Insta Edits for Claude

Let Claude Code edit in Instagram Edits for Mac, with the full editor and not just the home screen.

Step-by-step guide with the demo: How to edit Instagram Reels with Claude in Edits for Mac

Edits for Mac, which Meta launched on 5 November 2026, has a built-in automation server that speaks MCP: in Meta's words, you can connect AI agents "to the desktop editor through MCP so they can help with your projects". You can point Claude Code at it directly, but you only get part of it.

Edits changes its tools with the screen. The home screen offers 32 tools: projects, imports and catalogs. Open a project and it offers 274, with text, captions, effects, transitions, keyframes, audio and export. Edits says it will announce that change (tools.listChanged: true) but never sends the notification. Claude keeps the 32 home tools for the whole session and never sees the editor.

This bridge sits between the two. After every tool call it asks Edits which tools it offers now. If the set has changed, it tells Claude, and Claude refreshes the list. It also fixes a reply format that some Claude Code builds reject, gives readable errors, and keeps your token out of config files.

Claude Code ──stdio──▶ insta-edits ──HTTP──▶ Edits for Mac (127.0.0.1:19501)
             ◀── tools/list_changed ──┘  checks the tool set after each call

Works with Claude Code in the terminal and in the Code tab of the Claude desktop app. It's a standard stdio MCP server, so other MCP clients (the Claude desktop chat, Cursor, Codex) can run insta-edits serve too, though we've only tested Claude Code.

What you get

• The full editor. Claude receives notifications/tools/list_changed as soon as Edits moves between home (32 tools) and the editor (274). Without the bridge, that notification never arrives.
• Replies that every Claude Code build accepts. Edits marks each result "resultType": "complete" without the caching fields that newer MCP schemas pair with it. Some Claude Code builds then dropped every tool, with Invalid result for tools/list: ttlMs … cacheScope. The bridge removes the marker only when those fields are missing.
• Speed curves that work. Edits' catalog says to apply speed-curve presets with selectSpeedPanelPreset, a tool whose own description says it is deprecated, refused and crashed the app. The bridge points those catalog entries at setSpeedCurve, which takes the same preset and works (tested on Edits 455).
• Your token stays private. The plugin keeps it in the macOS keychain. The CLI keeps it in a 0600 file. It never appears in ~/.claude.json, in logs or in error messages.
• Start in any order. If Edits isn't open yet, the bridge still connects and reports no tools, then tells Claude the moment Edits answers, so the editor appears without a restart.
• Errors you can act on. "Cannot reach Edits: open it and enable the Automation Server" replaces a stack trace. A rejected token says how to update it.
• doctor checks every link from the app to the sign-in, and --json gives you a report to attach to a bug.
• An edits skill that teaches Claude how the server behaves: discover before guessing, work in normalised canvas coordinates, check rendered frames, and never publish without your explicit go-ahead.
• Python standard library only. Nothing to pip install for the plugin, and it runs on the python3 that comes with macOS.

Requirements

• A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and Edits for Mac, free and signed in to Instagram
• Claude Code
• python3 3.9 or newer. Run xcode-select --install if macOS asks for the command line tools.

Install

Before you start: Edits for Mac is open and signed in, and Claude Code is installed. Setup takes about two minutes.

1. Turn on the automation server in Edits

Go to Edits › Settings › Automation, switch on Enable Automation Server, and copy the Access token. Keep Edits open while Claude works.

2a. As a Claude Code plugin (recommended)

Start claude in a terminal and run these two commands, one at a time:

/plugin marketplace add faisalkhanzemi/insta-edits-for-claude

/plugin install insta-edits@insta-edits

Claude Code asks for the access token with a masked prompt and stores it in your keychain. Restart Claude Code, then run /mcp: edits should show as connected. The plugin also installs the edits skill.

Rather just ask? Paste this into Claude Code as a normal message:

Install the Insta Edits plugin from github.com/faisalkhanzemi/insta-edits-for-claude

Claude runs the same two install steps from its terminal. That route can't show the masked token prompt, so finish with /plugin configure insta-edits@insta-edits and paste the token there, never into the chat.

The shell commands do the same thing but don't prompt for the token, so set it afterwards with /plugin configure insta-edits@insta-edits inside Claude Code:

claude plugin marketplace add faisalkhanzemi/insta-edits-for-claude

claude plugin install insta-edits@insta-edits

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