Video Studio

Self-hosted video-production workflows for people and AI agents. Run the same workflow from a CLI, a local stdio MCP server, or an authenticated HTTP MCP server on your own machine. Video Studio does not provide a cloud service.

This is a development release candidate. Implementation and code review are complete; see validation for tested workflows and limits. Licensed under Apache-2.0, copyright 2026 haru3613.

What it does

• Plans and validates project artifacts, narration, subtitles, and cue-driven storyboards using the existing production contracts.

• Renders Remotion projects with FFmpeg verification and final audio mixing.

• Keeps durable background jobs, input snapshots, cancellation, retries, and version-bound results. Failed retakes preserve the previous final.

• Provides a local review UI with playback, comparisons, timestamped comments, and feedback that CLI/MCP agents can read and resolve.

• Separates technical delivery from pronunciation review, editorial judgment, human approval, and platform publishing.

• Includes optional ElevenLabs narration, Mandarin pronunciation tooling, reference-analysis import, YouTube workflows, and macOS signed approval code. These require the operator's own configuration and are not automatically enabled.

The core retains the original haru.* artifact schemas as a compatibility contract. They are format names; no original channel, voice, credentials, or production media are supplied. New public interfaces use video_studio.*.

New render receipts bind the complete render-input revision. Historical receipts without that binding remain readable but are treated as stale; re-render the project before a new technical delivery. They are never silently upgraded.

Related MCP server: ai-video-studio-agent

Prerequisites

The current verification targets are macOS arm64 and Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64. Platform support is only confirmed by the recorded checks, not this target list.

Install Git, uv, Rust/rustup (the repo pins its toolchain), Node.js 22+, FFmpeg/FFprobe, and a local Chrome/Chromium browser. On macOS, source verification also requires Swift 6.2 or newer (for example, Xcode 26.2) for the native helper tests. The optional --speech demo also needs eSpeak NG. No paid model account is needed for the example.

git clone https://github.com/haru3613/video-studio.git
cd video-studio
scripts/setup
scripts/verify
scripts/install

Installation requires clean committed source. It builds and activates an immutable, content-addressed self-built runtime. This is source integrity, not a claim of an independently signed official release. An unrelated existing launcher is never overwritten. The CLI and stdio server are installed in:

~/.local/share/video-studio/bin/video-studio
~/.local/share/video-studio/bin/video-studio-mcp

Add that directory to PATH, or use the full paths. The existing private Haru launcher at ~/.local/bin/video-studio-mcp is not replaced.

First project

Use a workspace outside the source checkout:

video-studio workspace init --workspace "$HOME/VideoStudio"
video-studio create --projects-root "$HOME/VideoStudio/projects" \
  --project demo --idempotency-key create-demo
scripts/prepare-example "$HOME/VideoStudio/projects/demo" --speech
(cd "$HOME/VideoStudio/projects/demo/remotion" && npm ci --ignore-scripts)
video-studio status --project-root "$HOME/VideoStudio/projects/demo"

prepare-example writes original example inputs, captions, and local speech. It does not render a final or manufacture pronunciation/review approval. Without --speech, it creates a clearly labelled synchronization tone instead. The template supports landscape, portrait, and cover compositions.

Claim a lease, then use its returned lease_id to submit the render:

video-studio lease claim --project-root "$HOME/VideoStudio/projects/demo" \
  --owner local --ttl-seconds 300 --idempotency-key lease-demo
video-studio run --project-root "$HOME/VideoStudio/projects/demo" \
  --owner local --lease-id '<returned lease_id>' \
  --runner render-project --tools-root "$PWD/media-tools" \
  --idempotency-key render-demo

Accepted is not completed. Use the returned job ID with video-studio job status (or logs, cancel, resume). Every operation is also available through video-studio call TOOL --input request.json; video-studio tools lists the exact typed input schemas. Run video-studio job --help for required parameters.

Review and export

video-studio ui --workspace "$HOME/VideoStudio"

Open the displayed localhost address and enter the one-time code from the owner-only code file. The code expires after five minutes and is consumed once. For a private server, use an SSH tunnel to this loopback UI. Comments remain bound to the reviewed media version; resolving a comment is not a publication approval.

video-studio delivery status --project-root "$HOME/VideoStudio/projects/demo" performs fresh technical checks (delivery_status over MCP). export_delivery exports an immutable bundle and requires a valid lease and idempotency key. Set VIDEO_STUDIO_DELIVERY_ROOT to an existing absolute output directory in the operator environment before launching CLI/MCP. Export manifests explicitly record content checks that were not performed. The source tree has no publishing channel or signing key configured, and upload remains held.

Workspace backup and restore

Backup and restore are local administrator commands. They run from the active installed source closure with the managed Python environment and are not exposed as MCP or HTTP tools.

mkdir -p "$HOME/VideoStudioBackups"
video-studio workspace backup \
  --workspace "$HOME/VideoStudio" \
  --destination "$HOME/VideoStudioBackups"

video-studio workspace restore \
  --backup "$HOME/VideoStudioBackups/<backup-directory>" \
  --destination "$HOME/VideoStudioRestored"

Backup refuses active render jobs and takes the workspace-wide barrier so CLI, MCP, intake, and review writes cannot cross the snapshot. Restore verifies the manifest and file hashes and requires a new empty destination. Terminal job history remains readable; unfinished jobs become interrupted with their prior process authority revoked. Restore invalidates leases, publish approval, template trust, and path-bound signatures, and rekeys review storage for the new canonical path. Provider credentials, OAuth material, browser/UI sessions, signing keys, and external attestation ledgers are excluded and must be recovered separately by the operator.

MCP

For local stdio, configure your MCP client to execute ~/.local/share/video-studio/bin/video-studio-mcp. Expand ~ if your client requires an absolute path. No HTTP listener or OAuth service is needed.

For a private HTTP server, follow HTTP deployment. The implementation uses OAuth JWT validation and Streamable HTTP, with a tested self-hosted Keycloak reference. Run your own TLS proxy and authorization server; there is no Video Studio account, subscription, or hosted control plane.

HTTP requests cannot choose arbitrary workspaces, executables, or export roots. Publishing and runtime trust operations are not exposed over HTTP. The server is a single operator's trusted workspace, not a sandbox for untrusted users' Node/Remotion code. Custom templates require local owner approval through scripts/trust-template; clients cannot grant themselves code trust.

Development and limits

scripts/verify
uv run --locked python tests/integration_http_keycloak.py

The second command requires Docker and creates only disposable, task-specific Keycloak/Nginx containers. It does not contact production accounts or call paid media APIs. The first command runs source, Rust, Python, media, and (on macOS) Swift fake-key checks; it is not publication permission.

See contributing, third-party notices, implementation scope, and source provenance, and security reporting. Generated media, credentials, provider responses, browser sessions, and private operator data stay outside this repository. Video Studio source is licensed under Apache-2.0; third-party dependencies, including Remotion, retain their own license terms.