longform-edit

Drop raws in a folder, run one command, get a cut, mastered, captioned video plus a REVIEW.md that explains every cut. Short-form sibling: edit-style (reels). Transcription setup: use-local-whisper. Thumbnails: thumbnail-generator. Per-platform captions for clips: reel-captions.

Requirements (check first, install only after the user says yes)

ffmpeg -version | head -1                       # any 6.x+; libass only needed for --burn-captions
whisper-cli --help >/dev/null && echo WHISPER_OK   # whisper.cpp (brew install whisper-cpp)
ls ~/models/whisper/ggml-small.en.bin           # or set paths.whisper_model
python3 -m pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt  # numpy, pillow, opencv-python-headless
which claude                                     # optional: titles + chapter names

Model: curl -L -o ~/models/whisper/ggml-small.en.bin https://huggingface.co/ggerganov/whisper.cpp/resolve/main/ggml-small.en.bin (466 MB; ggml-base.en on slow machines, multilingual ggml-small for non-English). Another transcriber is fine too: pass --words words.json as [{"w": "word", "s": 0.12, "e": 0.40, "p": 0.9}]. Claude.ai has no ffmpeg: there, take a pasted transcript with timestamps and return the cut list, retake table, chapters and an SRT only. Say clearly that nothing was rendered.

Setup (once)

Copy config.example.json to ~/longform/config.json, set paths.inbox, paths.outbox, paths.whisper_model, your names in transcribe.prompt and publish.word_fixes, and optionally publish.cta_line + publish.cta_keywords (the draft flags a video with no mid-video call to action). Every threshold below lives in that file.

Run it

S=~/.claude/skills/longform-edit/scripts/longform_edit.py
python3 $S ~/longform/inbox/<slug>/ --config ~/longform/config.json             # one video
python3 $S --config ~/longform/config.json                                      # every inbox folder with no REVIEW.md yet
python3 $S <folder> --plan-only      # cut plan + REVIEW.md in ~1 min, no render
python3 $S <folder> --mic voice.wav  # separate mic, synced by cross-correlation (clap at the start helps)
python3 $S <folder> --kind camera    # talking head: every silence is idle (auto-detected from motion or file name)
python3 $S <folder> --burn-captions  # also <slug>.captioned.mp4 with 2-5 word captions burned in
python3 $S <folder> --no-llm         # heuristic chapter titles, no claude CLI call

Inbox: <inbox>/<slug>/ holding one video (largest wins) and optionally one audio file (used as the voice) and a config.json with per-video overrides. Output: <outbox>/<slug>/. A 15 min raw takes roughly 6-12 min; run it in the background and tail <outbox>/<slug>/run.log. Re-runs are cached: only changed stages redo.

What it decides (details and every number in references/method.md)

1. Retakes, keep the last take. An explicit cue said as its own phrase ("let me say that again", "retake", "scratch that", 22 cues in config) cuts the abandoned attempt plus the cue. A line restarted from the top (same opening words, similarity >= 0.8, within 45 s) cuts the earlier attempt. Back-to-back repeated phrases lose the first copy. um/uh separated by silence are cut. Anything weaker is flagged, not cut.
2. Dead space, strategically. Every silence >= 0.7 s is checked against the picture (frame diff at 8 fps, cursor-sized blobs ignored, webcam bubble masked, net first-to-last change catches slow typing). Static screen: tightened to 0.28 s mid-sentence / 0.40 s at a sentence end, breath kept. Cursor only: 0.6 s. Real on-screen action: kept, idle trimmed either side; if it runs > 4.5 s it plays at 1.5-3x with the last 0.9 s at 1x so the result lands. Cuts only land in measured silence, never mid-word.
3. Voice master, no music bed. HPF 75 Hz, FFT denoise from the measured floor, mud cut, presence, air, de-ess, 2.5:1 compression, gain to -14 LUFS, limiter to <= -1.5 dBTP, filter latency measured and removed.
4. Captions from the FINAL audio. The final render is re-transcribed; the SRT is built from that, never from the source transcript, with cue starts snapped to speech onsets. Every word is covered (gated).
5. Publish draft. Chapters (structural cues like "the first", "next", long pauses, big screen changes; >= 3, first at 0:00, each >= 40 s), 3 title options, description, pinned comment, tags and fact-check flags via the claude CLI when present, heuristic otherwise. 3 thumbnail candidate frames (sharpest, most colourful per third).

Gates (exit 2 and <slug>.FAILED-GATES.mp4 if any fails)

After it runs (the agent's job, do not skip)

1. Exit code. 0 = all gates passed. 2 = never hand the file over as done; REVIEW.md says which gate and why.
2. Look at contact-sheet.jpg and cuts-sheet.jpg (open the images): picture present in every tile, no black frames, the before/after of each edit point looks like a continuous state.
3. Read REVIEW.md: retakes cut (before/after text), flagged-not-cut list, on-screen actions kept, loudness, caption sync per chapter, A/V probes, words check. To change a decision write <outbox>/<slug>/overrides.json and re-run the same command (times are SOURCE seconds, the src column):

   {"keep_retakes": ["R03"], "cut_retakes": ["R07"], "keep_ranges": [[312.0, 330.5]],
    "force_cut": [{"s": 100.2, "e": 104.9, "why": "cough"}]}

4. PUBLISH.md is a draft. Rewrite weak titles, fact-check every flagged number (measured, same source, same window), fix name spellings in publish.word_fixes and re-run so the SRT is right.
5. Never upload or schedule. Hand back the paths; the human publishes.

Report back in this shape

LONGFORM EDIT: <slug>
Runtime   14:32 -> 11:05 (24% cut): 6 retakes, 11 fillers, 3 speed-ups, 41 pauses tightened
Gates     6/6 PASS (words 97.8%, max A/V lag 4 ms, captions median 0.05 s, -14.0 LUFS / -1.6 dBTP)
Flags     R04 at 03:12 restart? similarity 0.62, kept; "saves 10 hours" at 07:40 needs a source
Files     <outbox>/<slug>/<slug>.mp4, .srt, chapters.txt, PUBLISH.md, REVIEW.md, thumbs/
Looked at contact-sheet.jpg and cuts-sheet.jpg: clean. Nothing uploaded.

When something is missing

• No whisper model: stop and print the download line above; or accept --words from any other transcriber.
• No opencv: runs anyway, but every silence is treated as idle (says so in run.log); install it for screen recordings.
• No claude CLI: heuristic chapter titles, flagged in PUBLISH.md as needing a rewrite.
• ffmpeg without libass: --burn-captions is skipped with a note; the SRT still ships (upload it as YouTube CC).
• Mic sync confidence below 4: stops and asks for a clap at the start or for the mic to be dropped.

Recording habits that make the edit better

Say "retake" (or "let me say that again") as its own sentence before redoing a line: it is the only cue trusted to cut a whole sentence. During a loading wait either stay silent with the cursor still (cut) or narrate (kept). A silent stare at a static chart gets tightened: say something while showing it. One continuous take per file.

Optional stages (graphics panels, scene switching, style profiles, external camera sync, retake reveals) are described in references/optional-stages.md; they are not in these scripts.