Edit videos with Claude Code (free setup)
Your terminal becomes an editor: silences cut, captions burned in, vertical render.
Hey, it's Adam 👋 You commented EDIT on my Claude Code editing reel. Here's the full setup: Claude Code turns a raw talking-head clip into a finished vertical reel — silences cut, captions burned in, key moments punched in — and it all runs on your own computer. No editing software, no subscription for the editing part.
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What Claude Code actually does here 🧠
Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent, and it lives in your terminal. For video editing, it does something better than any timeline app: it writes a small editing script fitted to your exact clip, runs it, checks the output, and fixes what's wrong — all from one sentence from you.
- 🎙 Whisper turns your audio into text with the exact time of every word. This is the map the whole edit is built on.
- ✂️ FFmpeg does the cutting, the caption burning and the final render. It's the same engine inside most editing apps — you just never see it there.
- 🤖 Claude Code is the one doing the thinking: it reads the transcript, decides where the cuts go, writes the FFmpeg commands, and runs them.
The difference from a normal editor: you don't drag anything on a timeline. You say "cut the pauses, caption it, punch in on the best lines" and the edit gets built in front of you. If you don't like it, you say what to change and it re-runs in seconds.
What you need ✅
- A Claude account. Claude Code works on Pro and Max plans. There's also a pay-as-you-go API option if you'd rather only pay for what you use.
- A Mac, Linux or Windows PC. All three work. Windows users should use WSL or Git Bash — Claude Code will tell you which.
- Node.js 18 or newer. One download, needed to run Claude Code itself.
- FFmpeg. The free tool that does the actual video work. One install, then you never open it directly.
- About 2 GB of free space for the Whisper speech model.
- Your clip. Vertical, one person talking, clean audio.
Cost check: the editing tools themselves (FFmpeg, Whisper) are free and open source. What you pay for is Claude's thinking time — a typical edit uses a small slice of a Pro plan's weekly usage.
Step 1 — Install Claude Code 💻
- 1Install Node.js from nodejs.org — grab the LTS version and click through the installer.
- 2Open Terminal (Mac/Linux) or PowerShell (Windows) and run:
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code- 1Run
claudein your terminal and sign in with your Claude account.
You see the Claude Code welcome screen with a > prompt waiting for input. That's it — you're in.
Step 2 — Install FFmpeg ⚙️
FFmpeg is the engine that does the cutting and rendering. Install it once:
| System | Command |
|---|---|
| Mac | brew install ffmpeg |
| Windows (WSL) | sudo apt install ffmpeg |
| Windows (no WSL) | Download from gyan.dev, unzip, add to PATH |
| Linux | sudo apt install ffmpeg |
Type ffmpeg -version. If you see a version number, you're ready.
Step 3 — Set up a project folder 📁
- 1Make a new, empty folder called something like
reels. - 2Drag your clip in and rename it with no spaces:
clip01.mp4. - 3In your terminal,
cdinto that folder, then runclaude.
Why an empty folder matters: Claude Code can read and change files in its working folder. Starting empty keeps the rest of your computer out of reach — and keeps your other projects safe.
Step 4 — Paste the editing prompt ✂️
This is the whole workflow in one message. Change the file name, then send:
Edit clip01.mp4 into a vertical reel for Instagram.Work in passes and show me your plan before running anything:1. TRANSCRIBE — use whisper.cpp locally (install it if needed) to get word-level timestamps.2. CUT — remove pauses over 0.6s and standalone "um/uh". Keep 120ms of room tone either side of each cut.3. CAPTIONS — 3-4 words on screen, bold white with black outline, spoken word highlighted in #F5A623, centred at 70% height. Burn them in with FFmpeg's subtitles filter.4. PUNCH-INS — find the 5 strongest lines (numbers, bold claims, punchlines), zoom 8% on each for 0.4s centred on my face, with a short headline under 24 characters.5. RENDER — 1080x1920, 30fps, H.264 + AAC, saved as clip01-final.mp4.Show me the transcript and headlines before the final render.
First run: Claude Code will ask permission to install Whisper and download the speech model (~1.5 GB). That's normal and one-time. Approve installs that are clearly about speech or video, and reject anything asking for passwords or uploading your files anywhere.
Step 5 — Check, fix, render 🔍
Claude Code stops before the final render and shows you the transcript and the five headlines. This is your chance to catch mistakes while they're still free to fix:
- Names and brand words. Whisper misspells these constantly, and whatever's in the transcript ends up on screen.
- The headlines. Each should be short, punchy, and actually match the moment.
- Send all fixes in one message:
Fix "Klode" to "Claude" everywhere. Make headline 3"Posts itself while you sleep". Then render.
The finished file appears in your project folder as clip01-final.mp4. Watch it once with sound off — captions should be readable and the cuts should feel tight.
Follow-ups you'll use a lot 🔁
Because Claude Code remembers the whole edit, changes are one line:
Cut the pauses down to 0.4s instead and re-render.Captions are covering my chin. Move them to 60% height.Change the caption highlight to my brand colour #E63946.Also render a 1080x1350 (4:5) version for the feed.Dial it to your style 🎛
| If you want… | Change in the prompt |
|---|---|
| Snappier cuts | 0.6s → 0.4s |
| More relaxed feel | 0.6s → 0.8s |
| Your brand colour | #F5A623 → your hex code |
| Shorter clips | 5 strongest lines → 3 |
| Other languages | Add: transcribe in [language] |
| Horizontal video | 1080x1920 → 1920x1080 |
If something breaks 🧯
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
claude: command not found | Node isn't in your PATH. Reinstall Node and restart your terminal. |
| Whisper won't install | On Mac, run xcode-select --install first, then ask Claude Code to retry. |
| Captions drift out of sync | Say: "Rebuild caption timing from the cut list, not the original transcript." |
| Render fails with a filter error | Paste the full error back into Claude Code. It reads its own logs and usually fixes itself. |
| Windows path issues | Use WSL (Ubuntu) for the smoothest experience — FFmpeg and Whisper both behave better there. |
Three rules that save you re-renders 🔑
- Fix the transcript, not the video. Every cut and caption comes from it. Correct it once and everything downstream is right.
- One change per message. "Tighter cuts, new colour, move captions" together makes it impossible to know which change broke what.
- Save your working prompt. Once it looks right, keep that exact prompt in a note. That's your house style, reusable on every video.
Two other ways to edit 🎬
This is the free, local, repeatable pipeline — best once you're editing weekly. For a one-off edit with zero setup, the spoken-notes version needs nothing installed: say your notes in the video, drop it into Work or Cowork, done. And OpusClip's AI Producer is the dedicated-tool route — no agent, no code, just drop and brief.
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