nodecode-makernice

Makernice: priced video and image generation in chat. A Nodecode rewrite of makernice/makernice-plugin by makernice.

The original is configuration only: it points an agent at Makernice's remote MCP server and adds skills that teach it to price a job, ask the user, run it and fetch the result. Every tool lives on that server, so this cell is the client: it speaks MCP over streamable HTTP to the same url and registers the server's eight tools, with the same names, descriptions and parameters.

Seedance, Kling, Wan and MiniMax videos, Seedream and Qwen images -- each job is priced in USD before it runs, and the job is refused if the price is above the amount the user approved.

Get it

Tell the agent "add the makernice cell", or run nodecode add nc://makernice.

Set it up

https://mcp.makernice.com/mcp answers only with an OAuth bearer; without one it answers 401 and names its resource metadata. The sign-in is a browser flow, and Nodecode's own MCP cell already runs it: add the server there once, sign in, and copy the access token it keeps under the server's entry in ~/.nodecode/mcp/oauth.json. Then put it in the makernice section (or /settings):

{
  "makernice": {
    "token": "…",                              // or leave it out and export MAKERNICE_TOKEN
    "token_file": "~/.nodecode/secrets/makernice-token",  // or name a file that holds it
    "url": "https://mcp.makernice.com/mcp",
    "request_timeout": 30                       // seconds; check_job's wait_s sits inside it
  }
}

The token is read again at every call, so a rotated one takes effect at the next tool call; a token_file is re-read the same way. Without any token the cell refuses at start and names the variable it looked for. /makernice shows the endpoint, where the token came from, the session and the last call.

Use it

Eight tools, named as the server names them:

Tool	What it does
`makernice_list_models`	The models with their modes, resolutions, durations and unit prices; `model` for one id's full parameters.
`makernice_estimate_cost`	Prices one job in USD, creating and charging nothing. `input` is the parameters: `{model, mode, prompt, duration, resolution, aspect_ratio, image_url, reference_images, …}` or `{template, images}`.
`makernice_generate`	Starts the job: the same `input`, `max_cost_usd` (the `amount_usd` the user approved) and a `request_id` of your own. Answers a `job_id`.
`makernice_check_job`	The status, the charged amount and the result links; `wait_s` waits up to 55 seconds for it.
`makernice_cancel_job`	Cancels a job still queued and releases the held amount in full.
`makernice_list_trends`	The trending templates with their price per resolution, for `{template, images}`.
`makernice_get_balance`	Available balance, what running jobs hold, today's spending and the limits.
`makernice_get_topup_link`	The wallet page where the user adds balance.

The price-consent loop is the point, and two of its steps are enforced here rather than asked for: makernice_generate refuses without a max_cost_usd and without a printable request_id of at most 64 characters, so a retry carries the same id and the same job rather than a second charge. Everything else -- the prices, the jobs, the models -- is the server's answer, passed through unchanged.

From eval the same work is one call:

(makernice:call "estimate_cost" (list :input (list :model "…" :mode "t2v" :prompt "a paper boat")))
(makernice:call "generate" (list :input (list :model "…" :mode "t2v" :prompt "a paper boat")
                                 :max_cost_usd "0.35" :request_id "setup-test-boat-1"))
(makernice:account)                     ; the balance and the limits

(help :makernice) is the primer the model reads: price first, show the amount, generate only after the user agrees, wait with wait_s 55, and tell the user that result links expire after 24 hours. /makernice balance asks the server for the balance.

Test it

NODECODE_SRC=~/nodecode/nodecode .github/test-cell.sh tools/nodecode-makernice

Every request is a stubbed nlk:http, so the suite reaches nothing: the handshake it sends, the session header it carries, the arguments each tool passes through, the consent gate, an event-stream answer, a refused token, a forgotten session and /makernice.

Gaps

The cell does not run the OAuth sign-in itself: the bearer comes from the section, a file or the environment, and the sign-in is one step done once in a client that has one (Nodecode's MCP cell signs in and keeps the token). The four skills are one primer rather than four documents, since a cell's manual is one text; and the model may still charge a job if the user's approval is not asked for, so the primer says plainly: estimate, show the price, then generate.