capcut-cli

capcut-cli

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Create and edit real CapCut / JianYing projects from the terminal — or any LLM agent.

Open the result in CapCut with every track still editable. capcut-cli works directly on the local draft store: JSON in, JSON out, with no upload, API, MCP server, or HTTP daemon.

Also from the maintainer: 500 Years Frozen in Time: The Inca Children Mystery, a 14:49 documentary from Bronze Age Banter.

raw recording → silence-aware cuts + styled captions → editable CapCut / JianYing draft

▶ Captioned output example (60 seconds)

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4e6ee99c-0745-4cfb-8e9b-ad873fb1259b

Install and open your first editable draft

Prerequisites: Node ≥ 18 (built-ins only — no native modules). Optional tools unlock specific commands: Whisper for caption, FFmpeg for render, ffprobe for automatic media metadata, and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for translate.

npm install -g capcut-cli

From Python: pip install capcut wraps the same binary — capcut.run("quickstart", "my-short", video="clip.mp4", ratio="9:16") — see python/README.md.

capcut doctor
capcut quickstart my-first --video clip.mp4 --srt captions.srt
capcut info ./my-first/ -H

Result: a real local project with video and captions on editable tracks — not a flattened export. Open it in CapCut or JianYing to review, adjust, and render. The publish click stays human.

Useful? Star capcut-cli to help other editors and agent builders find it.

For more practical tools for AI agents, from video automation to checks before they ship, follow René on GitHub.

Build from source instead: git clone https://github.com/renezander030/capcut-cli && cd capcut-cli && npm install && npm run build (then npm link to expose capcut). Or run any command without installing: npx capcut-cli <command>.

[!IMPORTANT] Upgrade before using older versions. Fixture bundles made with versions up to 0.17.2 may contain stable device identifiers and must be treated as unsanitised (#59). Versions up to 0.17.0 also contain local command/filter injection paths and unsafe temporary-file or credential-output behaviour. These issues are fixed in 0.18.0 and 0.17.1 respectively. Run npm install -g capcut-cli@latest and see the changelog for full details.

Disclaimer: This is an independent, community-maintained project. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by CapCut, JianYing, or ByteDance Ltd. "CapCut" and "JianYing" (剪映) are trademarks of ByteDance Ltd. All product names, logos, and brands are the property of their respective owners and are used here only for identification (nominative) purposes.

An independent CLI for CapCut / JianYing that any LLM agent can drive — zero dependencies, no server, both namespaces in one binary.

JSON in, JSON out: every command reads and writes the local draft store directly, with no MCP server or HTTP daemon. On newer CapCut versions it detects and synchronizes every readable timeline target instead of assuming draft_content.json is the only source of truth. That gives any model (Claude, DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi) a deterministic boundary for inspection, building, subtitles, captions, translation, and long-form cuts.

Use it four ways:

• CLI — npm install -g capcut-cli, then capcut <command> <project>
• Library — import { loadDraft, lintDraft, saveDraft } from "capcut-cli" (typed, zero-dep)
• Queue runner — capcut serve reads JSONL jobs from stdin, for n8n / Make / Coze
• Agent sandbox (experimental) — build capcut-core.wasm for three read-only MCP tools with zero filesystem, network, environment, clock, random, stdio, or process imports

Give your agent the skill

One command installs the capcut-edit skill into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and the other agents the skills installer supports:

npx skills add renezander030/capcut-cli

Claude Code can also load it as a plugin:

/plugin marketplace add renezander030/capcut-cli
/plugin install capcut-cli@capcut-cli

The skill teaches the agent every command, the progressive-disclosure habit (inspect first, never dump a whole draft), where the draft store lives on macOS and Windows, and the deterministic scripts for fades, Ken Burns and long-to-short cuts. It triggers on English and Chinese requests alike (剪映, 字幕, 草稿).

Capability-free Wasm tools for agents

Using an AI assistant with capcut-cli? Give it a safer “look, don’t touch” mode.

The optional Wasm tool lets an AI:

• describe what is inside a CapCut project;
• show what changed between two versions; and
• spot common timeline and caption problems.

It can examine only the project information you hand to it. It cannot browse your files, go online, read passwords or API keys, open other apps, or change the project.

Use it when you want an AI to review a draft with the least possible access. Skip it when you are using capcut-cli yourself or want the AI to edit or render—the normal CLI still does those jobs. This feature is experimental, optional, and changes nothing unless you set it up. Technical details and setup →

The experimental wasm/capcut-core source package moves the deterministic, JSON-in/JSON-out boundary into a WebAssembly Component:

• inspect matches capcut info for valid drafts.
• diff matches capcut diff for structural changes.
• lint-portable runs an explicit, parity-tested subset of capcut lint that needs no host files or media probing.

The host reads a draft and passes its JSON as tool input. The component itself has no ambient capabilities, and CI proves the built world has zero imports before exercising all three functions through Wassette over MCP. From a source checkout, build it with npm --prefix wasm/capcut-core ci && npm run wasm:verify; setup and security details are in the component README.

