_{If this project helps you, a coffee helps me keep working on it.}

ClipForge is a private video editor with two ways to work. Open the browser timeline for a quick cut with no upload. Use the desktop app when you need format control, local AI tools, stream inspection, or a durable batch queue. Your media stays on your machine in both.

• Open the browser editor
• Download the latest desktop release
• Build it from source

Import video, audio, or images and arrange them on a three-track timeline. ClipForge shows real thumbnails, linked audio, trim handles, clip properties, and export readiness in one screen.

The desktop app pairs a full preview with FFmpeg controls for conversion, filters, audio work, stream handling, and repeatable batch jobs.

• Edit: trim ranges, crop, rotate, flip, split clips, and adjust playback.
• Finish: color correction, LUTs, stabilization, subtitles, captions, and redaction.
• Deliver: MP4, MKV, WebM, MOV, AVI, GIF, audio exports, presets, and batch queues.
• Inspect: media metadata, selective remuxing, snapshots, plus VMAF, PSNR, and SSIM reports.

Hardware encoders are probed before ClipForge advertises them. Optional local tools add Real-ESRGAN or SPAN upscaling, RIFE interpolation, Whisper captions, Tesseract hardsub OCR, yt-dlp URL import, and an experimental libmpv preview.

There is no ClipForge account and no media upload service. The browser runtime is pinned and served from the same site as the editor. After the first load, its service worker can restart from cache.

The desktop app stages output before replacing a destination file. Browser export also checks the timeline before rendering. If the current FFmpeg.wasm pipeline cannot represent a gap, overlap, transition, detached track, or effect, ClipForge stops and explains the problem instead of dropping it.

Support exports are bounded and redact local paths, URL credentials, secret options, and private media metadata by default. Optional update checks contact GitHub for release metadata only. They never download or install an update.

Open ClipForge on GitHub Pages. The first visit loads the pinned FFmpeg core, which is about 31 MB. Later starts can use the local cache.

Browser projects reference your source files rather than copying media into the project file. Reopen a project, relink moved files, and continue editing.

Download the current build from GitHub Releases. Install FFmpeg, then make sure both ffmpeg and ffprobe are available on PATH.

The current Windows executable is unsigned because the project does not yet have a code-signing certificate. Check it against SHA256SUMS.txt from the same release before running it.

The base desktop app needs Python 3.11 or newer and PyQt6 6.11 when run from source. The optional tools listed above are not installed automatically.

Windows PowerShell:

git clone https://github.com/SysAdminDoc/ClipForge.git
cd ClipForge
py -3.12 -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\python -m pip install --require-hashes -r requirements-dev.lock
.\.venv\Scripts\python -m playwright install chromium
.\.venv\Scripts\python scripts\release_check.py --build

Linux or macOS:

git clone https://github.com/SysAdminDoc/ClipForge.git
cd ClipForge
python3 -m venv .venv
./.venv/bin/python -m pip install --require-hashes -r requirements-dev.lock
./.venv/bin/python -m playwright install chromium
./.venv/bin/python scripts/release_check.py --build

The release gate generates real media fixtures, exercises edit and conversion paths, runs the Python and browser suites, opens the GUI offscreen, and tests the packaged application. A successful build writes the executable, a provenance manifest, and SHA256SUMS.txt to dist/.

To refresh the two README screenshots after a UI change:

py -3.12 scripts\capture_marketing.py

The capture runs the browser headlessly and renders the desktop app with Qt's offscreen platform. It does not take over the active display.

py -3.12 scripts\sync_version.py --check
py -3.12 scripts\verify_browser_runtime.py
py -3.12 -m pytest -q
py -3.12 -m compileall -q clipforge scripts tests
node --check editor.js
node --check bootstrap.js
node --check coi-serviceworker.js

Version metadata starts in clipforge/version.py. Use py -3.12 scripts\sync_version.py --set X.Y.Z to update the desktop app, browser editor, README badge, and Windows executable metadata together.

Production artwork lives in assets/brand. The concept archive preserves the four original visual studies without altering their source bytes. Its selection.json record identifies direction 03 as the approved cut-and-play refinement and direction 04 as the supporting demo footage. The selected master is an untouched copy of the approved direction.

ClipForge is available under the MIT License.