Add Text Overlay
add_text_overlayAdds plain-text overlays to a Premiere Pro sequence at a specified start time and duration; use caption file imports for subtitle tracks.
Instructions
Unavailable: Premiere does not expose a supported scripting API to create caption clips directly from raw text. For on-screen titles from plain text use add_title; for captions import an .srt/.vtt and use create_caption_track.
Tool call template
Replace each placeholder with a value matching the input schema. Only required parameters are included; add optional parameters as needed.
{
"id": 1,
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"arguments": {
"text": "<text>"
},
"name": "add_text_overlay"
}
}Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| text | Yes | Text content to display | |
| start_seconds | No | Start time in seconds (default: 0) | |
| caption_format | No | Caption format (default: subtitle) | |
| idempotency_key | No | Optional client-chosen key (1-128 chars of A-Z a-z 0-9 . _ : -) for this intended edit. Pass a fresh key per edit and reuse it only when retrying that same edit, for example after a client-side timeout. A repeat with the same tool, key and arguments is not run again: while the first call is running it fails with IDEMPOTENCY_IN_PROGRESS (poll get_last_operations); after it finished it returns the original outcome marked replayed. A definite failure with nothing applied (receipt outcome not_applied) may be retried with the same key. Reusing a key with different arguments fails with IDEMPOTENCY_KEY_REUSED. Scoped to this MCP session (the stdio server process, or the HTTP server process when Streamable HTTP is stateless per request) and held in memory only (200 keys, 1 hour); it does not survive a restart or reconnect. Read-only invocations are never deduplicated. | |
| duration_seconds | No | Duration in seconds (default: 5) | |
| expected_cep_target | No | Optional reviewed CEP sequence/clip identity and exact tick ranges. Checked before every generated command; UXP refuses this CEP-only guard. | |
| expected_project_path | No | Optional absolute saved-project path. Every generated CEP command refuses before its body when the active project differs or is unsaved. UXP commands refuse this CEP-only guard; local-only tools do not inspect Premiere. Omit to keep existing behavior. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| ok | Yes | Whether the tool completed successfully. | |
| data | No | Tool-specific result data when ok is true; on failure, diagnostic detail when the tool provides it. | |
| tool | Yes | The registered MCP tool name. | |
| error | No | Failure detail when ok is false. | |
| receipt | No | Versioned common mutation receipt; success never implies rendered verification. | |
| idempotency | No | Present when idempotency_key deduplicated this call: replayed is true when the original outcome was returned instead of running again. |