Release notes

New in v0.30.0: per-command help (capcut <command> --help, capcut help <command>); undo that survives an app save, with every restore checked against the write journal (restore, restore --list integrity); and real word timings from whisper.cpp for karaoke and word-reveal captions, also readable through caption --words. Full details in the changelog.

New in v0.29.0: captions from any aligner's word timings without Whisper (caption --words); reviewed batch plans bound to the draft (batch --plan / --apply-plan); a render fidelity census and output-duration check (render --strict / --verify); TTS pronunciation lexicons (tts --lexicon); segment-overlap and segment-offscreen lint checks; and restore --list naming the command behind each step. Full details in the changelog.

For an existing nested project, use capcut diagnose <project> --active-timeline to inspect the selected document before editing. The opt-in follows the pointer on unverified builds and refuses invalid or conflicting selected documents; it does not bypass write guards.

To populate a project that CapCut already owns, create an empty project in the app and quit CapCut, then run:

capcut compile spec.json --into /path/to/app-created-project --active-timeline --check
capcut compile spec.json --into /path/to/app-created-project --active-timeline

Omit --active-timeline for a flat project without Timelines/. Every root and active mirror must be empty. The project keeps its name and registration; canvas and frame rate change only when supplied in the spec. Imported media is staged under the project, with registration and timeline backups committed together. Reopen, save, close and reopen in CapCut to check that edits persist. Automated safety tests cover these paths; desktop acceptance on your app build remains unverified.

Built with capcut-cli

• OpenChatCut — exports an agent-edited timeline, local media, audio, and captions into a real CapCut / JianYing draft for review and rendering.

Built something with capcut-cli? Open a showcase issue with a public link, one sentence about what it does, and an optional screenshot or demo.

Project descriptions are approved by their maintainers. Inclusion does not imply endorsement or affiliation.

Commands

JSON by default (pipe to jq); add -H for a human-readable table. Pass --jianying to use the JianYing enum namespace. Run capcut <command> --help for full flags.

Group	Commands
Inspect	info · tracks · materials · version · lint
Browse / drill in	segments · texts · segment · material
Create	init · quickstart · compile (build a draft from a JSON spec)
Preview	render (low-res ffmpeg proxy — not CapCut's final render)
Add	add-video · add-audio · add-text (Wikimedia URLs supported, license-checked)
Edit / animate	trim · speed · volume · transitions · masks · text/image animations · easing curves
Templates	apply and extract reusable layouts · make-preset (portable text-style presets)
Subtitles & i18n	caption · import-srt · export-srt (line/word SRT + VTT) · translate (multi-language draft clone)
Effects	sfx · chroma (chroma key) · matting (smart background removal)
Long-form → short	cut · detect-scenes (ffmpeg scene-cut detection) · detect-silence · detect-retakes (repeated takes)
Automation	serve (stateless JSONL runner) · migrate · doctor · sync-timelines (8.7 mirror repair)

capcut describe --compact lists command names, summaries, usage, and write status. Fetch a complete contract with capcut describe --command compile; repeat --command for several commands. Plain capcut describe still emits the full registry.

Full reference for every command, option, and exit code: docs/command-reference.md (简体中文: docs/command-reference.zh-CN.md).

Sponsor

capcut-cli is MIT and free forever. Sponsoring funds faster releases and same-week support for new CapCut / JianYing versions — and unlocks power-user extras:

• $5/mo · Supporter — sponsors-only release notes plus your name in BACKERS.md. Keep the project moving.
• $25/mo · Pro — invite to the private capcut-cli-pro repo: premium template and caption-style packs, the full Claude viral-shorts pipeline, ready-to-run compile specs, and early-access builds. Plus priority issue triage.
• $100/mo · Team — everything in Pro for up to 5 teammates, written commercial-use confirmation, your logo in this README, and priority fast-tracking of the features your team needs.

Become a sponsor →

Using capcut-cli at work? The Team tier pays for itself the first afternoon it saves your engineers.

Commercial work

Separate from sponsorship: if you are building capcut-cli into a product, or you need it to do something it does not do yet, I take on a small number of integration engagements. Write to rene@renezander.com and say what you are building.

How it works

CapCut/JianYing store each project as local JSON. capcut-cli loads that store, validates against a version-aware schema, applies your edit, and writes it back atomically (with a .bak). No project files are uploaded anywhere; nothing runs as a service. See docs/version-support.md for the CapCut/JianYing versions and schema flags it understands.

Docs & examples

• docs/command-reference.md — every command and flag (简体中文)
• docs/quickstart.zh-CN.md — 剪映快速上手 (JianYing-first quickstart, Simplified Chinese)
• examples/ — end-to-end recipes (VO alignment, serve automation, batch subtitle correction)
• docs/version-support.md · docs/jianying-encryption.md
• CHANGELOG.md · Releases — what's new
• draftcat — sibling project: governed AI pipelines (Go, MIT), same single-binary, no-API design
• skillgate — sibling project: deterministic finish-line gates (Node, MIT), for when your agent reports "done" before the tests pass

Trademarks

CapCut™ and JianYing™ (剪映) are trademarks of ByteDance Ltd. This project is unofficial and is not affiliated with or endorsed by ByteDance; the marks are used nominatively to describe interoperability.

License

MIT