HTCUT — vibe editing for real creators

Say it.
Watch it land.

Type in Claude Code. Every edit appears in your open window as a step you can see, keep or undo.

You set the vibe
“Tighter.” “Less dead air.” End with ;; and Claude sees your playhead.
Claude edits
With the same htcut commands you could type. Nothing hidden.
It lands live
Keep scrubbing. Touch the same clip and Claude backs off and re-reads.
Undo anything
One history for both of you. ⌘Z or htcut undo.

Made with HTCUT

Shorts that are
doing numbers.

Three iPhone 18 Pro Max Shorts from Hanley Talks Tech, cut and finished in HTCUT with Claude Code. Tap one for sound.

See them on YouTube

44K views

Fingerprint mess?Four colours up close, with the smudges called out. 17 seconds.

Which colour are you?A yes-or-no decision tree, built as HTML motion graphics. 33 seconds.

TechWoven case coloursEvery colour ranked, built from one spec file with htcut make color-ranking. 18 seconds.

Built on a real video

8 minutes 45.
One history.

The iPhone Duo Buyer’s Guide was cut, checked and packaged in HTCUT. Claude did the heavy lifting. Hanley made the calls.

423: edits in one history
358: made by Claude
−14.0: LUFS, measured on export
3: thumbnails for Test & Compare

Thumbnail A of the iPhone Duo Buyer's Guide: Hanley holding the white iPhone Duo, with the price rising from $1,999 to $2,672.

A full editor.
Not a prompt box.

Cut, mix, grade and package by hand. Claude edits the same timeline through the same steps. Use it with Claude, or without.

Motion graphics are web pages.

HTML, CSS and GSAP. Fields become controls. Cut-off text gets flagged.

The graphics previewer playing a four-step roadmap graphic, with its fields in the inspector.

Edit the words.

Delete words to cut them. Ums, pauses and retakes go in one review.

$ htcut transcript clean
  2 fillers · 2 pauses · 1 retake
$ htcut stumbles --fix
$ htcut captions --words 3

Circles, cut-outs, mockups.

Picture-in-picture frames, iPhone and MacBook mockups, graphics behind you.

A white phone labelled 'Star White' with the presenter in a circular picture-in-picture frame.

Sound that sits right.

Voice isolation, mic matching, ducking. Claude suggests tracks. Your ear picks.

Four music alternatives with start point, length, tempo and level difference, one auditioning.

Checked before you upload.

Clipped words, cut-off text, the Shorts buttons, silences, −14 LUFS.

$ htcut preflight
BLOCKERS
  • Speech cut off
WARNINGS
  • Text under the Shorts buttons

Packaged for YouTube.

Chapters, description and three titles and thumbnails for Test & Compare.

Post Details: A and B titles, three thumbnails and the video description with copy buttons.

Skin retouch
Speed ramps
Smooth slow motion
J and L cuts
Compound clips
Stabilisation
LUTs and colour match
Sync by audio
Auto zoom
Teleprompter
Brand kits
Review links
CapCut import
Shorts from long videos

Ask like a creator.

Plain sentences in. Readable htcut commands out.

Cut the ums, long pauses and false starts. Show me the list first.

Transcribes on your Mac, finds fillers, pauses and retakes, and gives you a review list. Untick anything you want to keep.

htcut transcript clean --dry-run

This part drags. Tighten it;;

;; tells Claude where your playhead is. It trims across every row, and refuses to cut speech it can hear.

htcut ripple trim --clip … --dry-run

Add captions, three words at a time, highlight the word I’m saying.

Animated captions from your voice track, timed to forced-aligned words.

htcut captions --words 3

Duck the music under my voice and make it hit YouTube loudness.

Music dips under speech. Every export is measured against −14 LUFS and a −1 dBTP peak, with the fix if it’s off.

htcut audio duck on

My pickup mic sounds different. Make it match the main take.

Measures both voices and EQs the pickup to match, then evens out the level.

htcut audio match --clip … --to …

Find three Shorts in this video.

Scores 20–58 second stretches, cuts them to 9:16, follows your face and adds captions. Each Short is its own project.

htcut shorts --count 3

Write the chapters and description.

Chapters from your timeline, checked against YouTube’s rules, plus your description footer and A/B/C titles.

htcut description

Is this ready to upload?

The pre-publish checklist: clipped words, cut-off text, text under the Shorts buttons, black gaps, silences, loudness.

htcut preflight

Every screen, real.

From real projects. Swipe through.

The HTCUT window: media browser, viewer, inspector and timeline. — **The whole window**Media, viewer, inspector and timeline, with Claude editing the same project.

The HTCUT timeline with filmstrips, waveforms, graphics rows and music beds. — **The timeline**Filmstrips, waveforms, chapter flags, music beds, sound effects and graphics rows.

The media browser: product screen recordings with durations and clip counts. — **Media browser**Every source with its length and how many clips use it.

The graphics previewer playing a roadmap graphic with its fields alongside. — **Graphics previewer**HTML and GSAP graphics play live, with their fields as inspector controls.

A versus graphic comparing two products row by row with a winner count. — **Data graphics**Versus tables, spec sheets and price cards that animate their numbers.

A vertical frame with the YouTube Shorts interface zones shaded red. — **Shorts safe zones**See exactly where YouTube’s buttons and title will cover your frame.

The voiceover recorder in Line by line mode. — **Voiceover, line by line**Read each script line; the last good read lands on its slot.

Four music alternatives with length, tempo and level, one auditioning. — **Sound picks**Claude proposes tracks with tempo and loudness. Your ear picks.

Post Details with A and B titles, three thumbnails and the description. — **Post details**Titles A/B/C, three thumbnails and a description with Copy buttons.

