# PySceneDetect — guide skill for cuts & pacing

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Find cuts, fades and scene changes in a video, then split it or export scene lists for the edit.

- **Type:** [Guide](https://varg.ai/how-to/guides.md) · [Cuts & pacing](https://varg.ai/how-to/browse/skills/cuts.md)
- **Slug:** `pyscenedetect`
- **Status:** live
- **Publisher:** Brandon Castellano (community)
- **License:** BSD-3-Clause
- **Source:** https://github.com/Breakthrough/PySceneDetect
- **Works in:** Claude Code, Codex, Cursor
- **Cost:** Free/open source
- **Adoption:** 5,298 GitHub stars (GitHub, 2026-10-27)

## What it does

A Python CLI and library that detects shot boundaries with content, adaptive or threshold detectors, writes scene lists and stats, and can split the video into scenes with ffmpeg. A standard first step for agents that need to index footage before choosing shots.

## Use when

- split footage into shots
- index B-roll before an agent picks shots
- detect fade-to-black transitions

## Install

- Claude Code: `pip install scenedetect --upgrade`

## More cuts & pacing skills

- [SmartCut (capcut-ai-editor)](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/capcut-smartcut-mcp.md): MCP that reads CapCut auto-captions to cut silences and duplicate takes right inside your CapCut project.
- [Auto-Editor](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/auto-editor.md): CLI that cuts dead space by loudness or motion and exports MP4 or editor timelines; now also an agent skill.
- [AutoCut](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/autocut.md): Edit video in a text editor: Whisper transcribes, you delete lines in Markdown, AutoCut cuts the video.
- [Cut Video](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/cut-video.md): Claude Code skill that tightens long recordings with forced-aligned cuts, keeping laughs and comedic pauses.
- [Videogrep](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/videogrep.md): Search spoken words across videos and auto-build supercuts of every match.
- [video-editing-skill (Bash + FFmpeg)](https://varg.ai/how-to/skills/video-editing-skill-bash.md): Pure Bash skill for OpenClaw, Claude Code and Codex: trim, jump cut, captions, text overlay, speed.