# video-use
Introducing **video-use** — edit videos with Claude Code. 100% open source.
Drop raw footage in a folder, chat with Claude Code, get `final.mp4` back. Works for any content — talking heads, montages, tutorials, travel, interviews — without presets or menus.
## What it does
- **Cuts out filler words** (`umm`, `uh`, false starts) and dead space between takes
- **Auto color grades** every segment (warm cinematic, neutral punch, or any custom ffmpeg chain)
- **30ms audio fades** at every cut so you never hear a pop
- **Burns subtitles** in your style — 2-word UPPERCASE chunks by default, fully customizable
- **Generates animation overlays** via [HyperFrames](https://github.com/heygen-com/hyperframes), [Remotion](https://www.remotion.dev/), [Manim](https://www.manim.community/), or PIL — spawned in parallel sub-agents, one per animation
- **Self-evaluates the rendered output** at every cut boundary before showing you anything
- **Persists session memory** in `project.md` so next week's session picks up where you left off
## Setup prompt
Paste into Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, Openclaw, or any agent with shell access:
```text
Set up https://github.com/browser-use/video-use for me.
Read install.md first to install this repo, wire up ffmpeg, register the skill with whichever agent you're running under, and set up the ElevenLabs API key — ask me to paste it when you need it. Then read SKILL.md for daily usage, and always read helpers/ because that's where the editing scripts live. After install, don't transcribe anything on your own — just tell me it's ready and wait for me to drop footage into a folder.
```
The agent handles the clone, dependencies, skill registration, and prompts you once for your ElevenLabs API key (grab one at [elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys](https://elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys)).
Then point your agent at a folder of raw takes:
```bash
cd /path/to/your/videos
claude # or codex, hermes, etc.
```
For always-on editing from your own VPS or Telegram, run the agent through [Browser Use Box](https://browser-use.com/bux). [Watch the 15-second demo](https://www.tiktok.com/@browser_use/video/7639824093721758989).
And in the session:
> edit these into a launch video
It inventories the sources, proposes a strategy, waits for your OK, then produces `edit/final.mp4` next to your sources. All outputs live in `/edit/` — the skill directory stays clean.
## Manual install
If you'd rather do it by hand:
```bash
# 1. Clone and symlink into your agent's skills directory
git clone https://github.com/browser-use/video-use ~/Developer/video-use
ln -sfn ~/Developer/video-use ~/.claude/skills/video-use # Claude Code
# ln -sfn ~/Developer/video-use ~/.codex/skills/video-use # Codex
# 2. Install deps
cd ~/Developer/video-use
uv sync # or: pip install -e .
brew install ffmpeg # required
brew install yt-dlp # optional, for downloading online sources
# 3. Add your ElevenLabs API key
cp .env.example .env
$EDITOR .env # ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=...
```
## How it works
The LLM never watches the video. It **reads** it — through two layers that together give it everything it needs to cut with word-boundary precision.
**Layer 1 — Audio transcript (always loaded).** One ElevenLabs Scribe call per source gives word-level timestamps, speaker diarization, and audio events (`(laughter)`, `(applause)`, `(sigh)`). All takes pack into a single ~12KB `takes_packed.md` — the LLM's primary reading view.
```
## C0103 (duration: 43.0s, 8 phrases)
[002.52-005.36] S0 Ninety percent of what a web agent does is completely wasted.
[006.08-006.74] S0 We fixed this.
```
**Layer 2 — Visual composite (on demand).** `timeline_view` produces a filmstrip + waveform + word labels PNG for any time range. Called only at decision points — ambiguous pauses, retake comparisons, cut-point sanity checks.
> Naive approach: 30,000 frames × 1,500 tokens = **45M tokens of noise**.
> Video Use: **12KB text + a handful of PNGs**.
Same idea as browser-use giving an LLM a structured DOM instead of a screenshot — but for video.
## Pipeline
```
Transcribe ──> Pack ──> LLM Reasons ──> EDL ──> Render ──> Self-Eval
│
└─ issue? fix + re-render (max 3)
```
The self-eval loop runs `timeline_view` on the _rendered output_ at every cut boundary — catches visual jumps, audio pops, hidden subtitles. You see the preview only after it passes.
## Design principles
1. **Text + on-demand visuals.** No frame-dumping. The transcript is the surface.
2. **Audio is primary, visuals follow.** Cuts come from speech boundaries and silence gaps.
3. **Ask → confirm → execute → self-eval → persist.** Never touch the cut without strategy approval.
4. **Zero assumptions about content type.** Look, ask, then edit.
5. **12 hard rules, artistic freedom elsewhere.** Production-correctness is non-negotiable. Taste isn't.
See [`SKILL.md`](./SKILL.md) for the full production rules and editing craft.