How to Edit Video with Claude: Set Up Claude Code and Make Your First Cut

Claude can edit video once Claude Code is connected to a real editor. On its own, Claude can plan cuts from a transcript or write FFmpeg commands, but it has no timeline to change. With ChatCut Desktop on the same computer, Claude Code gets ChatCut’s editing tools: it imports your footage, cuts it, adds captions and exports, and every change lands on a timeline you can open and adjust by hand. You need a Mac or Windows PC, a Claude plan that includes Claude Code, and a ChatCut account. ChatCut can’t be installed in Claude’s website or mobile apps.

This guide covers setup, a first edit of a talking-head recording, the prompts that keep Claude precise, and what to check before you export. Steps were checked against ChatCut’s and Anthropic’s documentation on November 4, 2026.

Key takeaways

• Use Claude Code, in a terminal or in the Code tab of the Claude desktop app, on the computer where ChatCut Desktop runs.
• Install with one prompt, Read ChatCut.io/desktop to install ChatCut, then sign in to ChatCut and start a new Claude Code conversation.
• Ask for one pass at a time: first cut, one specific fix, captions, export. Play every cut before you ask for the next change.
• Claude’s reasoning runs on your Claude plan. ChatCut credits pay only for media ChatCut generates, such as AI video, voiceover or music.

Can Claude edit videos?

Yes, but which part of Claude you use decides what you get back. Four routes come up when people search for Claude video editing:

• Claude chat (claude.ai or the apps) plans cuts from a transcript or notes you paste, and writes scripts. You get a plan, not an edited file.
• Claude Motion, in beta on Team and Enterprise plans, builds animations as code from your text, data and images and exports an MP4. It suits explainers and animated charts, not your footage.
• Claude Code with FFmpeg or rendering code writes and runs commands on files in a folder. You get new files without a timeline, which suits batch jobs and templated video.
• Claude Code with ChatCut operates a video editor through ChatCut’s tools. You get an editable timeline and an exported video, which suits editing your own recordings.

Claude Motion doesn’t use a video generation model, and Anthropic’s guide covers creating animations, not editing recordings. The FFmpeg route works for repeatable file jobs, but a fix means rerunning a command rather than trimming a clip. If you’re comparing editors that expose tools to agents, our video editing MCP servers guide sorts them by what they actually edit.

The rest of this guide covers the last route, because it’s the one that edits footage you already have and leaves you a project to keep working on.

What you need before you start

• A supported computer. macOS 13 or later on Apple silicon or Intel, or Windows 10 or later on x64. ChatCut Desktop isn’t available for Linux.
• Claude Code. Use the terminal version or the Code tab of the Claude desktop app. In the desktop app, choose a Local environment, because a Cloud session runs on another machine and can’t reach ChatCut on yours. Anthropic’s desktop guide lists Claude Code as part of the Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise plans.
• A ChatCut account. The Free plan covers the editor, uploads and transcription. Generating media uses credits; paid plans start at $25 a month or $252 a year for 100 credits a month.
• Footage you have the rights to use, with clear speech if you want Claude to cut by transcript.
• A target. Know the audience, platform, rough length and the moments that must stay before you write the first prompt.

Install ChatCut for Claude Code

The ChatCut plugin for Claude Code page has the current install prompt and answers to common setup questions. The short version takes four steps.

1. Send the install prompt

Start a new conversation in Claude Code and send:

Claude reads ChatCut’s installation guide and runs the official installer for your system: a curl command in Terminal on macOS, or a PowerShell command on Windows. Node.js and npm aren’t required. If Claude Code asks permission to run the command, allow it. The installer installs or updates ChatCut Desktop, opens it, and opens a browser page so you can sign in.

You can also install ChatCut Desktop yourself and open it once. Each time Desktop starts, it registers its local connection, called chatcut_desktop, with the agents it finds on your computer, including Claude Code. It also copies ChatCut’s workflow Skills into Claude Code’s Skills folder, so Claude knows ChatCut’s editing procedures. Nothing you created yourself is changed.

2. Sign in to ChatCut

Finish sign-in in the browser and check that ChatCut Desktop shows you signed in. If a new conversation later has no ChatCut tools, an unfinished sign-in is the most likely cause, and reinstalling doesn’t fix it.

3. Start a new Claude Code conversation

Claude Code loads its tools when a conversation starts, so the conversation you installed from never sees ChatCut. If Claude Code was already running during the install, quit it completely and open it again: exit and run claude again in a terminal, or quit the desktop app. Then start a new conversation.

ChatCut Desktop has a shortcut for this. Click the agent icon at the top of its sidebar (Agents on this computer) to see each detected agent and its connection status, and click Claude Code to open a new conversation there.

4. Check the connection before you edit

Ask for something that reads your project without changing it:

A working connection answers with your actual project. If Claude says it has no ChatCut tools, run claude mcp get chatcut_desktop in a terminal to see whether the connection is registered, then follow troubleshooting below. A registered connection is not proof on its own; the read is.

Already edit in ChatCut Web? The hosted Web plugin connects Claude Code to Web projects instead; see the Web plugin guide. When ChatCut Desktop connects to Claude Code, it turns that plugin off, so Claude works on Desktop projects.

How to edit video with Claude Code, step by step

The steps below make one talking-head edit: a first cut, a correction, captions and an export. The same rhythm works for interviews, tutorials and podcasts.

1. Open a project and add your footage

Open ChatCut Desktop and create or open the project you want Claude to work in. Claude works on the project open in Desktop unless you name another one. Add your recording through My Assets → Upload → Files…, or drag it in from Finder or File Explorer. Desktop reads the file from where it already is on disk, so a long recording doesn’t have to upload before you start.

