HTCUT

Vibe editing for real creators. You set the vibe — Claude makes the edits. HTCUT is a real video editor: you edit in the app while Claude Code edits the same project from the terminal, live. Every change is an undoable step in one shared history, so neither of you overwrites the other.

Free for Apple Silicon Macs (macOS 15 or later). No account.

Download HTCUT · Website & tutorials · Report a bug · Discussions

What this repo is

The public home of HTCUT: release notes, bug reports, feature requests, discussions and the Claude Code plugin. Downloads are on htcut.hanley.world. HTCUT itself is closed source; its code isn't here.

Use it with Claude Code

1. Download HTCUT, open it once and choose HTCUT ▸ Set Up Claude Code… — that installs the htcut command and the skill Claude uses. Or install the plugin yourself:

   /plugin marketplace add hanley-tech/htcut
   /plugin install htcut@htcut
   

   (The plugin needs the htcut command too: HTCUT ▸ Install Command Line Tool….)

2. Open a project in HTCUT, run claude in its folder and ask for an edit — "cut the ums and long pauses", "add captions", "put a lower third on the intro", "check it's ready for YouTube".

3. End a prompt with ;; to share what you're looking at: your playhead and selected clips.

$ htcut read          # the timeline Claude sees
$ htcut ui            # your playhead and selection
$ htcut transcript clean --dry-run
$ htcut captions
$ htcut preflight     # loudness, cut-off text, safe areas, chapters
$ htcut export -o out.mp4

What's inside

Motion graphics written as web pages (HTML, CSS, GSAP) with typed fields · editing by transcript, with filler, silence and retake cleanup · captions · cut-outs · skin retouch · voice match, noise removal and auto-ducking · speed ramps and smooth slow motion · picture-in-picture and device frames · Shorts from long videos with face reframing · a pre-publish checklist (loudness, true peak, clipped words, cut-off text, safe areas) · YouTube chapters, description and A/B/C titles and thumbnails. Everything runs on your Mac; models download only when you first use the feature that needs one.

Reporting bugs

Use Help ▸ Report a Bug… in the app (it fills in your version and macOS), or open an issue. Include what you did, what you expected and what happened; a screen recording helps. Questions and things you made go in Discussions.

Privacy

HTCUT has no analytics or telemetry. Projects, media, transcripts and renders stay on your Mac.

© Hanley Leung · hanley.world