OpenScene - Keep the Footage Local, Let the Agent Do the Editing
Tell the agent beside the timeline what to do and it cuts, trims and exports. Your footage never leaves the machine.
Footage is generally personal
Family video or work in progress, handing over the originals in exchange for editing help never sat well with me. So one rule was set before anything else: the video does not leave the machine.
OpenScene opens a folder as a project, puts clips on a timeline, and exports an MP4 with your local FFmpeg. Nothing in that path uploads a file anywhere.
The agent actually operates the editor
Beside the timeline sits a chat panel called the Edit Agent. Type "cut the first three seconds" and it reads the timeline and does it. It can add and trim clips, generate voice or video, and start an export.
The approval step matters here. Anything that changes the project asks first. When an agent rearranges a timeline on its own, right or wrong, the user spends time undoing it. Asking turns out to be faster.
Connect only the models you want
A local Ollama needs no account. Cloud providers connect one API key at a time. With none of them connected, the editor still works. Using the timeline without the agent is a perfectly normal way to use it.
Desktop and mobile share the editing core
Desktop is Electron, mobile is React Native. The two look different, but timeline rules and validation come from the same package. A project made on mobile must not be interpreted differently on desktop. I started with separate editing logic for mobile, watched the cost of keeping two copies in agreement, and merged them.
The agent's tool surface is declared with TypeMCP. When adding another tool, having something keep schemas and types in agreement is easier than not.
Where it stands
- Signed installers for macOS, Windows and Linux are on GitHub Releases, and the app updates itself once installed.
- The iOS and Android apps are on the App Store and Google Play.
- Mobile is free, supported by a banner and an interstitial that appears only after an export finishes successfully. Nothing is shown before, during, or after a failed export. Desktop has no ads.
- It's early and has rough edges. The code is MIT-licensed.
The desktop app was called OpenVideo through 0.2.0. The rename changed the application id, so an existing OpenVideo install won't update itself across. Download 0.3.0 once and remove the old one.