How it works

Every edit is a step.

A project is a folder. Your trims and Claude’s commands are written to one log, so each of you sees the other’s edits as they happen. Rendering, transcripts, cut-outs and voice cleanup all run on your Mac.

Both of you write steps into one log. Each step shows up live on both sides.

Where HTCUT fits.

Different tools for different jobs, as of October 2026.

Question	HTCUT	AI-first editors Descript, CapCut, VEED, Kapwing	Pro editors Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro
How the AI edits	Claude Code edits your open timeline, one named, undoable step at a time, while you keep working.	AI tools and agents built into the app, such as Descript’s Underlord. Many run per prompt and cost credits.	AI added to a pro timeline: Premiere’s AI Assistant (beta), an MCP server for AI assistants in Resolve 21.1, search, captions and masks in Final Cut.
Where your footage goes	Stays on your Mac. Transcripts, cut-outs, voice cleanup and renders run locally.	Mostly to their cloud: browser editors and cloud project drives.	Edited locally. Some AI features use the vendor’s cloud.
What it costs	Free. No credits, no watermark. Claude Code needs a Claude plan.	Free tiers with limits or watermarks. Paid plans meter AI in credits or minutes.	Premiere is a subscription. Resolve is free, Studio is a one-time purchase. Final Cut is a one-time purchase or part of Apple Creator Studio.
Runs on	Apple Silicon Macs, macOS 15 or later.	Browser, desktop and phone, depending on the app.	Premiere and Resolve on Mac and Windows. Final Cut on Mac.

Based on each vendor’s public pages and coverage as of October 2026. Features and prices change; check before you buy.

When HTCUT isn’t the right pick

You’re on Windows or an Intel Mac.
You want an AI to generate a whole video from one prompt. HTCUT edits your footage; it doesn’t generate footage.
You hand projects to editors in Premiere, Resolve or Final Cut. HTCUT exports finished video, not project XML.
You need open source. HTCUT is free but closed source.

Download HTCUT

Free. Signed and notarized by Apple.

Download for Mac Get started in 10 minutes →

macOS: 15 Sequoia or later
Chip: Apple Silicon (M1 or later)
Price: Free, no account
Claude Code: Optional, for vibe editing

Add it to Claude Code

Open HTCUT once and choose HTCUT ▸ Set Up Claude Code… — or install the plugin:

/plugin marketplace add hanley-tech/htcut
/plugin install htcut@htcut

Questions

What is vibe editing?

You describe what you want, in plain words, and an AI makes the edits. In HTCUT that AI is Claude Code, and it edits the same timeline you have open. You keep the taste and the final say. Claude does the tedious parts. Every edit is a step you can see and undo, so nothing is a black box.

Will the AI wreck my edit?

It can’t quietly. Claude never touches project files; it can only use htcut commands, and each one is a named step in the same history as yours. Undo it with ⌘Z or htcut undo. If you changed the same clips since Claude last looked, its edit is refused and it re-reads your version. Ripple cuts refuse to remove speech they can hear. And you can ask for a dry run before anything changes.

Do I need to code?

No. You type plain sentences into Claude Code, a chat in your terminal. Claude runs the commands. You can read them if you’re curious, and ignore them if you’re not. Without Claude Code, HTCUT is a normal editor you drive with the mouse and keyboard.

How is this different from CapCut or Descript?

Those are editors with AI features built in, and most of their AI runs in the cloud. HTCUT is a timeline editor that an outside agent, Claude Code, can drive step by step while you work. Your media stays on your Mac, there are no credits or watermarks, and every AI edit is an op in your history. The trade-off: HTCUT is Mac only, and the AI part needs Claude Code. See the comparison.

Is it really free?

Yes. HTCUT is a free download. There is no account, subscription, credits or watermark. Claude Code is separate: it needs a Claude plan or an Anthropic API account.

Do I need Claude Code?

No. The app is a complete editor on its own. Claude Code is what makes it vibe editing: it reads your timeline, makes the tedious edits and checks your cut, while you keep working in the window.

Does it work with Codex, Cursor or other agents?

HTCUT is built and tested with Claude Code: the skill, the plugin, the project hooks and the ;; trick are Claude Code features. Underneath it’s the htcut command, so any agent that can run terminal commands can read and edit your project the same way. Point it at htcut help and the CLAUDE.md in your project folder.

Where does my footage go?

Nowhere. Projects, media, transcripts and renders stay on your Mac. Transcription, cut-outs, voice isolation and retouching run on your Mac too. HTCUT has no analytics or telemetry. It only goes online to download an optional model the first time you use a feature that needs one. If you use Claude Code, it sees what its commands return, such as the timeline, transcripts and frames it renders to look at, and what you share with Claude is between you and Anthropic. Privacy details.

Is it open source?

No. HTCUT is closed source. The download is signed and notarized by Apple.

Does it run on Intel Macs or Windows?

No. HTCUT is built for Apple Silicon Macs only, and needs macOS 15 or later.

Can I bring a CapCut project?

Yes. HTCUT imports CapCut desktop drafts: tracks, timing, volume, fades, position, scale, text and the glitch and flash transitions. Anything it can’t carry over is listed, not faked.

It’s version 0.1. Is it ready?

It’s early, and it’s been used to finish real videos. Expect rough edges and missing menus: a few features are commands only for now. Tell us what breaks.

Where do I report bugs or ask questions?

On GitHub. Open an issue for bugs and feature requests, or ask in Discussions. In the app, Help ▸ Report a Bug… opens an issue with your HTCUT and macOS versions filled in. The guides cover most first questions.

Vibe editing.

You set the vibe

Claude edits

It lands live

Undo anything