Everyone is editing videos with Claude… and almost all of them hide it behind a course. Here’s the whole workflow, for free: Claude Code, one folder, 5 GitHub repos and 3 prompts.
Your AI video editor in 6 steps
Claude Code in the desktop app
New chat in local mode, not in the browser.
An “AI Editor” folder
With three inside: raw, references and exports.
5 free repos
Remotion, HyperFrames, FFmpeg, Whisper and yt-dlp.
One prompt installs everything
Claude Code installs and tests each tool.
Your taste
3-5 reference videos and the rule “get inspired, don’t copy”.
Record and drop the raw footage
Claude cuts silences, adds subtitles and music.
Step 1 · Claude Code in the desktop app
Open Claude Code in the Claude desktop app, not in the browser. You need a paid Claude plan.
Claude Code has to touch files on your computer (the raw footage, the tools, the final video), so everything happens locally.
Step 2 · A folder with three inside
Create a folder called AI Editor with these three subfolders:
AI Editor/
├── raw/ ← your unedited recordings
├── references/ ← 3-5 videos whose style you love
└── exports/ ← finished videos land here
Step 3 · New chat in local mode
In the app, open a new chat, choose local mode and select the AI Editor folder. From here on, Claude works inside it.
Step 4 · The 5 free repos
| Tool | What it does | License |
|---|---|---|
| Remotion | Builds the video with code (scenes, text, animations) | Free for individuals and companies of up to 3 people |
| HyperFrames | Animated HTML graphics designed for agents | Apache-2.0 |
| FFmpeg | Cuts, joins and exports | LGPL/GPL |
| Whisper | Automatic subtitles from your voice | MIT |
| yt-dlp | Downloads your reference videos | Unlicense |
These are huge, widely used projects: Whisper has over 110,000 GitHub stars and yt-dlp over 200,000 (as of November 8, 2026).
The 3 prompts
Prompt 1 · Install everything
You install nothing by hand: paste this and it does the work.
Install Remotion, HyperFrames, FFmpeg, Whisper and yt-dlp on this computer and get them working. Use the current folder as the project, with the subfolders raw/, references/ and exports/. Test each tool with a short example and tell me what worked.It will ask for permission before installing things. That’s normal: read it and accept.
Prompt 2 · Learn my taste
This is what sets you apart from everyone else. Paste 3 to 5 videos you love:
Use yt-dlp to download these videos into references/: [paste 3-5 links]. Study them: cut pacing, subtitle style, color, motion and music. Write the rules of my style in taste.md. Get inspired by them, don’t copy them: my face, my voice, my brand.Tip
The key line is “get inspired, don’t copy”. Without it, Claude tends to nail the reference’s style exactly. With it, it pulls out the rules (pacing, subtitle size, when to drop in a graphic) and applies them to your content.
Prompt 3 · Edit
Record, drop the raw footage in raw/ and paste this:
Edit the video in raw/ following taste.md: cut silences and filler words, word-by-word subtitles with Whisper, graphics with HyperFrames/Remotion where they help and soft music underneath. Export to exports/ at 1080×1920 and show me the result so I can review it.Ask for changes in plain words
Don’t like something? Just say it:
- “Make the hook bigger.”
- “Move the subtitles up, they’re covering my face.”
- “Cut the first 3 seconds faster.”
- “Lower the music when I’m talking.”
And it fixes it. The more you correct it, the better your taste.md gets for the next video: ask it to update the file with what you changed.
What it doesn’t do
- It doesn’t record for you. You provide the raw footage (or your voice and your images).
- It isn’t instant. Subtitling and rendering take a few minutes, depending on your computer and the length.
- It doesn’t give you rights to the references. Use them for inspiration; don’t reupload other people’s videos or their music.
Note
Remotion license. It’s free for individuals, companies of up to 3 people and non-profits, including commercial use. If you work at a bigger company, it needs a company license (remotion.dev/license).
Checklist
- Claude Code in the desktop app, chat in local mode.
- AI Editor folder with raw, references and exports.
- Prompt 1: the 5 tools installed and tested.
- Prompt 2: taste.md written from your references.
- Prompt 3: first video exported at 1080×1920.
- Changes requested in plain words and taste.md updated.
The tools do the cutting; your taste does the rest.