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
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

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:

blaxel apply -f blaxel-model.yaml

2. Get Your API Key

blaxel auth token

3. Install the MCP Server

cd qwen-video-blaxel-mcp
pip install -e .

Or with uv:

uv pip install -e .

4. Configure Environment

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:

{
  "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.

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.

analyze_image(
  image_url="https://example.com/image.jpg",
  question="Describe this image"
)

summarize_video

Generate a video summary.

summarize_video(
  video_url="https://example.com/video.mp4",
  style="detailed"  # brief, standard, or detailed
)

video_qa

Ask specific questions about a video.

video_qa(
  video_url="https://example.com/video.mp4",
  question="How many people appear?"
)

extract_video_text

Extract text and transcribe speech.

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

  # 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