The Faceless Video API: Automate Videos From Code or Claude

Thirty videos used to mean thirty trips through the dashboard — one topic, one click, one wait, repeated by hand. We build FacelessGenie, and the creators actually scaling a faceless channel weren't doing that; they were begging us for a way to skip the clicking entirely. So we shipped one: a public REST API and a hosted MCP server that turn the full pipeline — script, voiceover, visuals, captions, music, render — into a single HTTP request or one sentence typed into Claude.

By the end of this post you'll know exactly what launched, the three-request lifecycle that runs every video, and three automation recipes — a self-feeding topic list, an article-to-video repurposing pipe, and a Claude-only producer — you can have running before the day is out.

What launched

• A full REST API at /api/v1 — create videos in any format, poll render status, preview credit costs, upload your own character references and music, manage your library.
• A hosted MCP server — connect Claude (or Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP client) to your account in about 30 seconds and create videos by chatting.
• One-click Claude connect — OAuth sign-in with your FacelessGenie account. No API key to copy for the Claude app.
• API keys in Settings → API — created in one click, shown once, stored hashed, revocable anytime.

How the API works

The whole lifecycle is three requests. You create an API key in Settings → API, then POST a topic and a formatId to /api/v1/videos. That returns a video id immediately with the exact credit cost. The pipeline — script, voiceover, scene visuals, captions, music, render — runs on our side and typically takes 5 to 20 minutes. You poll GET /api/v1/videos/{id} until the status flips to COMPLETED, and the response hands you a permanent link to the finished mp4.

1. 1POST /api/v1/videos with { topic, formatId } → 202 Accepted, returns the video id and creditsCost.
2. 2GET /api/v1/videos/{id} every minute or so — you'll see PENDING → PROCESSING → RENDERING with live progress.
3. 3When status is COMPLETED, videoUrl is your finished video. Download it, post it, or feed it to the next step of your pipeline.

Every format from the app is available — vertical shorts, long-form documentaries, character shows, gameplay-caption videos, article-to-video, and the rest. GET /api/v1/formats returns the whole catalog, and each format describes its own inputs: duration options, extra fields, and for character formats, the cast slots to fill. You can also pick specific AI models per component (script, voice, images, animation, music) or just take each format's defaults.

Creating videos from Claude

If you'd rather not write code at all, the MCP connector turns Claude into your video producer. In Claude, open Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, paste the FacelessGenie server URL, and sign in with your account. From then on you can just talk: ask for a 60-second short about a topic, and Claude picks the format, previews the cost, creates the video, checks on the render, and drops the finished link into the chat.

The connector exposes the full toolbox: listing formats and voices, previewing credits, creating and deleting videos, checking your balance, and uploading character references or music straight from the conversation. Claude Code and Cursor users connect the same server with a personal API key instead of OAuth.

Three automation recipes

1. The topic-list channel

Keep a Google Sheet or Notion database of 100 topic ideas. A daily n8n or Zapier job reads the next unused row, POSTs it to /api/v1/videos with your channel's format, waits for COMPLETED, then downloads the mp4 and schedules it in your posting tool. One afternoon of setup, then the channel feeds itself.

2. The repurposing pipe

Formats like article-to-video and reddit-post-to-video take a URL as input. Point a script at your blog's RSS feed and every new post becomes a video: POST the article URL in formatInputs, and the pipeline scrapes, scripts, and renders it. Same works for turning newsletters or product updates into shorts.

3. The Claude producer

Skip the infrastructure entirely. Once connected, plan a week of content in one Claude conversation: brainstorm ten topics, have Claude preview the credit cost of the batch, then create them one by one while you review each finished video as it lands. It's automation that doesn't feel like automation — you're just telling Claude what to make, and it handles everything else.

Pricing, limits, and safety

API access is included in every paid plan — there's no separate API tier or per-request fee. Videos cost the same credits as they do in the dashboard, and POST /api/v1/videos/preview-credits tells you the exact number before you commit. Fair-use limits keep things stable: 120 requests a minute, 10 video creations a minute, and 2 videos generating at once per account.

You stay in control the whole way: keys can be revoked instantly from Settings, Claude connections are approved with your own login and disconnect just as fast, and if a render fails the credits come back automatically — the ledger in Settings shows every charge and refund.

Get started in 5 minutes

1. 1Open Settings → API and create a key (or head to the Claude page for one-click connect).
2. 2GET /api/v1/formats to pick a format — or just start with ai-images-short.
3. 3POST your first topic to /api/v1/videos and poll until COMPLETED.
4. 4Read the full endpoint reference at facelessgenie.ai/developers — every endpoint has a copy-paste example.