How to edit videos with Claude Code.

1Install the tools

On a Mac with Homebrew:

brew install ffmpeg
pip install openai-whisper
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

The last line installs Claude Code. Sign in with your Claude account the first time you run claude.

2Ask for the edit

Open Terminal in the folder with your video, run claude, and ask in plain words:

Edit take.mov into a tight cut. Use Whisper for word times
and ffmpeg to cut. Cut every pause over 0.4 s, the ums and
any line I said twice (keep the last try). Cut only inside
silence, with a 15 ms fade. Save it as edit-v1.mp4, then
save 4 stills and look at them before you say it is done.

The more exact the ask, the better the first cut. Put rules you always want in a CLAUDE.md file in the folder, so Claude reads them every time.

3The commands it runs

Words with times. The prompt full of fillers makes Whisper keep the ums, so they can be cut:

whisper take.wav --model small.en --word_timestamps True \
  --output_format json \
  --initial_prompt "Umm, let me think like, hmm... Okay, uh, here's what I'm, like, thinking."

Find the silences:

ffmpeg -i take.wav -af silencedetect=noise=-40dB:d=0.12 -f null - 2>&1 | grep silence_

Cut and join. One filter keeps picture and sound in sync. Each piece is a start and end time from the steps above:

ffmpeg -i take.mov -filter_complex "
[0:v]trim=1.20:4.85,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v0];
[0:a]atrim=1.20:4.85,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS,afade=t=in:d=0.015[a0];
[0:v]trim=5.40:9.10,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v1];
[0:a]atrim=5.40:9.10,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS,afade=t=in:d=0.015[a1];
[v0][a0][v1][a1]concat=n=2:v=1:a=1[v][a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" edit-v1.mp4

Vertical 9:16, where X is the left edge of the crop, centred on your face:

ffmpeg -i edit-v1.mp4 -vf "crop=ih*9/16:ih:X:0,scale=1080:1920" vertical-v1.mp4

Captions from an .srt file that Claude writes from the word times of the final cut:

ffmpeg -i vertical-v1.mp4 -vf "subtitles=captions.srt" vertical-captions-v1.mp4

4Check and give notes

Claude Code cannot play the video, so it checks still frames:

ffmpeg -ss 12.5 -i vertical-v1.mp4 -frames:v 1 check-12.png

Then you watch it. Give notes with a time: "At 0:14 I stutter, cut it." Ask for a new file each time (edit-v2.mp4), so you never lose a version that was good.

This is the slow part by hand: you write times and describe the frame in words. In Takes you click the frame and mark the area instead, and the note goes to Claude with a picture of it.

5Ask for the posts

Transcribe edit-v2.mp4 and write a LinkedIn post, an X post
and a Shorts caption from it. Hook in the first line,
no hashtags, sound like me.

Claude writes from what you actually said in the final cut, not from the script, so the post matches the video.