Open Video Craft

Record your screen, camera, and audio — then cut, mix, subtitle, and export locally. No required account or upload.

Download Open Video Craft for macOS or Windows →

What it does

Open Video Craft is a desktop screen studio in two parts:

1. A floating recorder captures your selected display with optional camera, microphone, and system audio tracks — each saved as its own file inside a plain project folder you can open, move, or back up like any other folder.
2. A timeline editor opens the recording (or any imported media) for editing: cut, move, trim, copy/paste, zoom-in effects, speed ramps, AI-generated subtitles, camera layouts, backgrounds, and dB-based audio mixing. FFmpeg exports MP4, WebM, or MOV, and subtitles can be written as a synchronized .srt sidecar.

Recording, editing, Whisper transcription, and export run locally. Optional Gemini, Cohere, and Claude Code connections are used only when you explicitly invoke their AI features.

Screenshots — v1.0.3

Launcher	Floating recorder

Editor workspace	Timeline & subtitles

Latest improvements

• The projects dashboard now gives recent projects more room, waits for real thumbnails instead of flashing placeholder artwork, and keeps the latest recordings one click away.
• The floating recorder has a camera-first preview, an opaque recording timer, clearer controls, and a compact mode that stays out of the captured content.
• Timeline clips have a stronger selected state, Space consistently controls playback across editor panels, and drag-selection no longer outlines the whole timeline.
• Whisper, Gemini, and Cohere subtitle generation now expose consistent timeline processing states. On-device Whisper auto-detects the spoken language, while readable errors and retry guidance replace raw provider payloads.
• Subtitle cues stay sorted by their timeline position, send a fast red laser beam between cues, highlight the active cue in red, and keep start/end timestamps read-only because timing is adjusted by dragging or trimming the timeline clip.
• AI prompts can be copied, concurrent requests are guarded cleanly, and Gemini errors are presented as concise messages instead of IPC implementation text.
• Text overlays can be added directly to the viewport and styled with consistent font, weight, color, opacity, position, size, and animation controls. Their readable layer index follows viewport and timeline selection in red.
• Unsupported legacy project entries can be removed safely from Recents without deleting an unknown or incompatible folder from disk.
• The export dialog is wider and more compact, video corners now offer clear Flat, Slight, and Rounded choices, and selected clips remain visible over bright filmstrip frames.

Features

Recording

• Floating always-on-top recorder with pause/resume, countdown, and a compact pill mode.
• Screen, camera, microphone, and system/desktop audio as separate tracks.
• The selected display is identified inside the recorder without placing a display-sized overlay over macOS or Windows.
• Media is written to disk in chunks while you record, limiting data loss after an interrupted recorder session.
• Recorder-renderer crashes and failed device acquisition are handled without wedging the active app session.

Editing

• Multi-lane timeline: video, audio lanes, zoom, speed, and subtitle tracks.
• Export-correct crossfade, fade-through-black, slide-left, and wipe-left clip transitions.
• Move, trim, split, delete, and copy/paste clips — with undo/redo.
• Horizontal timeline zoom and a resizable timeline panel.
• Zoom-in effects with an adjustable focal point; speed sections up to 5×.
• Camera layouts (bubble, side-by-side, presenter…), draggable/resizable screen and camera, backgrounds and corner styling.
• Multilingual on-device Whisper subtitles with automatic language detection and word-level karaoke highlighting, plus draggable and trimmable subtitle clips with millisecond-accurate read-only timestamps in the cue list.
• Per-lane mute and volume controls with the same mix used for preview, transcription, and export; background music drops straight onto the timeline.
• Debounced autosave, dirty-state close protection, and safe recovery from an invalid or unsupported editor.json.
• Export to MP4 / WebM / MOV at source, 720p, 1080p, or 1440p, with microphone, system audio, background audio, per-track levels, and optional .srt subtitles.
• Connect Claude Code through the built-in local MCP server or Gemini with an API key so an AI agent can inspect and edit the complete project surface.

Current project-timeline export scope: timeline cuts, reordered clips, clip transitions, intentional gaps, resolution, source/system/microphone/imported audio, gain/mute settings, zoom and speed effects, text animations, and clean burned-in or sidecar subtitles are exported. Camera compositing, visual layouts/backgrounds, and advanced subtitle styles remain preview-only.

AI editing with Gemini or Claude Code

For module boundaries, revision/locking behavior, data flow, privacy guarantees, and extension guidance, see AI integration architecture.

Open a saved project and select AI in the editor top bar. Gemini uses an API key encrypted on this computer, while Claude Code connects through the bundled user-scoped open-video-craft stdio MCP server.

The agent can analyze speech, silence, and periodic contact-sheet frames locally, then commit a complete edit request as one validated operation plan with one-click rollback. Gemini uploads the current video only when you send an assistant request. Timeline metadata, transcripts, and contact-sheet images requested by a connected provider are handled under that provider's data policy.

