How to edit videos with Claude Code or Codex

The short answer

Claude Code can script FFmpeg or build a video from code with Remotion. To edit on a timeline you can see, connect an editor: copy Woven Video's setup prompt, paste it into Claude Code or Codex on your Mac, including ChatGPT's Work mode, and ask for edits. You need macOS 15 or later, a Woven plan or trial, and an app that runs commands.

Your options

Have the agent script it with FFmpeg. Claude Code can run shell commands, and FFmpeg can decode, encode, filter and join media from the command line, so an agent can cut and join clips if FFmpeg is installed. There is no timeline: you check each change by rendering a file and fix it by asking again.

Build the video from code with Remotion. Remotion makes videos from React code and has a Claude Code plugin, maintained by Remotion, that creates and edits Remotion projects. It suits promos and motion graphics built from scratch.

Connect an editor that has a timeline. That's Woven Video, below. Choose by how you will check the result: if you want to watch and fix it by hand, connect an editor. If you want a repeatable render from a script, use code.

Connect Claude Code or Codex to Woven

Woven Video is an AI video editor for Mac. Its connector lets Claude Code or Codex use Woven's tools, and Woven does the editing and the rendering: the connected app is told never to assemble or render video itself. Here is what a connected app can do.

• ·Find its way around. List your workspaces and reels, make a new workspace and read Woven's guides before it starts.
• ·Bring media in. Import up to 300 files per call from your home folder, iCloud Drive, cloud-storage folders, /Users/Shared and external drives. It can also download a video from a link, or a public file.
• ·Look and listen. See footage as one to six stills per call, transcribe speech with word timings, identify a song and pull out an audio track. It sees stills only, never motion or sound.
• ·Edit the reel. Read a reel and write changes to it. If the reel is open in Woven, edits land live on its timeline, and if you and the agent change the same field at once, your value wins.
• ·Captions and generation. Make captions, fix caption words, and generate images, video clips and audio, which come back as files in your workspace.
• ·Check and export. Render stills of the finished reel to look at, open a reel in Woven, and export. The app can't export until it has rendered the current visuals, and exports from the connector are always 1080p. For 1440p, use the Export button in Woven.
• ·Credits. Generation, captions and transcription use Woven credits. Fixing caption words and extracting audio are free.

The common mistake is pasting the prompt in the wrong place. It has to go into an app that runs commands on your Mac: Claude Code (the Code tab, or claude in Terminal) or Codex (Work mode or Codex in the ChatGPT desktop app, the Codex CLI or the IDE extension). It won't work in Claude's chat, Claude cloud or web sessions, ChatGPT's chat or Codex cloud tasks. If Woven is closed when a tool is called, it starts hidden in the background.

Set up and make your first edit

1. 1Copy the setup prompt. In Woven, open Settings, then AI apps, choose Claude or Codex (ChatGPT) and click Copy setup prompt. You can also copy it at the bottom of this page.
2. 2Paste it into your app. The prompt checks that you are on a Mac, asks before installing Woven with Homebrew and never installs Homebrew itself, adds Woven as a local connector, and opens Woven so you can sign in with Google.
3. 3Load the tools. Woven shows that it is connected. In a desktop app, such as the ChatGPT desktop app, click the restart button Woven offers. In a terminal or IDE, Woven tells you to start a new session to load its tools. In the Codex IDE extension, choose Restart extension.
4. 4Ask for the edit. For example: import the clips in my Movies folder, cut a 30-second vertical edit, add captions, then render a frame and check it. Watch the changes land on the timeline, adjust by hand, and ask for the export.

Needs macOS 15 or later and a signed-in Woven account with a plan or the 3-day free trial. Woven's paid tools use Woven credits.

FAQ

More answers

Can Claude or ChatGPT edit or watch videos? See Can Claude edit videos?, Can ChatGPT edit videos? and Can Claude watch videos?.

Sources

• Connect Claude Code to tools via MCP (Claude Code Docs), checked October 19, 2026
• Tools reference (Claude Code Docs), checked October 19, 2026
• Claude Code plugin (Remotion Docs), checked October 19, 2026
• Remotion, checked October 19, 2026
• About FFmpeg, checked October 19, 2026
• ffmpeg Documentation (seeking and duration options), checked October 19, 2026
• FFmpeg Formats Documentation (concat demuxer), checked October 19, 2026
• Model Context Protocol in Codex (OpenAI), checked October 19, 2026