Video Editor

A Descript-like video editor that is also an MCP server, powered by the ffmpeg CLI. Draft a video programmatically with Claude (via MCP), then refine clips, overlays and effects in a visual, dark-theme web UI.

Architecture

                 project.json (single source of truth, on disk)
                          ▲           ▲
            ProjectStore  │           │  ProjectStore
        ┌─────────────────┘           └──────────────────┐
        │                                                  │
  packages/server (Express + WS)                  packages/mcp (MCP stdio)
        │  REST + WebSocket + ffmpeg                       │  tools for Claude
        ▼                                                  │
  packages/web (React + Vite)  ◄── live updates over WS ───┘
   timeline + PixiJS composited preview

• packages/core — shared zod schema, ProjectStore, and the ffmpeg layer (binary resolver, probe, filtergraph compiler, runner).

• packages/server — Express REST + WebSocket backend; uploads, streaming, export. Watches project.json so MCP edits appear live in the UI.

• packages/mcp — Model Context Protocol stdio server exposing editing/export tools that mutate the same project.json.

• packages/web — React UI: project/files panel, multi-track timeline (@xzdarcy/react-timeline-editor), and a real-time Canvas2D composited preview.

Related MCP server: ffmpeg-mcp

Quick start

npm install
npm run dev     # starts the backend (:5174) and the web UI (:5173)

FFmpeg

By default the app uses ffmpeg/ffprobe from your PATH. To download and use a bundled binary instead, set:

export FFMPEG_SOURCE=download   # uses ffmpeg-static / ffprobe-static
# FFMPEG_SOURCE=system (default) uses ffmpeg/ffprobe on PATH

MCP server

npm run build
claude mcp add video-editor -- node /absolute/path/to/packages/mcp/dist/index.js

See packages/mcp/README.md for the full tool list and env vars.