.json and a scenes/ folder of plain HTML you can edit anywhere.

Step 3

Edit

devmotion preview

Opens the full visual Studio in your browser — timeline, keyframes, 17+ layer types. Hot-reloads on save.

Step 4

Render

devmotion render

Exports an MP4 locally via headless Chromium + ffmpeg. Same engine as the preview — no surprises.

Stuck? Run devmotion doctor to verify ffmpeg and Chromium are wired up.

Let an AI agent build the video

DevMotion ships a built-in MCP server, so Claude Code, Cursor, or Windsurf can scaffold, edit, and render video for you. One command wires everything up — skills plus a local MCP server that runs over stdio, right inside your project:

Terminal
npx @devmotion/cli setup

This drops three slash commands into .claude/skills/ (/devmotion-init, /devmotion-add-layer, /devmotion-render) and registers a local stdio MCP server in .claude/settings.local.json. From then on the agent knows the HTML protocol and can drive your project end to end — every edit written straight back to your files.

Local (stdio) — default

Runs from the CLI inside your repo. No account, no network, no tokens. Best for devs, CI, and offline work.

Remote (cloud HTTP) — optional

Prefer the hosted Studio? Connect the same agents to devmotion.app/mcp over HTTP with OAuth.

Go deeper

Building a cloud automation? There's also a REST API for the hosted Studio — most people won't need it.