Build on top of PaneScale.

#Overview

PaneScale is a local desktop app, so its “API” is local too. There are four places where you can build on it:

#MCP bridge

The bridge is a real MCP server using the Streamable HTTP transport with plain JSON responses. It only listens on the loopback interface and is off until you turn it on in Settings → MCP bridge.

#Connect

Copy the URL and token from Settings → MCP bridge. For Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http panescale http://127.0.0.1:41920/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer omcp_your_token"

For clients that read a JSON configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "panescale": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:41920/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer omcp_your_token" }
    }
  }
}

#Tools

A raw call looks like any other MCP request:

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:41920/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer omcp_your_token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"panescale_create_task","arguments":{"title":"Add an empty state to uploads","labels":"ui"}}}'

#Workflow steps

A workflow is a brief plus up to 16 steps, run left to right. Every step can store its output under a key; later steps reference it as {{key}}.

Steps can run in parallel groups, but not approvals or editing agents — those always run alone. A step can have a condition on an earlier output: contains, not_contains, equals or not_empty. Outputs can be validated as JSON.

Triggers: manual, interval or git_change (a new commit in the workspace).

#Video scenes

A video is a folder: timeline.json plus one file per scene in scenes/<id>.js. Each scene file is the body of a function that draws one frame onto a 2D canvas. The background is already filled with theme.bg; the camera, transitions and captions are applied around your code.

// Parameters: ctx, t, w, h, theme, u — t runs from 0 to 1 within the scene.
u.backdrop({ grid: true });

// Words rise in one after another; "|" breaks the line.
u.words('Ship it|tonight', w / 2, h * 0.45, u.seg(t, 0.05, 0.5), {
  size: u.min * 0.11, weight: 760, align: 'center', maxWidth: w * 0.86,
});

// A gradient underline that grows in, then a counter.
const lw = u.min * 0.22 * u.easeInOut(u.seg(t, 0.35, 0.6));
ctx.fillStyle = u.grad(w / 2 - lw / 2, 0, w / 2 + lw / 2, 0);
u.rr(w / 2 - lw / 2, h * 0.62, lw, u.min * 0.008, u.min * 0.004);
ctx.fill();
u.text(u.count(20000, u.seg(t, 0.4, 0.9), { suffix: '+ teams' }), w / 2, h * 0.72, {
  size: u.min * 0.04, color: theme.muted, align: 'center',
});

The timeline itself is plain JSON:

{
  "format": "16:9",
  "height": 1080,
  "fps": 30,
  "theme": "graphit",
  "brand": { "accent": "#1463ff" },
  "captions": true,
  "caption_style": "kinetic",
  "sfx_auto": true,
  "scenes": [
    {
      "id": "title",
      "kind": "type",
      "title": "Title",
      "duration_secs": 3.4,
      "transition": "zoom",
      "transition_secs": 0.5,
      "caption": "Every agent in one window",
      "camera": [{ "at": 0, "zoom": 1 }, { "at": 3, "zoom": 1.12, "x": 0.04, "ease": "inout" }],
      "sfx": [{ "at": 1.2, "type": "pop", "gain": 0.6 }],
      "code": ""
    }
  ],
  "notes": [{ "id": "n1", "at": 2.4, "text": "Logo bigger" }]
}

• format: 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:5 · height: the short side, 720 to 2160 · fps: 24 to 60
• theme: nacht, graphit, aurora, ozean, wald, sonne, hell, papier · brand overrides single colors
• transition (how a scene enters, overlapping the one before): cut, fade, dip, push, slide, zoom, whip, wipe, circle, sweep, glitch, blur · direction: left, right, up, down
• camera keys: x/y as a share of the frame, zoom (1 = none), rotate in degrees, ease: linear, out, inout, spring
• sfx: whoosh, riser, impact, click, pop, swell, tick, chime — generated locally, no audio files
• caption_style: kinetic, plain or bold · kind: motion, type, chart, code, device, end

Scenes must be deterministic (no Math.random, Date.now or performance.now — use u.rand) and must not call ctx.setTransform, because the camera uses the transform. During export, numbers and typed text are frozen per frame so motion blur never smears digits.

#Status signals

PaneScale shows each pane as working, waiting for you or done. Claude Code reports through hooks that PaneScale configures for its own panes. For every other CLI, these signals work:

• OSC 9 and OSC 777 terminal notifications — many CLIs already send them when they need input or finish a task.
• Prompt detection on the visible screen as a fallback for text-mode CLIs.

If you build your own CLI, send a desktop notification escape sequence when you need the user:

printf '\033]9;Waiting for approval\007'