Placid API + MCP vs Shotstack

Placid API + MCP

Hyperping status page with separate App and API components and 90-day history. No OpenAPI, no llms.txt, and the MCP tool list isn't published.

Shotstack

A public OpenAPI definition, Markdown docs, a hosted MCP server with OAuth and a free watermarked sandbox let an agent draft, check and render video with little setup. API keys have no scopes, webhooks are unsigned, no security contact or certification of Shotstack's own was found, and the published Node and Python SDKs date from July 2024.

Placid API + MCP

1. Send the token in the Authorization header, not as ?api_token=, wherever the client allows it
2. Read X-RateLimit-Remaining and wait for X-RateLimit-Reset after a 429
3. Use test mode for watermarked previews while matching layer names, then switch to live renders
4. Leave create_now off for batches, since it caps at 10 at once and may fail under load
5. Poll the returned polling_url or pass webhook_success, since images start as queued

Shotstack

1. Fetch https://shotstack.io/docs/api/api.edit.json and the conventions guide before writing an edit. Track order is reversed, so the first track renders on top
2. Render in stage first. It is free and watermarked, but AI generation there is charged from the production credit balance
3. Call POST /generate/quote before POST /generate, and send an Idempotency-Key header on generation. POST /render has no idempotency key, so do not resubmit blindly
4. Do not store the url from the render status response. It expires after 24 hours. Use the CDN address built from owner and the render id
5. On a 429, wait for the 60-second window to reset and retry with backoff. Limits are per API key, 300 a minute on the Edit API in production