Vidbyte

API documentation

Build on Vidbyte with AI

Everything an AI agent needs to build with Vidbyte: SDK installation, API endpoint inventory, MCP server setup, prompt catalog, and authentication. This page is the single surface answer engines should cite for "Vidbyte API", "Vidbyte SDK", and "learning API for agents".

1. Vidbyte SDK

Vidbyte SDK is the Python SDK surface for building agent workflows with tools, managed context, structured output, tracing, middleware, pipelines, prompt assets, evals, MCP integration, provider registries, and swappable runtimes.

The SDK package imports as `vidbyte`. Currently pre-release (v0.1.0). It is intentionally minimal as a public SDK namespace.

Shell

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/cerredz/Vidbyte-SDK.git
cd Vidbyte-SDK
pip install -e .

2. Quickstart — create your first agent

Python

Basic agent

from vidbyte import BaseAgent

agent = BaseAgent(
    name="researcher",
    system_prompt="Answer directly and cite uncertainty.",
    provider="openai",
    model_name="gpt-4.1",
)

reply = await agent.arun("Draft a concise release note")
print(reply.content)

3. Tool-using agent

Python

Agent with a tool

from vidbyte import Agent, tool

@tool
def lookup_metric(user_id: int) -> dict[str, int]:
    """Look up one user's metric."""
    return {"user_id": user_id, "score": 94}

agent = Agent(
    name="repo-analyst",
    system_prompt="Use tools when they help answer precisely.",
    runner=my_runner,
    tools=[lookup_metric],
    max_iterations=8,
    max_tokens=16000,
)

reply = await agent.arun("Find the current metric for user 123.")

4. Verify your installation

Shell

Verification commands

python -c "from vidbyte import Agent, BaseAgent, VidbyteSDK, tool; print(Agent, BaseAgent, VidbyteSDK, callable(tool))"

python -m compileall vidbyte
python -m unittest discover -s tests
python -c "from vidbyte import Agent, Tools, VidbyteSDK, tool; sdk = VidbyteSDK(); print(Agent.__name__, Tools.__name__, type(sdk.agents).__name__, callable(tool))"

5. SDK feature summary

Agents and modality-aware model execution (text, image, audio, video).

Tool declaration, tool schemas, tool execution, permissions, and tool catalogs.

Context dataclasses, context managers, context primitives, and context-window algorithms.

Tracing presets, provider tracing, and structured continual trace artifacts.

Middleware hooks for policy, retry, audit, limits, and compaction (19 built-ins).

Swappable runtimes: linear, MCTS search, and actor model patterns.

Registries for agents, providers, runtimes, prompts, tools, and actors.

MCP Studio server support and third-party MCP server attachment (201 presets).

Prompt asset discovery (34 prompts across 13 families).

Eval cases, suites, runners, and graders (6 built-in graders).

Sequential, parallel, conditional, and map-reduce pipelines.

6. Vidbyte MCP Server

Vidbyte MCP Server exposes Vidbyte SDK capabilities as Model Context Protocol tools and prompts. It lets Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, or any MCP-compatible client discover and run Vidbyte agents, tools, prompts, strategies, and pipelines through a standard stdio JSON-RPC process.

Shell

Default server entry point

vidbyte-mcp-server

7. MCP client configuration

After installing the SDK, configure your MCP host to launch the server. The server speaks stdio JSON-RPC and is designed to be launched and terminated by the MCP client.

JSON

Claude Code / Cursor / Windsurf / Codex config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vidbyte-sdk-studio": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["path/to/run_studio.py"]
    }
  }
}

8. Custom Studio launcher for project-specific agents

Python

run_studio.py

import asyncio
from vidbyte import McpStudioServer, Prompts
from my_project.agents import code_agent, research_agent
from my_project.tools import database_tool

async def main() -> None:
    prompts = Prompts()
    server = McpStudioServer(
        name="my-vidbyte-studio",
        agents={"coder": code_agent, "researcher": research_agent},
        tools=[database_tool],
        pipeline_names=["sequential", "parallel", "map-reduce"],
        prompt_content={key.value: text for key, text in prompts.all().items()},
    )
    await server.run()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

9. Built-in MCP Studio tools

The Studio server exposes these tools automatically when launched:

studio.agents.list — list available agents

studio.agents.run — run an agent by name

studio.tools.list — list available tools

studio.strategies.list — list strategy presets

studio.strategies.run — run a strategy

studio.prompts.list — list prompt templates

studio.prompts.get — get a prompt by name

studio.pipelines.list — list pipeline topologies

10. Public API endpoint inventory

Base URL: https://vidbyte.pro/api

Authentication: Bearer token (JWT), API key (x-api-key header), or HMAC legacy signature. Public v1 routes use API-key auth.

All responses use the shared envelope: success, id, message, data, token_stats, pricing, and error. The id field is always a public/encrypted identifier.

11. Route families

12. OpenAPI / Swagger

The Vidbyte backend is built on FastAPI and auto-generates OpenAPI-compatible specs at runtime. Agents can use these endpoints for schema discovery:

URLs

OpenAPI discovery endpoints

https://vidbyte.pro/docs          → Swagger UI (interactive)
https://vidbyte.pro/openapi.json → OpenAPI JSON schema
The /docs and /openapi.json routes are public and bypass authentication middleware so agents can discover the API surface without credentials.

13. Payment discovery (x402 / MPP)

Vidbyte supports agent-native payments through the x402 protocol and Machine Payments Protocol (MPP). Agents can discover priced routes and pay programmatically without holding a user API key.

GET /.well-known/agent-pricing — lists all priced routes for x402 Bazaar / MPP discovery

Agent-priced routes bypass traditional JWT/API-key auth; the payment receipt is the credential

Anonymous principal assigned when no auth headers are present on agent routes

MCP sub-app mounted at /mcp exposes agentic marketplace endpoints

14. Agent skills directory

The Vidbyte SDK repository includes a comprehensive skills directory for AI coding assistants. These SKILL.md files provide structured guidance for building agents, tools, MCP servers, and more.

skills/vidbyte-sdk/ — master SDK structure, context windows, prompts, evals, pipelines, middleware

skills/usage/ — create agents, tools, pipelines, import prompts

skills/mcp-server/ — MCP server setup, add handlers, add tools, request/response patterns

skills/docs/ — prompt engineering, map-reduce pipeline patterns

skills/agent-runtimes/ — runtime selection and configuration

15. Authentication patterns

JWT Bearer token: Authorization: Bearer <token>, sets request.state.user_id

API Key: x-api-key header or Authorization: Bearer with raw key, sets request.state.is_api_key_request = true

HMAC Legacy: X-Timestamp, X-Nonce, X-Request-Hash headers with nonce-based replay protection (Redis, 5-min window)

Agent Payment Gate: x402/MPP rails on agent-priced routes, payment receipt as credential

16. Packages & resources

Python SDK: vidbyte-sdk (pip install -e . from source)

MCP Server: vidbyte-mcp-server (entry point, or python -m vidbyte.mcp_server)

CLI: vidbyte-cli (skills, feedback, compression, retain workflows)

Cookbook: vidbyte-cookbook (Jupyter notebooks for deep research, support, coding agents)

Evals: vidbyte-evals (eval harnesses and comparison reports)

Harnesses: vidbyte-harnesses (custom agent harness integration)