CutVii

Creative editing. Flexible workflow. On-device AI.

An open-source, cross-platform desktop video editor: import → edit on a multi-track timeline → preview → export MP4. Local-first and offline: no account, no analytics, your media is never modified or uploaded. The one thing CutVii can download, and only when you ask and confirm, is a speech model for auto subtitles.

Text is drawn with 38 bundled font families (37 under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, Luckiest Guy under Apache 2.0), including the heavy display face Anton (OFL 1.1, © 2020 The Anton Project Authors). The licence texts are in src-tauri/assets/fonts/licenses/; see docs/licensing.md.

Features

• Import video, audio and images (probed with FFprobe, thumbnails cached).
• Multi-track timeline: move, trim, split at playhead, delete, snapping, zoom, context menu, undo/redo.
• Track mute / hide, per-clip volume (0–200 %), Start / Duration fields in the inspector.
• Preview with play/pause/scrub that follows the timeline across clips.
• Save and reopen projects (.cutvii, versioned JSON with migrations), missing-media detection and relink.
• Export H.264/AAC MP4 (resolution, frame rate, quality), with progress, cancel and ffprobe verification.
• Audio-only export: M4A, MP3 or WAV.

Screenshots

Taken from CutVii 1.0.3 on macOS while editing a one-minute pumpkin video: titles, an on-device voice-over, auto subtitles, colour, transitions, AI upscale and Auto Clips.

Install

Download the installer for your system from the releases page. FFmpeg is included, so there is nothing else to install. macOS builds are for Apple Silicon only (no Intel build yet). The builds are not code-signed yet, so your system will warn you the first time:

• macOS: if it says CutVii is "damaged", run xattr -cr /Applications/CutVii.app in Terminal once, then open it again.
• Windows: if SmartScreen blocks it, click "More info", then "Run anyway".
• Linux: chmod +x CutVii*.AppImage, then run it (or install the .deb). The preview plays video through GStreamer; if it says a file cannot be played, install the codecs: sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad (Fedora: gstreamer1-libav gstreamer1-plugins-good gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free).

Install and run (development)

Requirements:

Tool	Version
Node.js	22+
pnpm	10+ (corepack enable)
Rust	stable (1.85+)
FFmpeg + FFprobe	6+ with an H.264 encoder (libx264, libopenh264 or VideoToolbox)
Tauri system deps	see https://tauri.app/start/prerequisites/

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev        # run the app

CutVii never assumes a global FFmpeg. It looks, in order, at CUTVII_FFMPEG / CUTVII_FFPROBE, then PATH (plus /opt/homebrew/bin and /usr/local/bin on macOS). If nothing is found you get a clear error on import.

brew install ffmpeg                 # macOS
sudo apt install ffmpeg             # Debian / Ubuntu
choco install ffmpeg                # Windows

Scripts

Command	What it does
pnpm typecheck / pnpm lint / pnpm format:check	static checks
pnpm test	frontend tests (Vitest + Testing Library)
cd src-tauri && cargo test	Rust tests, including real FFmpeg renders (skipped loudly if FFmpeg is missing)
pnpm tauri build	release build and installers

Keyboard shortcuts

Space play/pause · S split at playhead · Delete/Backspace delete · Ctrl/Cmd+Z undo · Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z redo · Ctrl/Cmd+S save · Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+S save as · Ctrl/Cmd+O open · ←/→ seek one frame (Shift: one second) · Home to start. Shortcuts are ignored while typing in an input.

Documentation

• docs/project-schema.md — project file format, validation, migrations, save/open safety.
• docs/export-rules.md — exactly how the timeline becomes a video.
• docs/preview-limits.md — what the preview does and where it is approximate.
• docs/licensing.md — FFmpeg licensing and dependency licences. Read before distributing.
• docs/smoke-tests.md — per-OS manual test checklist and what has actually been verified.

Project layout

src/              React + TypeScript UI (components, stores, timeline engine, playback, export dialog)
src-tauri/src/    Rust: commands/, media/ (ffmpeg, probe, import), project/ (model, validation, persistence), export/
fixtures/         project-v1.json, shared by the TS and Rust tests so the schemas stay in sync
design/           source artwork for the app icon (`pnpm tauri icon design/app-icon.png` regenerates the set)

Security

The webview can only reach Rust through a small set of typed commands. File dialogs run in Rust, so the webview never supplies a path to read or write; the asset protocol is limited to the thumbnail cache plus files you imported or opened; a strict Content-Security-Policy is set for production builds.

Update check

CutVii can tell you when a newer release exists on GitHub. It is a notification only: nothing is downloaded or installed, and "Download" just opens the release page in your browser.

• It is optional: turn off "Check for updates automatically" in Settings and no request is made at all.
• When it is on, CutVii asks GitHub's releases API at most once every 24 hours, a few seconds after start.
• The request carries nothing about you or your projects, only User-Agent: CutVii/<version>. As with any request, GitHub sees your IP address.
• The repository to ask is one constant, UPDATE_REPO in src-tauri/src/commands/update.rs; it is zidniryi/cutvii.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTORS.md for how to help and who has.

Licence

CutVii is released under the MIT License. Third-party fonts and dependencies keep their own licences; the installers also contain FFmpeg (GPL build, run as a separate program; see src-tauri/binaries/FFMPEG-LICENSE.md). See docs/licensing.md for the details.