SupoClip: The Free Open-Source OpusClip Alternative With a Claude MCP Server (Full Setup Guide)

Last updated: November 11, 2026 · 7-minute read

2,634 stars, zero subscription, zero watermark — SupoClip does the job OpusClip charges a monthly plan for, and the code sits on GitHub under AGPL-3.0 for anyone to run. Paste a long video, get vertical clips with captions back.

The catch is honest and small. Self-hosting is free, but the AI behind it is bring-your-own — a transcription key, a model key, or a fully local setup on your own hardware. This guide covers both routes, plus the part most coverage buries: SupoClip ships an official MCP server, so Claude can run the whole clipping job for you.

What SupoClip Actually Does

Give SupoClip a long video — a podcast, a talk, a stream VOD — and the README documents a fixed pipeline. It transcribes the video, an LLM picks the three to seven most clip-worthy segments, and each segment is scored on hook, engagement, value, and shareability.

Every clip renders as a vertical 9:16 video. Face detection keeps the speaker centered in the frame, subtitles are synced word by word, and an AI-written hook title sits at the top of the opening seconds. Optional B-roll from Pexels can be layered in when a PEXELSAPIKEY is set.

Inputs are wider than YouTube alone. The docs list YouTube links, Twitch VODs and clips, Kick VODs and clips, and direct file uploads — live streams are not supported. A built-in editor handles trimming, splitting, and merging, with export presets for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.

TL;DR

• SupoClip is an open-source OpusClip alternative — AGPL-3.0, 2,634 GitHub stars at the time of writing
• Self-hosted, it costs $0 with no monthly video limit and no watermark; hosted plans start at $9.99/month and there is no free hosted plan
• Default setup needs Docker, an AssemblyAI key, and one LLM key — Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, or OpenRouter
• A fully local route exists: TRANSCRIPTIONPROVIDER=whisper plus an Ollama model, at $0 per request
• The bundled MCP server connects SupoClip to Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor
• Clip only videos you own or have permission to repurpose — the tool does not grant rights

Choose Your Setup Route First

Two routes lead to the same app, and picking first saves a rewrite of your .env later.

The setup guide is explicit about the default: ASSEMBLYAIAPIKEY plus one LLM configuration. The project's self-hosting tutorial documents the local swap — set TRANSCRIPTIONPROVIDER to whisper (or youtubecaptions for YouTube links only) and point LLM at an ollama: model.

Install SupoClip With Docker

Docker is the intended path. Per the setup guide, Compose starts five services together — frontend, backend, worker, PostgreSQL, and Redis — with the wiring already done.

Step 1: Clone the repository

You need Docker (Desktop or Engine with Compose) and Git installed and running.

Step 2: Fill in the environment file

For the paid-keys route, the README's minimum looks like this — one transcription key, one model, and your own random auth secrets:

Swap the model line for your provider: LLM=anthropic:<model with ANTHROPICAPIKEY, LLM=openai:<model with OPENAIAPIKEY, or LLM=openrouter:<vendor/<model with OPENROUTERAPIKEY. The configuration guide warns that the LLM value and the key must match — a provider mismatch is a documented cause of failed clip generation.

For the fully local route, replace the transcription and model lines instead:

One networking detail matters here. The self-hosting tutorial notes the worker calls Ollama from inside its container, so Ollama must be reachable from the container — not just from your shell. Leave OLLAMABASEURL empty and the containers default to http://host.docker.internal:11434/v1.

Step 3: Start the stack

The first build takes a few minutes — the README and the setup guide agree on that, without promising an exact number. Watch the logs until the five services report healthy.

Step 4: Open the app and clip something

Open http://localhost:3107 and create an account — it lives only on your machine. The backend API runs at http://localhost:8000, with interactive docs at http://localhost:8000/docs.

Port note: the current template sets FRONTENDPORT=3107. An older .env without that setting keeps the legacy port 3001 — if 3107 refuses the connection, check which port your file sets before debugging anything else.

Paste a link to one of your own videos, pick a clip length and a caption style, and submit. If a YouTube download gets blocked, the documented fallback is simple: upload the video file instead.

Connect Claude Through the MCP Server

This is the differentiator. The repo's mcp/ folder ships an official MCP server with tools such as supoclipcreatecliptask, supoclipwaitfortask, supocliplistclips, and supoclipdownloadclip, plus helpers that list caption templates, transitions, and fonts.

By default the server talks to the hosted SupoClip API at https://api.supoclip.com. For a self-hosted copy, one variable reroutes it — and skipping this variable is the easiest way to clip against the wrong backend:

Setup runs in this order:

1. In your running SupoClip app, open Settings, then API Keys, and create a key — it is shown only once 2. Add the server to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor), following mcp/README.md in the repo 3. Set SUPOCLIPAPIKEY to your key, and SUPOCLIPAPIURL to http://localhost:8000 for self-hosting 4. Ask Claude to clip a video, wait for the task, and download the results

The MCP server needs Python 3.10 or newer and runs through uv from the mcp/ folder. Caption templates can be listed before you choose one — the docs name styles such as default, hormozi, and mrbeast.