lc-editor

A local video editor you drive from an MCP client. There is no timeline UI to click. You send tool calls; ffmpeg renders the file.

Built for short 9:16 reels. No music. Captions are stroke-and-shadow text, never a box. Engine rules live in specs/craft.md. Karachi episode structure is an optional preset, not the default.

Needs

• Python 3.11 or newer

• ffmpeg and ffprobe on your PATH

Related MCP server: video-editor

Install

From a clone of this repo:

pipx install .

pip install . works too. pipx keeps the app in its own env and puts lc-editor on your PATH.

From GitHub:

pipx install git+https://github.com/uzairayed/lc-editor.git

Run

lc-editor serve --project ./my-reel

--web starts a page on 127.0.0.1:8765 that can show stills. It only reads.

Cursor

Add this to your MCP config. Use an absolute project path.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lc-editor": {
      "command": "lc-editor",
      "args": ["serve", "--project", "/absolute/path/to/project"]
    }
  }
}

On Windows the path looks like C:/Users/you/my-reel.

Tools

Every edit returns { ok, timeline_summary, warnings }. Illegal requests fail out loud. Same op_id twice does not duplicate. review_report must pass before export. Preview stills and the contact sheet are JPEG files on disk, not base64.

Optional: project_create(..., preset="karachi") loads series branding. A Murree cut does not need it.

Unexpected Murree

Point LC_EDITOR_MURREE_DIR at a folder of exactly 117 stills on this machine, then:

$env:LC_EDITOR_MURREE_DIR="C:\path\to\murree"
pytest -m murree -s

Unix:

LC_EDITOR_MURREE_DIR=/path/to/murree pytest -m murree -s

The stills stay local. They are not in this repo.

Not in this version

Multicam, speech-to-captions, stock music, beat sync, Drive import, or a browser you edit in.