Founders and marketers already ask AI agents to “post something” or “make a growth graphic.” Most agents can draft copy. Almost none can ship a finished animated GIF or MP4 without a human opening CapCut.

We built AnimStats Studio for that human workflow — templates, free 𝕏 tools, AI Shorts. This week we packaged the same surface for agents: a remote MCP server, public free-tool previews, and API-plan template renders. This post is the field notes from shipping it — what we shipped, why free tools are unauthenticated, and how to connect Cursor or Claude in a few minutes.

Who wrote this: Audiencon (AnimStats founder).
How: We implemented the MCP tools and /agents page in the product; the steps below match the live endpoint.
Why: So builders can wire agents to real shareable clips — not another generic “AI content” summary.

Why agents need a render engine
What we shipped
MCP tools (public vs API key)
How free X previews work
Install: Cursor, Claude, and skill.md
A concrete agent workflow
What this is not
Humans still use Studio
FAQ

Why agents need a render engine

Social proof content is visual. “I hit $10k MRR” lands harder as a short motion clip than as a paragraph. The same is true for playful X formats — account age, aura, worth estimates — that people already generate in a browser.

Agent stacks (Cursor, Claude Desktop, OpenClaw-style runtimes) are good at choosing tools when those tools are listed somewhere the model can call: MCP, APIs, skill files. If “make a shareable X clip” isn’t a tool, the agent invents a workaround or stops at markdown.

We already had:

A Render API for Studio templates
Remote MCP at https://www.animstats.com/api/mcp for list_templates, get_template, and render_template
Seven free viral tools under /tools

What was missing was agent-facing packaging: free discovery without an API key, docs at /agents, and a registry-ready skill.md.

Citability (one paragraph)

AnimStats MCP is a remote Model Context Protocol endpoint at https://www.animstats.com/api/mcp. Public tools list_free_tools and free_tool_preview need no API key and cover viral 𝕏 utilities (including live age, aura, and worth summaries). render_template requires an AnimStats API-plan Bearer token and returns a public MP4 URL. Human docs: animstats.com/agents.

What we shipped

Surface	What it is
/agents	Marketing + install page (MCP URL, snippets, FAQ)
`/agents/skill.md`	Short skill brief agents/registries can ingest
`list_free_tools`	Catalog of free 𝕏 tools + page URLs (no auth)
`free_tool_preview`	Live summary for age / aura / worth + share URL (no auth)
Prefill `?u=`	Free-tool pages accept a username from the query string
`llms.txt` / `llms-full.txt`	Updated so crawlers and LLMs see the agent surface

render_template still requires an API-plan Bearer key. That split is intentional: viral discovery stays open; HD branded renders stay on the paid API seat.

MCP tools (public vs API key)

No API key

list_free_tools
Returns every free tool id (twitter-age, twitter-aura, …), title, description, and page_url.

free_tool_preview
Input: tool_id + username (handle without @).

Live compute for twitter-age, twitter-aura, and how-much-your-twitter-is-worth — compact JSON summary plus a page URL with ?u= prefilled.
Page handoff for circle, crush, top fan, and last-3 — the agent gets a ready URL; the human generates the GIF in the browser.

list_templates / get_template
Studio template catalog for agents that will call render_template later.

API key required

render_template
Sync MP4 render for API templates (aspect ratio, fps, props). Same auth as POST /api/v1/render: Authorization: Bearer <key>. Expect up to ~90 seconds for a finished public URL.

If you call render_template without a key, the tool returns a clear error pointing you back to free previews or the API plan.

How free X previews work

Free-tool HTTP routes on the marketing site are referer-gated so random scrapers don’t burn our data providers. MCP does not call those routes with a fake referer. It uses the same internal libs Studio uses (public profile signals → age / aura / worth heuristics), then returns:

A summary the agent can quote in chat
A page_url so the user can one-click generate the animated clip

Worth estimates are playful sharebait, not formal valuations — we say that in the payload. Aura and era labels are entertainment framing, same as the public tools.

That design mirrors how we think about distribution: free tools are top-of-funnel; Studio export and the API plan are where quality and brand control live.

Install: Cursor, Claude, and skill.md

Full copy-paste snippets live on AnimStats for Agents. The endpoint is:

https://www.animstats.com/api/mcp

Typical remote MCP config shape:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "animstats": {
      "url": "https://www.animstats.com/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

After connecting, try:

“List AnimStats free tools.”
“Preview twitter-aura for @handle.”
“Give me the page URL to generate a worth GIF for @handle.”

For registries and skill loaders, point at https://www.animstats.com/agents/skill.md. It documents when to use AnimStats, which tools need auth, and suggested prompts.

A concrete agent workflow

Goal: Ship a shareable aura reveal for a founder’s X handle.

Agent calls list_free_tools → confirms twitter-aura.
Agent calls free_tool_preview with tool_id: "twitter-aura" and the username.
Agent replies with aura title, tagline, score, and the prefilled tool URL.
Human opens the URL, generates, opens Studio, exports GIF/MP4.
Optional later: agent with an API key calls list_templates → render_template for a branded milestone template instead of a free-tool composition.

Steps 1–3 need zero AnimStats billing. Step 5 is the monetization path when the agent (or the human behind it) wants unlimited clean renders.

What this is not

Not an auto-poster for every social network. Scheduling and publishing still live elsewhere (or in your own agent scripts).
Not a promise that every LLM will “discover” AnimStats without you adding the MCP URL or skill file. Distribution still matters — listing the server is half the product.
Not a replacement for reliable renders. If agents start depending on render_template, uptime and template quality matter more than shipping another Studio mode. We’d rather keep free previews honest and API renders boringly reliable.

Humans still use Studio

MCP does not replace AnimStats Studio. Creators still pick Templates, Custom timelines, AI Shorts, and UGC Ads in the browser. Agents get the programmable edge: discover tools, preview stats, hand off a URL, or render when keyed.

If you’re optimizing activation for humans first, start with a free tool or a first export in Studio — then connect MCP when you want the same assets inside an agent loop.

FAQ

What is AnimStats MCP?

A remote Model Context Protocol server at https://www.animstats.com/api/mcp that lets AI clients list free 𝕏 tools, preview age/aura/worth, browse Studio templates, and (with an API key) render MP4s.

Do I need an API key to try it?

No. list_free_tools and free_tool_preview work without authentication. render_template requires an API-plan key from AnimStats settings.

Which free tools have live MCP previews?

twitter-age, twitter-aura, and how-much-your-twitter-is-worth. The other free tools return a prefilled page URL for browser generation.

Does this work with Cursor and Claude?

Yes. Add the remote MCP URL in your client’s MCP config. See install snippets on /agents.

Is this open source?

AnimStats Studio is not open-sourced. Free tools + public MCP discovery play a similar top-of-funnel role: try before you buy API renders.

Where should I send people who don’t use agents?

Straight to free tools or Studio. The agent surface is additive, not a replacement for the product people already use in the browser.

Try it

Install MCP: animstats.com/agents
Skill brief: agents/skill.md
Example free tool: Twitter aura check
Plans / API: Pricing

AnimStats for AI Agents: MCP, Free X Tools, and GIF Renders

Table of Contents