ChatCut Desktop

ChatCut Desktop is the native version of the ChatCut editor. It is designed for local media, local rendering, and agent-assisted editing on the computer where your footage already lives.

It supports two different agent workflows:

• Run ChatCut, Claude Code, Codex CLI, DeepSeek Harness, or Hermes Agent from the AI composer inside ChatCut Desktop.
• Keep the conversation in an external agent such as Claude Code, Codex, Hermes Agent, or WorkBuddy, and let it control a ChatCut Desktop project through ChatCut’s local MCP connection.

These workflows are related, but they are not the same as installing the ChatCut Agent Plugin.

Choose the right ChatCut product

The Agent Plugin does not install into the ChatCut web editor, Claude’s website, or ChatGPT’s website.

Download and install ChatCut Desktop

1. Open the ChatCut web app and sign in.
2. Click your avatar in the top-right corner.
3. Hover over Desktop App.
4. Click Download beside your platform: macOS — Apple silicon, macOS — Intel, or Windows.
5. Open the downloaded installer and finish the operating-system prompts.
6. Launch ChatCut Desktop and sign in to the same ChatCut account.

Linux is not currently listed as a download option.

Update ChatCut Desktop

ChatCut Desktop checks for updates and downloads an available build in the background. When the download finishes, it offers to restart immediately or finish later. Deferring one restart does not hide later versions.

If the background update fails or you need to reinstall manually, download the current installer and install it over the existing copy:

1. Quit ChatCut Desktop.
2. Open the ChatCut web app, click your avatar in the top-right corner, and hover over Desktop App.
3. Click Download beside your platform.
4. On macOS, open the downloaded disk image and drag ChatCut onto Applications, confirming the replacement. On Windows, run the downloaded installer.
5. Launch ChatCut Desktop and sign in if prompted.

Installing a newer Desktop build over the existing app keeps its project packages and settings. Local media stays where it is on disk. If a project reopens with media marked missing, repair it with Relink File rather than importing the files again — see My Assets / Media Pool.

Desktop 0.5.5 and later creates new projects as local project packages first. They remain available in the Desktop project library without requiring a cloud project record. Desktop also keeps recent rolling backups of project data; media files stay in their original locations and are not copied into those backups.

Import local or online media

In ChatCut Desktop, open a project, select My Assets, click the Upload button in its toolbar, and choose Files… or Folder…. You can also drag files from Finder or File Explorer into the media library.

The desktop app remembers the original local file location and can read supported media directly from your computer for editing and local export. This is useful for long recordings, multi-camera shoots, and large source folders that would otherwise need to upload before you could begin.

Some cloud features still need network access. For example, an AI generation service may need to upload the references required for that generation. “Local media” does not mean every ChatCut feature runs offline.

To import a video or audio URL, choose My Assets → Upload → URL…. Desktop checks the source first, then shows the compatible resolution, frame-rate, audio-language, and audio-quality choices. The download appears in the shared task queue and enters the current project only after processing succeeds.

Cloud-only projects can also be imported from their card or row in the Desktop project library. The card shows download progress and retryable errors; if you opened the project while starting the import, Desktop opens it automatically when it is ready.

Use a local agent inside ChatCut Desktop

This workflow runs your installed local agent from inside ChatCut Desktop.

1. Open a project in ChatCut Desktop.
2. Open the AI panel if it is collapsed.
3. At the bottom of the AI composer, click the current agent button next to the message field.
4. Under Agent Selection, choose ChatCut, Claude Code, Codex CLI, DeepSeek Harness, or Hermes Agent.
5. If ChatCut shows Sign in, complete that agent’s sign-in flow.
6. Enter your editing request and send it. The selected agent can inspect and change the current project’s timeline through ChatCut’s tools.

Claude Code, Codex CLI, DeepSeek Harness, and Hermes Agent appear only when a compatible local installation is detected; an agent that is not installed has no row. DeepSeek Harness requires ChatCut Desktop 0.7.14 or later. If a detected agent is signed out or cannot start, its row says so and offers Sign in or Retry. Selecting a local agent uses that provider’s own account and quota, not the built-in ChatCut Agent quota.

Choose a Codex model, including GPT-6.1 Sol

When Codex CLI is selected, the same Agent Selection menu shows Settings with Model, Effort, and Speed. The model and effort choices come from the Codex account you are signed in to, so the list can differ between accounts.

