# Turn long videos into Shorts

Finding the good moments in an hour long episode and reframing them to vertical takes forever

These tools find strong moments in a long recording, crop them to 9:16 with the speaker in frame, and add captions

## See it work

Visuals (real captures, with sources):

* Clip: Before and after: a 16:9 video reframed to vertical 9:16 (README of kajisho5/ffmpeg-skill: https://github.com/kajisho5/ffmpeg-skill#readme) https://agentcut.dev/media/ffs-reframe.mp4
* Image: The workflow on n8n.io: download a YouTube video, let Gemini pick the moments, then cut them with FFmpeg (Screenshot of n8n.io taken by AgentCut on 2026-10-17: https://n8n.io/workflows/11584-extract-viral-worthy-clips-from-youtube-videos-with-gemini-ai-and-ffmpeg-editing/) https://agentcut.dev/media/page-n8n-clips-1440.webp
* Video: Tella uses Claude Code to turn a long video into social clips (Tella on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzDfO3XvTG4)
* Video: Andy Lo builds a free clipping workflow with n8n running on his own computer (Andy Lo on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmTp0P4RsMs)
* Video: Jason Cooperson shows how he automated most of his editing with Claude Code (Jason Cooperson on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeTAlZiIWHE)

## Real examples

* Wrote a script on top of the MCP Bridge for Adobe Premiere Pro that builds a 45 second vertical Instagram Reels promo from a long interview episode: a new 9:16 sequence, 8 clips pulled by timecode, reframed, with chapter markers, while the master sequence stays untouched (durazgate-collab, GitHub user, GitHub pull request 2026-08-28: https://github.com/hetpatel-11/Adobe_Premiere_Pro_MCP/pull/88)
* The maker of podcli renders vertical clips for the Deeptech Decoded podcast with it and fixes what shows up in those real renders, like the crop landing on a wall when a clip switches from full screen to split screen (nmbrthirteen, the maker of podcli, GitHub pull request 2026-10-01: https://github.com/nmbrthirteen/podcli/pull/242)
* Used Codex and FFmpeg to turn two How I AI recordings into 8 captioned vertical Shorts, then had it upload them in YouTube Studio after she approved each one (Claire Vo, host of How I AI, clairevo.com 2026-09-22: https://clairevo.com/ai-workflows/edit-and-publish-youtube-shorts-with-codex-and-ffmpeg)
  > The biggest improvement came from giving it an actual editing brief

## Ideas to try (ideas, not user reports)

* Give the agent shot rules: full screen face for punchlines, split screen for explanations, screen capture when the screen matters
* Pick the moments yourself and let the agent do the cropping, captions and export

## Tools

* [podcli](https://agentcut.dev/tools/podcli/): Turning a long podcast episode into vertical clips with face tracking and captions. Works with FFmpeg, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, easy setup, free
* [n8n: Viral clips from YouTube with Gemini + FFmpeg](https://agentcut.dev/tools/n8n-viral-clips-gemini-ffmpeg/): Pulling the best moments out of a YouTube video and cutting them into clips automatically. Works with n8n workflows, FFmpeg, hard setup, free
* [Kinocut (formerly mcp-video)](https://agentcut.dev/tools/kinocut-formerly-mcp-video/): Repurposing long videos into Shorts and Reels with quality checks before export. Works with FFmpeg, easy setup, free
* [MCP Bridge for Adobe Premiere Pro](https://agentcut.dev/tools/mcp-bridge-for-adobe-premiere-pro/): Cutting pauses, building rough cuts and doing timeline busywork in Premiere by asking an AI. Works with Premiere Pro, medium setup, free
* [ffmpeg-skill](https://agentcut.dev/tools/ffmpeg-skill/): Captions, 9:16 crops, silence removal and exports done on your own computer by an AI. Works with FFmpeg, easy setup, free
* [Video & Audio Editing MCP](https://agentcut.dev/tools/video-audio-editing-mcp/): Converting, trimming, adding overlays and making social versions of a video by asking. Works with FFmpeg, easy setup, free
* [VectCutAPI (CapCut/Jianying API)](https://agentcut.dev/tools/vectcutapi-capcut-jianying-api/): Making lots of CapCut videos with subtitles, voiceover and effects without editing each one by hand. Works with CapCut, medium setup, freemium
* [Claude Video Vision](https://agentcut.dev/tools/claude-video-vision/): Letting Claude actually watch a video so it can find moments and review cuts. Works with FFmpeg, easy setup, free

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AgentCut: https://agentcut.dev/ · All tools as JSON: https://agentcut.dev/tools.json · Overview for agents: https://agentcut.dev/llms.txt