The guide · paste into Claude Code
Turn Claude Code into your editor.
Paste this into Claude Code and it builds the /rough cut workflow: a Remotion editor that takes a folder of your clips, watches them, cuts the video, burns in clean captions, and uses Higgsfield to review the final edit: clean cuts, caption timing, pacing. Hand it clips, get a finished reel. It is a guide, not a one-and-done.
Paste into Claude Code
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You are going to set me up with a video editing workflow inside Claude Code that I will run as /rough cut. It takes a folder of my raw clips and turns them into a finished, captioned vertical video. Build it for real, do not just describe it. Walk me through each step, explain what you are doing in plain English, and confirm before any big action.
Here is the architecture to build:
1. REMOTION EDITOR. A Remotion project (React-based video) that reads an "edit plan" JSON and renders the final video. The plan is a list of segments. Each segment is one clip with a trim in and out (in seconds), an optional speed, and a list of captions. Use @remotion/media for the clips, use trimBefore and trimAfter for the trims, and a Series of segments so cuts are clean hard cuts. Compute the total duration from the plan with calculateMetadata.
2. PROBE STEP. A small script using ffprobe and ffmpeg that takes my clips folder, reads each clip's duration and dimensions, copies the clips into the project, and pulls 3 still frames per clip. Read those frames so you can actually SEE what is in each clip before you decide the cuts. Write a clips manifest JSON.
3. CAPTIONS. Render the captions natively in Remotion in a clean, bold style: a default subtitle (white text on a dark pill), a big centered title style, and a lower-third style. Time them to what is on screen. No CapCut, no external editor.
4. RENDER. A script that bundles the project and renders the edit plan to an MP4.
5. REVIEW. After rendering, use the Higgsfield MCP to run a video analysis on the FINAL cut and review the edit quality: clean cuts, caption timing, pacing and flow, dead air, anything that looks unfinished. Report what is weak, then loop back to the edit plan and re-render to fix it.
Then package the whole thing as a Claude Code skill named rough-cut so I can run it any time on a new folder of clips.
How to start:
- Ask me where my clips are and what the video is for (vertical reel, square, or landscape).
- Probe the clips and show me what you found.
- Propose an edit plan in plain language, then build it.
- Render once, show me frames, and we iterate.
- The Higgsfield review uses credits, so preflight the cost and confirm with me before running it.
Go one step at a time. I want to understand it, not just get a black box.