cutagent-sdk

🎬 CutAgent SDK & CLI

Give your AI agent the keys to DaVinci Resolve.

An open-source connection between your agent and your editing timeline. Supports DaVinci Resolve 20+ Free and Studio on the currently qualified macOS setup; some operations require 21.1+.

Get started · Agent Skills · Examples · Documentation

From an idea to an editable timeline

Your agent can write code. Now give it a way to work with your footage.

CutAgent SDK lets agents and scripts organize media, build timelines, edit clips, work with audio, create Fusion graphics, and export videos in DaVinci Resolve. The work stays in your project, where you can inspect it, change it, and keep editing.

Use the TypeScript SDK for editing scripts, or CutAgent CLI when your agent works through a terminal. Bring an agent that can run local code and give it the SDK documentation and examples to work from.

✨ What you can create

Your agent supplies the editing decisions and scripts for these workflows. The SDK connects them to DaVinci Resolve.

🆓 Yes, it works with DaVinci Resolve Free

You don't need to buy DaVinci Resolve Studio to get started.

CutAgent SDK includes a local script that connects to the free edition. Install it, open it from Workspace → Scripts → CutAgentSDK, and your agent can work with your project.

DaVinci Resolve Studio is supported too. Studio-only features require a DaVinci Resolve Studio license.

Current platform: macOS. Windows setup is not available yet. Free and Studio have passed native marker tests on earlier releases; the latest Studio source has also passed a marker create/read/delete test. See current verification and limitations for what has been tested.

🛠️ Beyond the scripting API

CutAgent SDK & CLI extends the DaVinci Resolve scripting API with additional editing controls and workflows.

• Animate directly on the timeline. Add, inspect, update, and delete clip keyframes, with control over interpolation.
• Shape your speed ramps. Create variable-speed changes with explicit timing and interpolation, beyond a single playback-speed setting.
• Go deeper into the Color page. Adjust primary grades, custom and hue curves, HDR controls, qualifiers, Power Windows, Color Warper pins, and color-space transforms.
• Shape your color node graph. Create serial, parallel, and layer structures, configure layer blending, and connect alpha outputs.
• Take control of Fairlight. Work with track EQ, dynamics, and audio automation beyond the API’s clip-level audio properties.
• Shape your audio fades. Adjust fade-in and fade-out curves independently using their control points.
• Make precise timeline edits. Split and trim existing clips, and remove through edits.
• Direct your multicam edit. Define angle names, order, source offsets, and exact switching points. Restructure angles, replace sources, and create repeatable podcast cutting plans.

⚡ Faster and cheaper

Two ways in: write TypeScript with the SDK, or run commands with the CLI.

• Turn code into a timeline. Let your agent express an editing workflow as code, using variables, loops, and reusable functions.
• Run multi-step editing scripts. Your agent can combine several editing operations in a single script execution.
• Keep more context for the edit. Use SDK code or CLI commands without loading a large catalog of individual editing tools into your agent’s context.
• Spend fewer tokens on orchestration. Code-driven workflows can reduce model round trips and repeated tool-call overhead, leaving more room for your footage, instructions, and creative decisions.
• Use whichever fits. Reach for the CLI for a quick operation, or the SDK for a reusable editing workflow.

🤖 Built for agents. Useful for people.

• Bring your own agent. Use a coding agent that can run local commands and TypeScript scripts.
• Keep editing in DaVinci Resolve. Work with timelines, clips, audio, and Fusion compositions in the editor you already use.
• Work locally. Run editing scripts on your computer, directly in DaVinci Resolve.

Bring your own AI model. CutAgent SDK supplies the local editing connection, and the optional skills below help the agent use it. Your agent provider handles its own data policies and billing.

🧠 Agent Skills

The 35 public Agent Skills help coding agents plan and verify local DaVinci Resolve work. cutagent routes to focused SDK, CutAgent CLI, editing, Fusion, audio, captions, color, multicam, rendering, and creative skills. Each skill follows the standard SKILL.md format with optional on-demand references and assets. The creative skill review records how all 22 original workflow concepts were adapted for standalone use.

Install the skills in a supported coding agent with:

npx skills add jindratilk/cutagent-sdk

This installs instructions, not the CutAgent runtime. Build and install the package below, then connect it to DaVinci Resolve. The public skills use local SDK/CLI operations and supplied or locally licensed media; they do not require a CutAgent account or hosted service. For exact API and command syntax, agents should inspect the installed package and live capabilities.

🚀 Get started

You'll need macOS, DaVinci Resolve, Node.js 22.12+ or 24.x, and Python 3.12. Install FFmpeg and FFprobe for media inspection and export workflows.

Install the SDK from source:

git clone https://github.com/jindratilk/cutagent-sdk.git
cd cutagent-sdk
npm ci --ignore-scripts
npm run build
npm pack
mkdir ../my-video-project
cd ../my-video-project
npm init -y
npm install ../cutagent-sdk/cutagent-3.1.0.tgz

Using DaVinci Resolve Free?

npx cutagent setup --free

Start the local runtime first (it starts the Free broker when needed):

cutagent runtime start --transport embedded_free

Keep the runtime running, then open Workspace → Scripts → CutAgentSDK in DaVinci Resolve. Confirm the actual connection with cutagent --json status: data.status must be connected and data.resolve must be true. Runtime readiness alone does not prove a DaVinci Resolve connection.

Using DaVinci Resolve Studio? Set external scripting to Local, then run:

npx cutagent setup
cutagent runtime start --transport studio_external

Keep that terminal running. It prints the connection-file path; set CUTAGENT_SDK_DISCOVERY_FILE to that path in the terminal where your agent or script runs.

Full setup guide →

Your first connection

import { CutAgent } from "cutagent";

const client = await CutAgent.connect();

try {
  const project = await client.projects.current();
  const timeline = await project.timelines.current();

  console.log(`Ready to edit ${timeline.name} in ${project.name}`);
  console.log(await timeline.snapshot());
} finally {
  await client.close();
}

Start with the examples, including a marker workflow that creates a temporary marker, reads it back, and removes it again.

The standalone package and skills above are sufficient for local agent workflows; no CutAgent desktop app is required.

Help make it better

Found a bug? Open an issue with your operating system, DaVinci Resolve version and edition, and a small script that reproduces it. Leave out credentials and private footage.

Pull requests are welcome. Run the build, tests, and source checks before submitting a change. If this project is useful to you, a star helps other editors and builders find it. ⭐

License

GNU AGPL-3.0. Third-party components keep their own licenses.

DaVinci Resolve is a product of Blackmagic Design Pty Ltd. This project is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Blackmagic Design.