Can Claude Code edit videos? Yes, once it has the right tools on your machine. Claude Code does not cut video by itself; it drives open-source programs that do. With ffmpeg, Node, Whisper, OpenCV and Remotion installed, it can take one raw take and hand back a finished reel: pauses trimmed, your face kept in frame, a graphic on every few words, captions, music, and a final check of its own work. This is the setup behind my reels, in the same 10 steps as the infographic in the post.
Step 1: install Claude Code, ffmpeg, Node, Whisper, OpenCV and Remotion
You install everything once. Claude Code comes from Anthropic's one-line installer (curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash). Homebrew from brew.sh then installs ffmpeg and Node in one command. Two pip installs add openai-whisper, which turns your voice into word-timed text, and opencv-python, which finds your face. Finally, npx create-video@latest gives you a Remotion project for the graphics. If you would rather not type any of it, the full video edit prompt has an install section that tells Claude to check each tool and install only what is missing.
Steps 2 and 3: one folder per video, and reels you rate
Every video gets its own folder: the raw take (one take, slips are fine), a refs folder with a few reels that beat your usual views, best.mp4 as the edit to beat, and three small text files. style.md holds your fonts, colours and caption look. beats.md holds hooks, pace and layouts, and Claude writes it. rules.md holds every note you ever give. Claude reads all three before it cuts a frame. To fill beats.md, drop two or three reels you like into refs; Claude samples a frame a second, reads the transcript and writes down their hook, pace and layouts, so each edit starts from a look you picked rather than a generic one.
Steps 4 and 5: Whisper cuts on your words, OpenCV keeps you in frame
Whisper stamps every word with a time, which is what makes clean cuts possible. My pipeline trims pauses to about 0.22 seconds after a sentence and 0.12 seconds inside one, and never cuts inside a word. OpenCV then finds your face in each frame and reframes the shot around it for 9:16, without jumps or drift.
Step 6: approve a storyboard before anything renders
This is the step that saves me the most time. Claude shows one still per beat, and nothing renders until you say go. You fix the plan while it is cheap to change, instead of waiting on an export and then asking for a redo.
Steps 7 and 8: Remotion motion graphics, captions and music
ONE TACTIC A WEEK
The graphics are React code. Remotion builds a new graphic every two to three seconds, each timed to the exact spoken word, and npx remotion render turns them into video. Captions come next as short chunks of one to three words placed above your chin, then a music bed about 12 dB under the voice, with the master at -14 LUFS.
Step 9: Claude grades its own cut
Ask it to check every frame. Claude makes a contact sheet every 0.25 seconds, checks the safe zones and the loudness, and re-renders anything that is off. The cut you watch is one that already passed its checks.
Step 10: save it as a Claude Code skill
This is the step that compounds. Every note you give lands in rules.md, so you never give it twice. After your first edit, ask Claude to save the workflow as a skill; Claude Code loads skills from .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md, so it becomes .claude/skills/edit-reel/SKILL.md. From then on, one line runs the whole thing: use my edit skill on this new take, and show me the cut list and a storyboard before you render. Each edit needs fewer notes than the one before.
What it costs
Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan. Everything else in this setup is free and open source. Remotion is free for individuals and small teams, but larger companies need a company licence. Whisper runs on your own machine; on an older Mac, use the base model for speed.
Get the guide and the prompts
The free guide at withhammad.com/resources/edit-videos-with-claude-code has every command, the folder layout, both copy-paste prompts and the infographic as a download. If you want one prompt that does the whole edit, use the Claude Code video edit prompt. On Instagram, comment EDIT on the reel and the guide link arrives by DM (follow @withhammad.ai first so the DM reaches you).
Related reading
Next, read the Claude Code video edit prompt, section by section and the free AI motion starter kit.