Keyboard shortcuts

Action	macOS	Windows
Play / pause	Space	Space
Seek 1 s / 10 s / 60 s	←→ / ⇧←→ / ⌘←→	←→ / Shift ←→ / Ctrl ←→
Copy / cut / paste clip	⌘C / ⌘X / ⌘V	Ctrl C / Ctrl X / Ctrl V
Split clip at playhead	⌘B	Ctrl B
Delete selected	⌫	Delete
Undo / redo	⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z	Ctrl Z / Ctrl Y
Export	⌘E	Ctrl E
Toggle Chromium DevTools	OVC_ENABLE_DEVTOOLS=1 + Ctrl Shift I	F12 or Ctrl Shift I

Download and install

Grab the latest installer from the Releases page:

• macOS — .dmg (Apple Silicon and Intel; signed and notarized)
• Windows — x64 Setup and Portable .exe builds. Version 1.0.2 is unsigned, so Windows may display a SmartScreen warning during installation.

The downloadable installers are attached directly to that release. SHA256SUMS.txt is an optional integrity check for those files; it is not a substitute for the installer downloads.

The bundled GPL FFmpeg executables have a matching source-code offer. Starting with v1.0.2, each release publishes its verified FFmpeg source and build-provenance bundle beside the app installers.

Packaged builds check for updates on startup and every four hours; updates download in the background and install on quit.

macOS permissions: the first recording asks for Screen Recording (and optionally Camera/Microphone) in System Settings → Privacy & Security. The app walks you through it.

Project folder shape

Every recording is a normal folder — no databases, no proprietary formats:

my-recording-project/
  project.json      # recording metadata
  editor.json       # saved editor state (timeline, effects, subtitles…)
  edits.json
  subtitles.json
  imports/          # media you imported into the editor
    <asset-id>.ext
  media/
    screen.webm
    camera.webm
    mic.webm  mic.wav
    system.webm  system.wav   # system audio, when enabled
  exports/          # videos exported by an AI agent
  .ovc/             # disposable analysis cache, locks, and bounded AI history

Paths are relative, so a project keeps working after moving folders or machines.

Community

Ask questions, share workflow feedback, and suggest improvements in the v1.0.2 community discussion. For a reproducible bug, open a GitHub issue with your operating system, app version, and steps to reproduce it.

Development

npm install
npm run dev        # Vite + Electron with hot reload

npm run typecheck  # main + renderer TypeScript
npm test           # vitest unit tests
npm run build      # production build
npm run test:mcp   # bundled MCP server smoke test

Built with Electron 43, React, TypeScript, Vite, and Tailwind CSS. A verified FFmpeg executable is bundled for remuxing, audio conversion, and export; its license, source, and build provenance are recorded in Third-party notices.

The screenshots above were captured from the running desktop app during the v1.0.3 release check. They document the actual launcher, recorder, editor, and subtitle timeline rather than design mockups.

Releases

Releases are tag-triggered: pushing a v* tag that matches package.json builds and publishes the release-approved platform matrix through GitHub Actions. Version 1.0.3 publishes macOS Intel/Apple Silicon and Windows x64 builds.

The public stable line remains 1.x: v1.0.3 follows the published v1.0.2 build. Earlier 2.x tags were beta-test builds and are not used for this stable release.

npm run dist:win           # local Windows build
npm run dist:mac           # local macOS build (signed + notarized)
npm run verify:mac-release # required shipping gate for macOS artifacts
npm run verify:windows-release # required shipping gate for Windows artifacts

macOS release builds need a Developer ID Application certificate and one of these notarization credential groups:

• APPLE_ID, APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD, APPLE_TEAM_ID
• APPLE_API_KEY, APPLE_API_KEY_ID, APPLE_API_ISSUER
• APPLE_KEYCHAIN_PROFILE (optionally APPLE_KEYCHAIN)

Windows release signing can use WINDOWS_CSC_LINK (a base64 certificate or secure certificate URL) and WINDOWS_CSC_KEY_PASSWORD. Those secrets are not currently configured, so v1.0.3 Windows artifacts are published unsigned and are labeled accordingly in the release notes.

The GitHub macOS artifacts are direct-download Developer ID builds. The sandboxed mas target, App Store signing identities, and provisioning profile exist, but the submitted bundle would still contain a GPLv3-or-later FFmpeg executable. A source offer covers GitHub distribution; it does not remove the additional-distribution-terms conflict for the Mac App Store or TestFlight. Store upload remains disabled until that binary is replaced by an App-Store-compatible media pipeline and the resulting package passes review.

verify:mac-release validates the updater ZIP: latest-mac.yml checksum, Developer ID team, designated requirement, strict signature, and the stapled notarization ticket. Ad-hoc builds (npm run dist:mac:adhoc) are for local testing only and must never be published as release assets.

License

ISC © Reuben Chagas Fernandes. Bundled dependencies remain under their own licenses; see Third-party notices.