capcut-edit

SkillMedia

Edit CapCut / JianYing video projects — read and write subtitles, timing, speed, volume, templates, animations (fade/ken-burns), and cut long-form to shorts. Use when the user mentions capcut, jianying, subtitles, video editing, draft_content.json, draft_info.json, or cutting videos.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the capcut-edit skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by renezander030/capcut-cli in skills/capcut-edit/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

CLI for editing CapCut / JianYing drafts through a version-aware store. v0.11 detects and synchronizes readable timelines across draft_content.json, draft_info.json, draft_meta_info.json, and template-2.tmp.

Project locations

  • macOS: ~/Movies/CapCut/User Data/Projects/com.lveditor.draft/<project>/
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\CapCut\User Data\Projects\com.lveditor.draft\<project>\

Core principle — deterministic scripts

Any recipe involving more than one capcut call, any arithmetic, or any branching ships as a parameterised shell script in scripts/. Claude invokes the script with inputs; the script runs a fixed sequence. If a recipe can be a script, it must be a script — not a narrative in references/.

references/workflows.md documents which script to call and why, never a reconstructable sequence.

Progressive disclosure

Start broad, drill into what you need. Never dump full project JSON.

capcut info <project> -H           # overview
capcut doctor -H                   # installed media/transcription capabilities
capcut diagnose <project> -H       # canonical files, divergence, editor safety
capcut tracks <project> -H         # all tracks
capcut materials <project> -H      # material summary
capcut segments <project> -H       # segments with timing
capcut segment <project> <id>      # one item, full detail

Output modes

  • JSON (default): pipe to jq, feed to scripts.
  • -H: human-readable tables.
  • -q: quiet, exit code only — for write commands in scripts.

Batch writes

echo '{"cmd":"set-text","id":"a1b2c3","text":"Fixed"}
{"cmd":"volume","id":"d4e5f6","volume":0.5}' | capcut batch <project>

Operations: set-text, shift, shift-all, speed, volume, opacity, trim.

Batch is transactional: one failing operation writes nothing. Use --continue-on-error only when the user explicitly accepts a partial commit; it still exits non-zero.

Where to look

  • references/api-reference.md — every command, every flag, every value format (time, percentages, degrees), the ID-prefix rule, the .bak invariant.
  • ../../docs/command-reference.md — generated command-contract v2 with typed positionals/options, mutability, prerequisites, output form, and exit codes.
  • references/workflows.md — recipes = which scripts/X.sh to run and why.
  • references/pitfalls.md — close-project-first, .bak, clip=null on audio, source_timerange math with speed, alpha-keyframes-don't-render-use-animation-materials, etc.
  • Enum discovery — call capcut enums --<category> (or -H for a table) to list every CapCut slug. Categories: --transitions, --masks, --image-intros, --image-outros, --image-combos, --text-intros, --text-outros, --text-loop-anims, --scene-effects, --character-effects, --audio-effects, --fonts. Add --jianying to switch namespace. The enums.json bundle is generated once via python3 scripts/extract-enums.py; runtime is Python-free.
  • scripts/ — the client library. Current:
    • anim.sh — attach any of 9 CapCut intro/outro animations; fade-in.sh and fade-out.sh are thin wrappers.
    • ken-burns.sh — scale + pan keyframes via capcut keyframe --batch (motion properties render; alpha does not — use anim.sh fade-in instead).
    • long-to-short.sh — cut a range, stamp title + CTA text.
    • stamp-cta.sh — apply a saved text template (see assets/examples/subscribe-cta.json).
    • _test.sh — run every wrapper against the fixture; run after any change here.
  • assets/examples/ — raw JSON snippets for hand-editing.

Invariants

  • Close the project in CapCut before editing; reopen after.
  • Every write is conflict-checked, prepared atomically, and synchronized to every readable timeline target. Every target receives .bak and rolling history snapshots.
  • Never pass --force-write unless the user explicitly accepts overwriting changed-on-disk state or an open editor.
  • clip is null on audio segments (no opacity/scale).
  • capcut cut writes to --out, never modifies the source.
  • IDs: first 6+ chars of the UUID match as a prefix.
  • Time formats: 1.5s, 500ms, +0.5s, -1s, 1:30, 0:05.5, bare number = seconds.

v0.11 high-value paths

  • Whole draft: capcut compile spec.json --check, then capcut compile spec.json --out <dir>. Specs support refs, transforms, decorators, templates, captions, keyframes, and fades.
  • Karaoke: capcut caption <project> --audio <path> --whisper-engine <openai|whisper-cpp|faster-whisper> --karaoke.
  • Proxy: capcut render <project> --all-video-tracks --burn-captions; run doctor first for FFmpeg capability flags.
  • Automation: capcut serve --workers N --retries N --timeout MS; give jobs stable id fields and let the runner serialize writes per project.
  • Agent schema: capcut describe is the source of truth. Do not scrape help text or invent flags.

Signals

GitHub stars
461
Forks
64
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
capcut-edit
Source
github.com/renezander030/capcut-cli