---
name: kinocut
description: Use Kinocut for guarded video editing, source-backed planning, FFmpeg operations, media analysis, subtitles, audio workflows, Hyperframes rendering, repurposing packages, and release checkpoints through an MCP server, Python client, or CLI. Trigger when an agent needs to inspect, plan, edit, render, validate, or package local media safely.
---

# Kinocut

Use Kinocut when an agent needs a structured video-editing surface instead of hand-writing FFmpeg commands. It exposes MCP tools, a Python client, and a CLI for editing, analysis, subtitles, audio, Hyperframes, layered compositing, and local repurposing workflows.

## Start Here

- Read `../../README.md` for installation, agent workflows, and the safety contract.
- Read `../../docs/CLI_REFERENCE.md` for command names and flags.
- Read `../../docs/TOOLS.md` for MCP tool coverage.
- Read `../../docs/PYTHON_CLIENT.md` when scripting multi-step workflows.
- Read `../../docs/WORKFLOWS.md` for the agent workflow engine (job-spec, `@refs`, variants, resume, receipts).
- Read `../../docs/STREAM_SHORTS.md` for saved-plan stream-to-shorts review → render → package (no posting).
- Read `../../docs/TOOLS.md` (Sound public join) and `../../docs/CLI_REFERENCE.md` for the thin `kinocut_sound` S12 surface — discover/invoke only; not full-episode sound completion.
- Read `../../docs/RESCUE.md` for local diagnosis and content-preserving "fix this clip" work.
- Read `../../docs/POST_RESCUE_FEATURES.md` for semantic, visual, restorative, composition, autopilot, and egress planning.
- Read `../../docs/AI_VIDEO_INSPECTION.md` for content-addressed ingest and deterministic temporal evidence.
- Run `kino doctor` before media work that depends on FFmpeg, Hyperframes, image tools, or AI dependencies.

## Choose A Surface

- MCP: best for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex-style clients, and other agent hosts. Configure `uvx --from kinocut kino`.
- CLI: best for direct local edits, quick diagnostics, `composite-layers --dry-run`, batch jobs, and CI-friendly JSON output.
- Python client: best for repeatable pipelines that need structured results, output paths, and saved layer-plan receipts.

## Dedicated Video Rescue

Use `video_rescue_*`, `rescue-*`, or `Client.rescue_*` when the request is to fix one local
clip while preserving its source, story, and timeline.

Required sequence:

1. Call plan and save the plan artifact.
2. Present `safe_repairs`, `recommendations`, `unavailable_repairs`, `blocked_repairs`,
   previews, package intents, capabilities, and estimate to the user.
3. Inspect the plan before render. Obtain or infer explicit approval only for IDs in
   `safe_repairs`; omitting the ID list means all safe IDs in the reviewed plan.
4. Call render with exactly those approved safe IDs.
5. Inspect the render receipt, then report package paths, unavailable sidecars, integrity,
   gating verification, privacy, resume, and cleanup state.

Never render directly from an unreviewed plan. Never add recommendation IDs, unavailable
IDs, or blocked IDs to approval. Never use cloud tools, burn rescue captions, rewrite the
source, or treat `unavailable` as automatic failure. A cancellation or verification failure
must remain unpromoted or quarantined.

## Deterministic AI-video Inspection

Use `video_ingest`, `video_preflight`, and `video_inspect_temporal` (or their flat CLI and
Python equivalents) when generated footage needs evidence before an edit decision. Ingest
first, then address the asset by its returned hash. Never replace that asset id with a host
path or construct an `AssetRecord` at the public boundary. Temporal inspection returns the
full sampled-frame and motion-strip package, deterministic findings, and explicit unavailable
provider capabilities. Provider absence is expected and must not trigger a download or a
network fallback.

## Governed AI-video Review and Salvage

Use `video_verdict`, `video_acceptance_eval`, `video_body_swap`, and `video_salvage` (or
their flat CLI and Python equivalents) for exact-asset editorial decisions and derivative
recovery. A non-approved verdict may capture agent analysis, but an approved disposition
must bind an active, exact human decision with explicit requirement, role, and artifact
evidence. Acceptance evaluation is derived rather than an approval action, and every
salvage output starts in a fresh non-approved review slot.