In ChatCut Desktop 0.6.6 or later, you can choose GPT-6.1 Sol under Model. It is available only when all of these are true:

• you are using ChatCut Desktop 0.6.6 or later — the web app and the Agent Plugin do not have Agent Selection;
• Codex CLI or the Codex desktop app is installed on this computer, and you are signed in with your ChatGPT account;
• that ChatGPT account can use GPT-6.1 Sol.

Codex CLI requests run on your own ChatGPT plan. If GPT-6.1 Sol is not listed after you update ChatCut Desktop, your signed-in account may not offer it; choose another model or another agent. If Codex rejects the selected model, the turn ends as a failed turn instead of showing the error as a reply.

This model choice applies only to Codex CLI. Selecting ChatCut in Agent Selection uses ChatCut’s own Agent and its own settings.

Give the local agent more project context

Because Claude Code and Codex run on your computer, you can ask them to use material outside the video project—such as a script, brief, PDF, spreadsheet, website, or codebase—as context for an edit, subject to that agent’s file and network permissions. These files inform the agent; they do not automatically become timeline media. Import the actual video, image, and audio files you want to use through My Assets.

You keep normal editor control while the agent works. Review its changes in the Viewer and Timeline, then trim, reorder, or restyle anything manually. Before trying a different direction, click Versions in the top bar and choose Save Current Version to save a named timeline snapshot you can return to later.

Let an external desktop agent control ChatCut Desktop through MCP

This is the reverse direction: the conversation stays in Claude Code, Codex, Hermes Agent, WorkBuddy, or another MCP-capable agent on the same computer, while the agent operates a ChatCut Desktop project — by default, the project open in Desktop.

1. Install ChatCut Desktop and open it at least once. Each time it launches, Desktop registers its local MCP server, chatcut_desktop, with the supported agents it detects: Claude Code, Codex, Hermes Agent, and WorkBuddy.
2. If the agent app was already open, quit and reopen it, then start a new conversation or task. Agents load MCP tools when a session starts, so an already open conversation does not gain them.
3. Open the ChatCut project you want the agent to edit, then ask the agent to edit it with ChatCut.
4. To check the connection, click the agent icon at the top of the Desktop sidebar (Agents on this computer). It appears when Desktop detects a supported agent and lists up to four agents with their status. With a project open, Tell your agent: shows a prompt you can copy to point the agent at that project.
5. Click an agent’s name to open a new conversation in that app. If its row shows Connect, Reconnect, or Retry, click it to repair the local MCP connection. WorkBuddy shows Confirm until you approve the connection in WorkBuddy.
6. To connect another MCP-capable agent, click Connect any agent and paste the copied setup prompt into that agent.

Both apps must be on the same computer. In Desktop 0.7.10 and later, Desktop does not have to stay open: the agent can keep working on a selected local project while Desktop or its project window is closed, and these tools never launch the app. Earlier versions need Desktop open.

Desktop also copies its built-in workflow Skills into the shared ~/.agents/skills folder and into each connected agent’s own Skill folder, such as ~/.claude/skills or ~/.codex/skills, as folders whose names start with chatcut-. Skills you created yourself are not changed.

When Desktop connects Claude Code, Codex, or WorkBuddy, it turns off the hosted ChatCut Agent Plugin in that app — it disables the plugin in Claude Code and WorkBuddy and removes it from Codex — so the agent edits ChatCut Desktop projects instead of web projects.

Desktop 0.5.16 and later also exposes locally created projects to these project tools. An agent can list and target a local project, then rename, duplicate, back up, restore, or delete it without a separate cloud copy.

This local MCP bridge is separate from the Agent Plugin’s hosted ChatCut connection. See Agent Plugin: Desktop-app support and installation for that workflow.

Export locally in 4K or HDR

1. Add at least one item to the timeline.
2. Click Export in the top bar.
3. Open the Video tab.
4. Choose SDR or HDR under Dynamic Range.
5. Choose 480p, 720p, 1080p, or 4K under Resolution.
6. Choose a frame rate, export range, and destination, then start the export.

Video export in ChatCut Desktop renders on your computer and saves to the folder you select. HDR is available only when the current computer supports it; otherwise the HDR option is disabled and the panel says HDR export is not available on this computer.

For the other export tabs, formats, and web-app limits, see Exporting.

What still uses the cloud?

ChatCut Desktop is not a fully offline application. Account sign-in, project synchronization, the built-in ChatCut Agent, hosted generation models, and other server-backed features need an internet connection. Local Claude Code or Codex execution may also call its provider’s online service.

The practical difference is that Desktop can begin from local media and perform supported video rendering locally; it is not a promise that every tool avoids the network.