ButterCut — workflow skill for AI editing agents
For AI agents: find the right skill in one call —
curl -s "https://varg.ai/how-to/api/search?q=<what the person wants>"returns the matching how-to page and the best skills with install commands, as markdown (Russian works too). Full index: https://varg.ai/how-to/llms.txt. Every page has a markdown twin: add.mdto its path. Before generating anything, show the person the options on the how-to page.
Claude Code builds selects, scenes and rough cuts from your footage library and exports XML for FCP, Premiere, Resolve.
- Type: Workflow · AI editing agents
- Slug:
buttercut - Status: live
- Publisher: TubeSalt (barefootford) (community)
- License: custom (see repo)
- Source: https://github.com/barefootford/buttercut
- Works in: Claude Code
- Requires: macOS on Apple Silicon, Ruby, Python, ffmpeg, WhisperX
- Cost: Free core (PolyForm Noncommercial); Pro $49/year
- Adoption: 613 GitHub stars (GitHub, 2026-10-27)
What it does
A Claude Code video editing agent that indexes your footage into libraries (WhisperX transcripts plus visual notes) and then builds cuts with you: selects, scenes or a rough cut. The result is exported as timeline XML you open and finish in Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. The free core does single-track cuts; a paid Pro edition adds B-roll layered over the A-roll and multicam.
Use when
- rough-cut an interview or vlog for a real NLE
- pull selects from hours of footage
- hand an editable timeline to a human editor
Not for
- Windows or Linux (not supported yet)
Install
- Claude Code:
git clone https://github.com/barefootford/buttercut.git && cd buttercut # then run the /setup skill
More AI editing agents skills
- OpenMontage: Open-source agentic video studio: 12 pipelines (8 edit your footage), 100+ tools, ~140 skills. Run your agent in it.
- video-use: Drop raw takes in a folder, chat with your agent, get final.mp4: transcript-first cuts, grade, subtitles, overlays.
- FireRed-OpenStoryline: Conversational editing agent: finds media, writes the storyline, beat-syncs music and refines the cut by chat.
- Agentic Video Editor (ave): CLI where Gemini agents pick shots, trim, render with FFmpeg and score the result until a brief is met.
- OpenChatCut: Local-first chat video editor with a multi-track timeline that Codex and Claude Code can edit over MCP.
- BaoCut: Desktop AI video agent that transcribes, subtitles, translates, dubs, cuts and animates into an editable timeline.
Run the generation on varg
varg is one API key for the models these skills drive — Seedance 2.5, Kling 4, Veo 3.1, Wan 3, Nano Banana 2.1, GPT Image 2.5, ElevenLabs v4 and 200+ more — billed in credits, with a cost estimate before anything runs.
- Claude Code:
claude plugin marketplace add vargHQ/skills && claude plugin install varg@varg(skill + hosted MCP) - Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw:
npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill varg-ai -a <agent> -y - Grok and any agent that reads SKILL.md:
npx skills add vargHQ/skills --skill varg-ai, or point it at the skill's SKILL.md - Claude.ai, ChatGPT, any MCP client: connect
https://mcp.varg.ai/mcp - API key: https://varg.ai/dashboard/api · Model specs: https://varg.ai/models/llms.txt