Never invent a decision id, pass an unstored approval, or look for a force/override route.
Body swap rejects duration mismatch unless the caller chooses an explicit policy. Salvage
requires an existing private project, a stored source asset, a bounded recipe policy, and
an exact acceptance-spec id.

Acceptance evaluation takes active stored `acceptance_spec_id` and `verdict_ids`, never
caller-built evidence objects. Public body swap always takes `project_dir` first and both
source paths must resolve to active assets in that exact project.

Read `docs/AI_VIDEO_REVIEW_AND_SALVAGE.md` before operating this workflow. Treat every
derivative as new non-approved work and keep the explicit human visual/audio gate before
publication.

## Post-Rescue Planning

Use the matching `video_*` MCP tool, flat CLI command, or `Client` method when the request
needs semantic retrieval, ordinary cleanup edits, subject-aware transforms, restoration,
composition, creative coordination, or remote egress. Pass JSON-compatible evidence and
intent; present the returned plan and diff before any separate render step.

Never invent source descriptions, hide uncertainty, infer approval from a plan, or treat a
missing local executor as permission to use a cloud provider. Remote work requires a separate
egress manifest and approval. A planner that lacks evidence or capability must abstain.

## Layered Compositing

Use `composite-layers` / `video_composite_layers` when the edit is an ordered stack of image, video, or solid layers, especially lower thirds, picture-in-picture variants, blurback plates, masks/mattes, or platform-specific layout variants.

Prefer this path over raw FFmpeg filtergraphs when an agent needs transforms, opacity, start/duration windows, mask/matte alpha sources, or a receipt that can be reviewed before publishing.

Plan-first flow:

1. Write a JSON spec with `canvas`, ordered `layers`, and explicit output.
2. Run `kino composite-layers --spec layers.json --dry-run --save-layer-plan layer-plan.json`.
3. Inspect the layer plan for source hashes, filtergraph hash, transforms, rotation/pivot, blend modes, timing windows, and masks.
4. Render only after the plan looks right.
5. Run `video-quality-check`, `storyboard` or `thumbnail`, and `video_release_checkpoint`.

The compositor supports allowlisted **full-canvas and positioned** blend modes (`multiply`, `screen`, `overlay`, `darken`, `lighten`) and **rotation** with a `pivot` reference point; the `layer_plan` receipt is v2. Positioned non-`normal` blend requires explicit `width` and `height`, an integral nonnegative in-canvas `position`, full opacity, and no scale, rotation/pivot, mask/matte, or timing window. It crops the running base, blends the same-size layer, and overlays the result back. Full-canvas blend remains supported; other blend geometry fails closed with `unsupported_blend_geometry`. The receipt uses existing per-layer `position` and `transform` fields plus additive `features.positioned_blend`. Output is video-only, and `anchor` remains a position alias distinct from `pivot`. Still deferred and fail-closed: other positioned/scaled/masked/timed blend combinations, rotation + mask, per-layer effect routing, audio compositing, and full NLE adapters. Do not use `composite-layers` as a full NLE replacement.

## Agent Workflow Engine

When the edit is a multi-step job (not a single tool call), use the workflow engine to plan, validate, render, recover, and prove it from one JSON job-spec — through `video_workflow_*` (MCP), `workflow-*` (CLI), or `Client.workflow_*` (Python). Ops are a small allowlist (`probe | trim | resize | convert | merge | add_text`) mapped 1:1 to vetted engines; media references are symbolic (`@sources.*`, `@work/*`, `@outputs.*`) and workspace-confined; everything fails closed. See `../../docs/WORKFLOWS.md`.