You can also ask Claude to import a file by its path, such as ~/Movies/founder-take.mp4. Importing makes the file available to the project; it doesn’t cut anything. Let processing and transcription finish before you ask for a speech edit.

2. Ask for a first cut

Describe the result and fence off everything you don’t want yet:

The last two sentences matter. If you ask for cuts, captions, music and graphics in one message, you get a draft where you can’t tell which decision went wrong. A new timeline also keeps the original untouched, so you can compare. If only part of the recording should be edited, say which part, and name any line that must survive.

3. Review the cut in ChatCut

Open the new timeline in ChatCut Desktop and press Play in the Viewer. Open Transcript (or Workspace → Transcript if it’s hidden) and pick the track with the dialogue; clicking a word moves the playhead to it. Play from the first word to the last with the sound on, and listen across each cut for clipped syllables, missing breaths and sentences that now mean something different. A shorter duration or a cheerful summary from Claude doesn’t prove the cut is good.

Small fixes are faster by hand. Trim a clip on the timeline, or select words in Transcript and press Delete to remove that stretch of speech. Undo reverses recent edits. Before the next pass, click Versions in the top bar and choose Save Current Version, so you have a snapshot to return to.

4. Ask for one precise fix

Point to one moment and say what must not move:

Name the moment by timecode, clip or the words spoken there. “Fix the pacing” gives Claude nothing to aim at and gives you nothing to check against. One change per request also keeps each result easy to verify.

5. Add captions

Once the speech plays well, add captions to the approved cut:

Check every name, number and line break against the audio. Correct the wording in the caption text, in the Content panel, rather than in Transcript: deleting a word in Transcript cuts that moment from the video. If you also need a separate subtitle file for YouTube, our guide to adding subtitles explains when to burn captions in and when to export SRT.

6. Export and check the file

Ask Claude to export, or click Export → Video in ChatCut Desktop and choose a resolution up to 4K, a frame rate and a destination. Desktop renders the video on your computer, so keep it open until the export finishes. If Claude exports without a folder, the file goes to a ChatCut folder inside your system’s video folder, so ask for the path:

Then open the actual file. Check the picture, sound, captions, first and last frame, length and orientation. A finished render job isn’t the same as a correct video. Local exports from Desktop don’t count against the Free plan’s 60-minute cloud export allowance; see Desktop local export for the settings.

Prompts that use Claude Code’s strengths

Claude Code runs on your computer, so it can read a script, a brief or notes in its working folder and use them as context for the edit. Those files inform the cut; only media you import lands on the timeline. Two prompts that take advantage of that: For more prompts by editing stage, see our video editing prompts.

Replace script.md with the name of your own script file. Claude reports gaps instead of inventing material to fill them, which is the behavior you want.

For more phrasing ideas across cuts, captions and B-roll, see our AI video prompts.

Or run Claude Code inside ChatCut

If you’d rather stay in the editor, ChatCut Desktop can run Claude Code from its own AI panel. Open a project, click the agent button next to the message field, choose Claude Code under Agent Selection, and sign in if asked. The option appears when Desktop detects Claude Code on your computer. It uses your Claude account and quota rather than ChatCut’s built-in Agent, and Claude can work on the open project’s timeline directly.

Choose this when you want the conversation next to the Viewer. Choose a separate Claude Code session when the edit depends on files and tools in a project folder you already work in.

What it costs

There are two meters. Claude’s reasoning uses your Claude plan’s limits, the same as any other Claude Code work. ChatCut’s Free plan includes the editor, uploads and transcription, plus a cumulative 60 minutes of web and cloud exports; local Desktop exports don’t count toward it. ChatCut credits are spent when ChatCut generates something, such as AI video, images, voiceover or music, and ChatCut can pause for your approval, with any credit estimate, before a generation runs. Paid plans start at $25 a month or $252 a year for 100 credits a month.

Troubleshooting

Claude says it has no ChatCut tools

Start a new conversation; tools never appear in the conversation that was open during install. If that doesn’t help, quit Claude Code completely, reopen it and try again. Check that you’re signed in inside ChatCut Desktop. Then open Agents on this computer in Desktop: if the Claude Code row shows Connect, Reconnect or Retry, click it, and start one more new conversation.

You’re on claude.ai, a Claude mobile app, or the Chat tab

ChatCut can’t be installed in Claude’s website or mobile apps, and ChatCut doesn’t document a setup for the desktop app’s Chat or Cowork tabs. Switch to the Code tab or to Claude Code in a terminal.

The Code tab can’t reach ChatCut

Check the environment under the prompt box. ChatCut Desktop and Claude Code have to run on the same computer, so choose a Local environment rather than Cloud.

Claude picked the wrong project

Ask Claude to list your ChatCut projects with their IDs, then name the project by ID. A matching name alone isn’t enough when two projects look similar. If you want a fresh project, say so explicitly rather than letting Claude pick one.

You’re on Linux

ChatCut Desktop runs on macOS and Windows only. When you can’t run Desktop, ChatCut’s hosted Web plugin is the documented alternative; it edits ChatCut Web projects rather than local ones.

Method and disclosure

ChatCut publishes this guide. We wrote the steps from ChatCut’s agent and Desktop documentation (updated November 1, 2026), the installation guide at chatcut.io/desktop, and Anthropic’s Claude Code documentation, all checked on November 4, 2026. The demo clips come from ChatCut’s Skill pages; they aren’t a recording of a Claude Code session, and we haven’t timed this workflow. For a recorded end-to-end session in the ChatGPT and Codex desktop app, see how to edit video with ChatGPT. Setup prompts and plans change, so check the linked pages before a large project.

The useful split is simple: Claude turns your brief into precise editing work, and ChatCut keeps that work on a timeline where you can judge it, adjust it and export it.