Assistants · MCP
Direct it fromClaude or ChatGPT.
Connect your assistant to your studio once and ask for productions, renders and stills in plain words. It plans, quotes, renders and hands you the cut, and you keep the final say on every shot.
- Make me a 30-second explainer with Nia on why we're moving to the new permit-to-work form. Keep it plain, one idea per shot.
- I've set up “Permit-to-work: the new form” as an explainer with Nia, 16:9, dialogue on. The planner wrote six shots totalling 31 seconds. Rendering all six as drafts is 93 credits, and the studio has 10,115. Go ahead?list_characterscreate_productionget_productionquote
- Yes.
- Queued. Drafts take a minute or two each and render in parallel. I'll check back.generate_shots
- All six are ready to look at. I can't judge the takes for you, so here's the production: backlot.malya.io/projects/… Tell me which to keep, or which to redo and how.get_production
- Shot 4 is fine but she's reading too fast. Make the line shorter, just “Sign it before you start, not after.” Keep the rest.
- Shot 4 updated and re-rendering (15 credits). The other five are approved.update_shotgenerate_shotsapprove_shot ×5
- Good. Approve 4 and finish it.
- Assembled. Your cut: 31 seconds, MP4. The link below is good for an hour, and it's in your Media library for good.approve_shotassemble_cutget_production
The small grey labels are the tools the assistant called. There are seventeen, and every one runs as you, under your studio's permissions.
Built so you can trust it with the credit card.
An assistant that can spend money on its own needs firmer rules than a button does. These are the four it runs under.
It acts as you, and only as you
Connecting is a sign-in, not an API key. The assistant gets whatever you can do in the studio you pick and nothing more. A viewer's assistant can look but not render, and it can never reach a studio you didn't choose.
Quoted before it spends
Renders cost what they cost in the app: 1.5 credits a second for drafts, 2 for finals, 2 a still. The assistant has a quote tool and is instructed to use it and wait for your yes before any credit moves.
You still choose the take
An assistant can plan, render, check progress and fetch links, but it has no eyes. It sends you to the production to look, then approves and assembles on your word. The judgement stays human.
Disconnect in one click
Every connected assistant is listed in Settings, with who connected it and when it was last used. Disconnecting signs it out immediately; removing someone from the studio does the same for theirs.
Connecting takes a minute.
One address to paste, then a sign-in. No keys, nothing to install, and the same steps for everyone in the studio.
Claude
- 1Open Claude → Settings → Connectors (on the web at claude.ai/settings/connectors).
- 2Choose Add custom connector and paste the server URL from Settings → Assistants. Leave the OAuth fields empty.
- 3Click Add, then Connect. Backlot opens in a new tab; sign in if asked, pick the studio, and approve.
- 4Back in Claude, enable Backlot in the tools menu of a chat and ask for something.
Claude.ai, the desktop app and mobile. Needs a plan that allows custom connectors (Pro and up, or a Team/Enterprise admin).
ChatGPT
- 1Open ChatGPT → Settings → Apps & Connectors → Advanced settings, and turn on Developer mode.
- 2Back on Apps & Connectors, choose Create and paste the server URL from Settings → Assistants. Set authentication to OAuth.
- 3Save, then Connect. Backlot opens in a new tab; sign in if asked, pick the studio, and approve.
- 4In a new chat, add Backlot from the + menu, then ask for something. ChatGPT will confirm before anything that spends credits.
Write actions (generating, approving, assembling) need a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace with developer mode on. On Pro, ChatGPT can look at your studio but not spend credits.
The server address is the same for every studio and lives in Settings → Assistants once you're signed in.
What it can ask for
The whole production workflow, in the order a production goes: start from a brief and a cast, have the shots planned, render drafts, change a line or a camera, upgrade one keeper to final, approve, assemble, download. Plus stills, and a look at everything the studio has made.
What it can't: buy credits, change who's in the studio, or decide a shot is good. Those stay with a person, on purpose.
Everything Backlot does- What is MCP?
- The Model Context Protocol: the open standard Claude, ChatGPT and most other assistants use to work with outside tools. Backlot runs an MCP server, which means any assistant that speaks it can use your studio. We give setup steps for Claude and ChatGPT.
- Which plans include it?
- Assistant access comes with the 3,000 credits pack and up (3,000 credits and 10,000 credits). Once a studio has bought one it keeps the access for good, the same way its credits never expire.
- Do I need Claude or ChatGPT on a particular plan?
- Claude needs a plan that allows custom connectors: Pro and up, or a Team or Enterprise admin adding it for the organisation. ChatGPT lets Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces run actions that change things; on Pro it can browse your studio but not render. Those are their rules, not ours.
- Can it buy credits or invite people?
- No. It can create, render, edit shots, approve, assemble and fetch: the production work. Buying credits, membership and studio settings stay in the app, done by a person.
- What can it see?
- Exactly what you can see in the studio you connected it to: characters, voices, productions, media and the balance. Studios are isolated in the database, so an assistant connected to one has no way to read another.
- Where does the conversation go?
- The words you exchange with Claude or ChatGPT stay with them, under their terms. What reaches Backlot is the tool call (the brief, the shot edit, the approval), the same data the buttons would send.
Your studio, one sentence away.
Assistant access comes with the 3,000 credits pack and up, and stays with the studio once it's bought.