ScriptCut

ScriptCut is a maintained fork of CutScript focused on Apple Silicon reliability, 9Router support, and local-first creator workflows.

Edit videos by editing the transcript:

• delete words -> cut video
• remove filler words -> clean edit
• generate captions -> export clip

Built with Electron, React, FastAPI, WhisperX, FFmpeg, and local/cloud LLM integrations.

Relationship to CutScript

ScriptCut began as a fork/continuation of DataAnts-AI/CutScript.

This version focuses on:

• Apple Silicon macOS setup
• Python 3.10-3.12 compatibility
• 9Router support
• improved backend startup
• creator-oriented local-first workflows

Architecture

• Electron + React desktop app with Tailwind CSS
• FastAPI Python backend
• WhisperX / Whisper transcription pipeline
• FFmpeg for video and audio processing
• Ollama / OpenAI / Claude / 9router for AI features

Apple Silicon Status

This version has been verified on Apple Silicon macOS for:

• backend startup via npm run dev:backend
• frontend production build
• health checks on http://127.0.0.1:8642/health
• transcription requests on both CPU and MPS paths

Important runtime notes:

• Use Python 3.10 to 3.12
• Python 3.11 is the recommended Apple Silicon setup
• Python 3.13 is not a supported runtime for the current transcription dependency stack
• The backend launcher now auto-selects a compatible local virtualenv or interpreter

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Python 3.10 to 3.12
• FFmpeg in PATH
• Optional: Ollama for local AI features

macOS Setup

brew install ffmpeg
python3.11 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

If you want to force a specific interpreter, set:

export SCRIPTCUT_PYTHON_PATH=/absolute/path/to/python

CUTSCRIPT_PYTHON_PATH is still supported for legacy setups, but SCRIPTCUT_PYTHON_PATH is preferred.

Install

npm run setup
npm run doctor

Run

npm run dev

That starts backend, frontend, and Electron together.

If you want to verify the backend separately:

npm run dev:backend
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8642/health

Expected response:

{"status":"ok"}

Project Structure

scriptcut/
├── electron/
├── frontend/
├── backend/
└── shared/

Features

Feature	Status
Word-level transcription	Done
Text-based video editing	Done
Undo/redo	Done
Waveform timeline	Done
Edited playback preview	Done
Project autosave and startup recovery	Done
Non-destructive edit layers	Done
FFmpeg stream-copy export	Done
FFmpeg re-encode export	Done
Job progress, cancellation, logs, retry	Done
AI filler review queue	Done
Editable AI clip drafts	Done
Ollama + OpenAI + Claude + 9router	Done
Word-level captions	Done
Caption designer and burn-in export	Done
Social presets and reframe controls	Done
Studio Sound	Done
Speaker diarization	Done
Speaker-aware transcript editing	Done
Project save/load (.scriptcut, legacy .aive/.cutscript)	Done
AI background removal	Done

Project files are canonical JSON with schema: "scriptcut.project.v1" and version: 1. Manual saves and autosaves use the same serializer so recovery files are deterministic and migration-ready.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Space	Play / Pause
J / K / L	Reverse / Pause / Forward
← / →	Seek ±5 seconds
Delete	Delete selected words
Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Shift+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z	Redo
Ctrl+S / Cmd+S	Save project
Ctrl+E / Cmd+E	Export
?	Shortcut cheatsheet

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/health	Health check
POST	/transcribe	Transcribe media
POST	/jobs/transcribe	Start transcription job
POST	/export	Export edited video
POST	/jobs/export	Start export job
GET	/jobs/{job_id}	Read job progress, logs, result, or error
POST	/jobs/{job_id}/cancel	Request job cancellation
POST	/jobs/{job_id}/retry	Retry a failed or canceled job
POST	/ai/filler-removal	Detect filler words
POST	/jobs/ai/filler-removal	Detect filler words as a job
POST	/ai/create-clip	Suggest clips
POST	/jobs/ai/create-clip	Suggest clips as a job
POST	/ai/clip-metadata	Suggest title, hook, caption, and hashtags
POST	/jobs/ai/clip-metadata	Suggest clip metadata as a job
GET	/ai/ollama-models	List local Ollama models
POST	/ai/9router-models	List models exposed by 9Router
POST	/captions	Generate captions
POST	/audio/clean	Noise reduction
GET	/audio/capabilities	Audio processing availability
GET	/background/capabilities	Background removal availability

Job statuses are queued, running, canceling, succeeded, failed, and canceled. A canceled job is retryable only after it leaves canceling and reaches final canceled.

QA

Run npm run smoke:backend for fast backend smoke checks covering sidecar caption export settings, deleted-word caption filtering, and job cancellation lifecycle behavior. Run it alongside npm run lint, npm run build, and python -m compileall -q backend before release-oriented changes.

Contributing

Start with docs/INSTALL.md, docs/DEVELOPMENT.md, and CONTRIBUTING.md. Use docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md when setup or runtime checks fail.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.

See ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.md for original CutScript attribution.