[ColinGPT9]

Step 1 of the editor suite (docs/editor-suite/): export in other sizes, qualities and formats, and under a size limit if you want one, for everyone, with no plugin. Stacked on #218 (step 0): merge that first. This branch is then rebased onto main.

Closes #203. Refs #177, sizes only, so it isn't closed: the requester wants sharper 4K, and 1440p and 2160p here are made from the 1080p clip. Native 4K masters come in a later phase.

What's in it

• Settings → Export (new card). Original, the default, saves the clip's own file exactly as before. Custom offers:
  • Size: 720p to 2160p, or a custom size from 720 to 4096. Sizes under 720p were removed on purpose.
  • Shape: the clip's own, 9:16, 16:9, 1:1, 4:5 or custom, filled by cropping, a blurred background or colour bars.
  • Quality: Smallest, Balanced, High, or your own quality number or bitrate.
  • Format: H.264, HEVC, or AV1 where the graphics card makes it. Made on picks the processor or the graphics card.
  • Frame rate and sound bitrate.
  • Keep files under a size limit: a tick box, off by default. Ticked, it shows the MB box, with a ⚠ Slower marker whose tooltip says why.
  • The card shows about how big a minute comes out. It warns when the picture would be enlarged, or when a limit is too small for long clips.
• Size limits:
  • A limit never goes below a measured watchable floor: 700 kbps of H.264 at 1080x1920 60 fps, scaled for size, frame rate and codec. A file that can't fit at that floor is marked "over the size limit" with the reason.
  • A clip that may fit is made exactly as without the limit, checked, and made again only if it came out over. The smallest file made is kept, so a limit never makes a file bigger.
• Editor lane (server/editor_lane.py): Export and Export all run beside the processing queue, not behind it. They run at below-normal priority, one FFmpeg at a time, with progress, Cancel and the result (name, size, width × height).
• Encoder fix: encoding.configure(config) runs once at startup, and encoder_for(codec, pref) serves exports. An export can no longer flip the global encoder, and video.encoder in settings.yaml now reaches every render. This is the only change to plain clipping, and only for someone who forces an encoder.
• WoopSocial: an opt-in "Make a smaller copy when a clip is over 100 MB". A clip WoopSocial would refuse is sent as a copy under about 95 MB, which is deleted afterwards. Off, uploads are exactly as before.
• Docs:
  • the user guide's export section;
  • the API contract for the UI (docs/editor-suite/api/step1-export.md);
  • decision records ED5 and ED6;
  • state.json and STATUS.md;
  • CHANGELOG.

How it was checked

• QC (independent): the CI-light suite, typecheck, build, argv snapshots and golden renders.
  • 1,857,492 no-limit FFmpeg argument lists are unchanged through the fix round.
  • 646,464 limited plans were swept, and none is estimated bigger than without the limit.
  • The plain pipeline's snapshots and golden renders are untouched.
  • 21 defects were found over the rounds, all fixed; state.json lists them.
• Black-box tester, using only the running app and the user guide. It ran 10 scenarios, then a re-test of 7 after the fix round:
  • Original is byte-identical, and a 150 s 1080p60 clip at High comes out at 95,707,128 bytes under a 100 MB limit.
  • Keep under 5 MB now gives a watchable 16 MB file, marked over the limit with its reason. Before, it was a colourless, partly grey file reported as a success.
  • High with and without "Keep under 100" now gives the same file (same sha256). Before, it was 8.1 MB against 11.2 MB.
  • Size estimates came within +5.5% to -10.3% of the real files.
• Performance: the plain pipeline is within +0.9% / -1.2% of the base, with byte-identical outputs. There is one named exception, below.
• UX: keyboard, the accessibility tree, axe-core (0 violations in step 1's parts) and three window sizes. 12 minor issues over two rounds, all fixed. The warnings take keyboard focus, and a warning that appears is announced.
• Docs audit: three auditors checked every export sentence in the guide, the card, the API contract, ED5 and the changelog against the code, and each finding was verified. About 30 sentences were reworded.
• Not checked: hardware encoders (NVENC, AMF, QSV, AV1) were checked as FFmpeg arguments only, because the dev PC's NVIDIA driver is older than the bundled FFmpeg needs. The packaged app wasn't built.

Size limits: the owner's decision

With a size limit, a clip that may fit is made as without the limit first, so a limit never makes a file bigger. One that comes out over is then made again (2-pass). On the processor, Keep under 100 MB at Balanced on a 150 s 1080p60 clip took 232 s, against 122 s in this step's first version, for the same file.

The owner kept that rule and made the limit something people turn on knowingly. It's a tick box, off by default, and when ticked, ⚠ Slower explains the cost (b40cb32).

Open (recorded in STATUS.md)

• Estimates:
  • a changed frame rate is under-estimated (1.31x at 30 fps, 1.47x at 24 fps);
  • bars, blur and very calm clips are over-estimated;
  • H.264 Balanced came out 9-17% over its estimate on 4 real clips.
• Custom shapes: one longer than about 5.7:1 comes out under 720 on its short side (documented).

Found in existing code (not changed here)

• FastAPI answers 500 instead of 422 for a request holding a number that parses to inf or nan. This is app-wide and also in the released app.
• The Original export copy answers 500 for a clip id SQLite can't hold.
• A NUL character in an export folder name is cut at the NUL on Windows.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[vercel]

The latest updates on your projects. Learn more about Vercel for GitHub.

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated
clips-kitty-web	Ready	Preview	Nov 7, 2026 5:58am UTC

1 Skipped Deployment

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated
clips-studio	Ignored	Preview	Nov 7, 2026 5:58am UTC