# Qwen3-VL Video Understanding MCP Server (Blaxel)
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that enables Claude and other AI agents to analyze videos and images using Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct deployed on Blaxel.
## Features
- **Video Analysis**: Analyze videos via URL with custom prompts
- **Image Analysis**: Analyze images via URL
- **Video Summarization**: Generate summaries in different styles
- **Text Extraction**: Extract on-screen text and transcribe speech
- **Video Q&A**: Ask specific questions about video content
- **H100 GPUs**: Fast inference on NVIDIA H100 GPUs via Blaxel
## Architecture
```
Claude/Agent → MCP Server → Blaxel API → Qwen3-VL (H100 GPUs)
```
## Prerequisites
1. **Blaxel Account**: Sign up at [blaxel.ai](https://blaxel.ai)
2. **Blaxel CLI**: Install the Blaxel CLI
3. **ffmpeg**: Required for video frame extraction
4. **Python 3.10+**
## Quick Start
### 1. Deploy the Model to Blaxel
```bash
cat << 'EOF' | blaxel apply -f -
apiVersion: blaxel.ai/v1alpha1
kind: Model
metadata:
name: qwen-qwen3-vl-8b-instruct
displayName: Qwen/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct
spec:
enabled: true
policies: []
flavors:
- name: nvidia-h100/x4
type: gpu
runtime:
model: Qwen/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct
type: hf_private_endpoint
image: ''
args: []
endpointName: qwenqwen3-vl-8b-instruct-nvidia-h100
organization: adamanz
integrationConnections:
- huggingface-4s2m2h
EOF
```
Or use the provided config:
```bash
blaxel apply -f blaxel-model.yaml
```
### 2. Get Your API Key
```bash
blaxel auth token
```
### 3. Install the MCP Server
```bash
cd qwen-video-blaxel-mcp
pip install -e .
```
Or with uv:
```bash
uv pip install -e .
```
### 4. Configure Environment
```bash
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Blaxel API key
```
### 5. Add to Claude Desktop
Add to `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"qwen3-video-blaxel": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/path/to/qwen-video-blaxel-mcp",
"run",
"server.py"
],
"env": {
"BLAXEL_API_KEY": "your-blaxel-api-key",
"BLAXEL_MODEL": "qwen-qwen3-vl-8b-instruct"
}
}
}
}
```
### 6. Restart Claude Desktop
The `qwen3-video-blaxel` tools should now be available.
## Available Tools
### `analyze_video`
Analyze a video with a custom prompt.
```python
analyze_video(
video_url="https://example.com/video.mp4",
question="What happens in this video?",
max_frames=8
)
```
### `analyze_image`
Analyze an image with a custom prompt.
```python
analyze_image(
image_url="https://example.com/image.jpg",
question="Describe this image"
)
```
### `summarize_video`
Generate a video summary.
```python
summarize_video(
video_url="https://example.com/video.mp4",
style="detailed" # brief, standard, or detailed
)
```
### `video_qa`
Ask specific questions about a video.
```python
video_qa(
video_url="https://example.com/video.mp4",
question="How many people appear?"
)
```
### `extract_video_text`
Extract text and transcribe speech.
```python
extract_video_text(
video_url="https://example.com/presentation.mp4"
)
```
### `check_configuration`
Check the Blaxel API configuration.
### `list_capabilities`
List all server capabilities.
## Configuration
| Environment Variable | Description | Default |
|---------------------|-------------|---------|
| `BLAXEL_API_KEY` | Your Blaxel API key | Required |
| `BLAXEL_API_URL` | Blaxel API URL | `https://api.blaxel.ai/v1` |
| `BLAXEL_MODEL` | Model name | `qwen-qwen3-vl-8b-instruct` |
## Requirements
- **ffmpeg**: Required for video frame extraction
```bash
# macOS
brew install ffmpeg
# Ubuntu/Debian
apt install ffmpeg
```
## Supported Formats
**Video**: mp4, webm, mov, avi
**Image**: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp
## Comparison: Modal vs Blaxel
| Feature | Modal | Blaxel |
|---------|-------|--------|
| Model | Qwen2.5-VL-7B | Qwen3-VL-8B |
| GPU | A100 | H100 |
| Pricing | Pay-per-second | Subscription |
| Cold Start | ~30-60s | Faster |
| Setup | Deploy code | Apply YAML |
## License
MIT