Plan → validate → render → inspect → resume:

1. `workflow-validate --spec job.json` — cheap structural gate; renders nothing.
2. `workflow-plan --spec job.json --save-plan plan.json` — dry-run op graph + source probes/hashes; renders zero media.
3. `workflow-render --spec job.json --save-receipt receipt.json` — execute sequentially; emit a provenance receipt (per-step hashes, cleanup manifest, determinism caveat). Add `--all-variants` for batch variants.
4. `workflow-inspect --receipt receipt.json` — read-only integrity re-check + human-review pointers before trusting a receipt.
5. `workflow-render --spec job.json --resume receipt.json` — resume a job that failed with intermediates kept (fail-closed on a changed spec).

Receipts store workspace-relative paths only — keep specs and example receipts free of home paths, usernames, and tokens.

## Workflow

1. Inspect the input first: `kino info <file>` or the MCP/Python equivalent.
2. Make a low-risk plan: trim, resize, normalize audio, subtitles, overlays, effects, or Hyperframes render.
3. Prefer previews or dry-run manifests before expensive or destructive exports:
   - `preview` for quick visual review.
   - `repurpose-plan` before `repurpose`.
   - Hyperframes `inspect`, `snapshot`, or `still` before full render.
   - For saved shorts plans: `shorts-plan-show` → `shorts-review` → `shorts-render` → `shorts-package`.
   - For thin sound: `sound-capabilities` then `sound-plan-validate` / `sound-voice-batch` / `sound-mix-render` / `sound-qa-loudness` / `sound-qa-asr` (or `kino sound <action>`).
4. Produce release artifacts before publishing:
   - `video-quality-check`
   - `storyboard` or `thumbnail`
   - `video_release_checkpoint` through MCP or `Client.release_checkpoint()` through Python
5. Ask for human visual/audio review before treating generated media as final.
   Stream-shorts packages still require a separate listening gate (G004); automation does not close it.
   Do not claim full-episode sound completion from the thin S12 public join alone.

## CLI Examples

```bash
kino doctor
kino --format json info interview.mp4
kino trim interview.mp4 -s 00:02:15 -d 45
kino video-ai-transcribe clip.mp4 --output captions.srt
kino subtitles clip.mp4 captions.srt
# subtitles accept .srt, .vtt, or authored .ass; SRT/VTT render dimension-aware.
# Add --style "FontSize=24,PrimaryColour=&H00FFFFFF&" to override force_style;
# omit --style to preserve an authored .ass file's PlayRes, styles, and positions.
kino resize clip.mp4 --aspect-ratio 9:16
kino composite-layers --spec layers.json --dry-run --save-layer-plan layer-plan.json
kino composite-layers --spec layers.json -o composite.mp4 --save-layer-plan layer-plan.json
kino video-quality-check clip.mp4
kino repurpose-plan clip.mp4 --platforms youtube-shorts instagram-reel tiktok
kino repurpose clip.mp4 --platforms youtube-shorts instagram-reel tiktok
# Saved-plan stream shorts (after a plan exists under PLAN_DIR):
kino shorts-plan-show PLAN_DIR --format json
kino shorts-review PLAN_DIR --candidate-id candidate_01 --decision approve
kino shorts-render PLAN_DIR --candidate-id candidate_01
kino shorts-package PLAN_DIR --candidate-id candidate_01
# Thin sound public join (local-first; not full-episode completion):
kino --format json sound-capabilities
kino --format json sound plan-validate
kino --format json sound-voice-batch
kino --format json sound-qa-loudness
```

## Python Example

```python
from kinocut import Client

video = Client()
plan = video.composite_layers(
    "layers.json",
    output="composite.mp4",
    save_layer_plan="layer-plan.json",
    dry_run=True,
)
```

## MCP Setup

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kinocut": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "kinocut", "kino"]
    }
  }
}
```

## Guardrails

- Do not publish or hand off media without a quality check and human review.
- Prefer structured Kinocut tools over raw FFmpeg shell commands; use `composite-layers`/`video_composite_layers` for ordered layer stacks instead of hand-written filtergraphs.
- Keep output paths explicit so generated media is easy to inspect.
- For Hyperframes, verify project structure and rendered snapshots before full video export.