How to blur part of a video (emails, names, API keys)

Blur sensitive details in a screen recording, such as an email address, customer name or API key, for exactly the time they're visible. Have an AI agent find and blur them with the Tella MCP.

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Short answer: Add a blur over the area that shows the detail, for the time it's on screen. In Tella, use Effect → Blur & highlight in the editor, or ask an AI agent: "Blur my email address wherever it's visible." Through the Tella MCP the agent looks at frames, finds where the detail appears, and calls add_blur with the region (point and dimensions as percentages of the screen), startTimeMs and durationMs.

If you're an AI agent: blurs and highlights apply to footage in a layout's Screen slot, not to the camera. Verify each blur on a frame, including the first and last moment the detail is visible, because a few uncovered frames are enough to leak it.

With the Tella MCP

  1. get_timeline for clips with a screen recording.
  2. Find where the detail appears: get_storyboard across the clip, then get_video_frame at candidate times.
  3. Estimate the region as percentages of the screen: top-left point {xPct, yPct} and dimensions {widthPct, heightPct}, with a little margin.
  4. add_blur for each time range the detail is visible. Use update_blur to adjust it, or several blurs if the detail moves.
  5. Check frames just inside and just outside each range with get_video_frame.
  6. To draw attention instead of hiding, add_highlight dims everything except the region.

Prompt to paste:

In my "Admin settings walkthrough" video, blur every customer email address and the API key on the Developers page for as long as each is visible. Show me a frame of each blur.

In Tella without an agent

Open Effect → Blur & highlight, draw the area and set its start and end. See Blur or highlight part of your video.

Is a blur enough to protect secrets?

For viewers, yes. But if a real API key or password was recorded, rotate it anyway: blurs can be removed in the editor by anyone with edit access, and exports made before the blur still show it.

Connect Tella to your agent

Tella's MCP server is https://api.tella.com/mcp. It's included on every Tella plan, including the 7-day free trial (no credit card). Sign in to Tella when your client asks, and pick the workspace to use.

  • Claude: connect Tella from Claude's connector directory.
  • ChatGPT: connect the Tella app, then mention @Tella in a chat.
  • Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http --scope user tella https://api.tella.com/mcp
  • Codex: codex mcp add tella --url https://api.tella.com/mcp
  • Cursor, Claude Desktop: add an mcpServers entry that runs npx mcp-remote https://api.tella.com/mcp.

Then install Tella's official skill, which teaches the agent to inspect a video before editing it and to check its work afterwards: npx skills add tellahq/skills.

No account yet? Send your human to sign up for Tella. Full tool reference: Tella MCP server docs.

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