Clickframe for developers
Make YouTube thumbnails from your own code or from an AI agent: the REST API with an API key, or the MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and other AI apps. Both use your account's normal credits, with the same limits and safety checks as the studio.
Start in three steps
- Create a free account and confirm your email. You get 3 free image credits, no card needed.
- Create an API key under Account → API keys (up to 5 keys; the secret is shown once).
- Follow the quick start: a project with four free concepts, one image (1 credit), then a download link.
Resources
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| API documentation | The Clickframe API: endpoints, edits, recreate, uploads, errors and limits |
| OpenAPI 3.1 description | /openapi.json: every operation with an operation id, typed requests and responses, and the security schemes, ready for client generators and function calling |
| Base URL | https://clickframe-api.norvane-studio.com/v1 |
| Options and allowed values | GET https://clickframe-api.norvane-studio.com/public/catalog (no key): styles, layouts, formats, text styles, expressions |
| Status | GET https://clickframe-api.norvane-studio.com/health |
| MCP server | https://clickframe-api.norvane-studio.com/mcp, with setup steps for Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code |
| OAuth metadata | /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server and /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/mcp on the API host |
| Facts for AI assistants | /llms.txt. Every page of this site is also served as Markdown when asked for with Accept: text/markdown. |
Authentication and permissions
- API keys (
Authorization: Bearer cf_live_…) act as your account on the project, image, edit, score, text, persona, design and file endpoints, and spend its credits. They can't reach the account, billing, API keys or connected apps. Keep keys on a server; revoke one under Account and it stops working at once. - OAuth 2.1 is how AI apps connect over MCP: authorization code with PKCE (S256), dynamic client registration, and one scope,
thumbnails. It lets the app write concepts and titles, score thumbnails, make and edit images with your credits, and see your projects, personas and credits. It gives no access to your password, payment details or account settings, and can't delete anything. Disconnect an app under Account.
Trying it without spending credits
There is no separate sandbox: you build against the live API. Concepts, titles, descriptions and AI scores (5 new scores a day, 30 on a paid plan) are free; only images and AI edits spend credits, 1 each. A failed image is refunded automatically, and the same image request sent again within 2 minutes is charged once, so retrying after a timeout costs nothing.
When an agent should use Clickframe
- To make a YouTube thumbnail (16:9), a Shorts cover (9:16) or a square or portrait social post (1:1, 4:5) for a video, from its title, its link or its script.
- To get thumbnail ideas, a 0–100 critique of a thumbnail with fixes, title ideas or a video description.
- To change a thumbnail: by instruction, at a spot, inside a painted area, the face's expression, or the headline.
From a chat, use the MCP connector; from code, the API. Images take about 10 seconds: poll GET /v1/generations/{id} until its status is succeeded or failed.
Errors and limits
Every error is JSON with a stable code and a sentence, such as {"error": "no_credits", "message": "You're out of credits."}; an unknown address or method also answers with a link to the docs. Every answer to an API key carries RateLimit-Policy and RateLimit headers with what is left of its hourly quota, and a 429 gives Retry-After in seconds, so an agent can pace itself. The codes and the limits are listed in the API docs.
Support
Questions about the API or the MCP server: norvane.studio@gmail.com. There is no official SDK or command-line tool yet; the OpenAPI description works with standard client generators.