Palmier Pro: The Open Source Video Editor Where Claude Edits the Timeline With You

Most AI video tools work like this: you upload a file, the AI does something to it, you download the result. The editor and the AI live in different places, and you are the courier between them.

Palmier Pro is built on a different premise: the AI agent and the timeline live in the same place, and both of you can make edits.

You open a project. Claude is looking at the same timeline you are. You ask it to trim the dead air, generate a B-roll shot, reorder the sections, regenerate that clip with a better prompt. It does. You see the result in the timeline immediately. No export, no upload, no round-trip.

It is a free macOS video editor from Palmier (YC S24). It started out open source; see the update below for what changed. We used it to edit a YouTube Short — and built an agent skill for it. Here is the full picture.

What Palmier Pro Actually Is

Palmier Pro AI video editor diagram showing a mechanical hand cutting a single film strip

Palmier Pro is a Swift-native video editor built from scratch for macOS. The north-star comparison the team uses is Premiere Pro — a real non-linear editor with a real timeline — but with AI baked into the layer underneath the track, not bolted on as a sidebar panel.

Three things make it different from every other video editor:

1. AI generation is on the timeline.

When you generate a video clip or an image using Seedance, Kling, or Nano Banana Pro, the result lands directly on a track in your project. There is no separate generation interface you switch to and then import from. Generate → appears in timeline → trim, adjust, extend, regenerate with a new prompt. All in one project.

2. Your AI agent can operate the editor.

When Palmier Pro is running, it exposes a local MCP server at http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp. Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, and Cursor can connect to that server and issue commands: read your timeline, add clips, trim footage, generate new content with a prompt, reorder segments, and iterate on AI-generated footage. The agent has full project context — it knows what clips are on which tracks, how long they are, what their prompts were — and it edits accordingly.

3. It started out open source.

When we first published, the editor, the MCP server, and the in-app agent chat were open source under GPLv3, and only the generative AI pipeline was closed. That is no longer true for current builds: per the GitHub README, releases through v0.7.6 and the source through the last-gpl-source tag are GPLv3, while later binary releases are proprietary and their source is not published. The editor and MCP connection are still free; AI generation uses paid credits.

What It Looks Like in Practice

We used Palmier Pro to edit a YouTube Short — watch it here.

The workflow: import your clips, connect Claude via MCP, describe what you want. Claude reads the full timeline, makes the edits, and you see them happen. The agent can trim silence, generate a missing shot from a text prompt, reorder sections to improve pacing, or regenerate a clip with a different creative direction — all without you switching tools or copying files.

We also built an agent skill for Palmier Pro — a reusable Claude workflow specifically for cutting YouTube Shorts inside Palmier Pro. If you want a repeatable, prompt-driven Shorts editing pipeline, the skill handles the structure.

Download and Install

Requirements: macOS 26 (Tahoe) on Apple Silicon.

Step 1: Download

Go to the Palmier Pro GitHub releases page and download the latest .dmg — v0.12.1 (released November 2) at the time of this update. Open the .dmg, drag Palmier Pro to your Applications folder, and launch it.

No login required for the editor itself.

Step 2: Open Palmier Pro

Launch the app. You will see a standard video editor layout: a browser panel on the left, a preview window in the center, and a timeline at the bottom. Import footage by dragging files into the browser panel or using File → Import.

At this point you already have a functional video editor. You can cut, trim, and arrange clips with no account and no AI required.

Connect Claude in One Command

With Palmier Pro open, the MCP server is already running at http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp. To connect Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http palmier-pro http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp

That is the entire setup. Start a new Claude Code session — Claude now has access to your Palmier Pro timeline and can read and modify your project.

To verify the connection is working, ask Claude something about your current project:

What clips are currently on my timeline?

If Claude describes your tracks, the MCP connection is live.

Claude Desktop (one-click)

Inside Palmier Pro: Help → MCP Instructions → Install in Claude Desktop

Palmier bundles a mcpb desktop extension installer. Clicking that button installs the extension in Claude Desktop automatically — no manual config file editing required.

Cursor

Help → MCP Instructions → Install in Cursor, or add manually to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "palmier-pro": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Codex

codex mcp add palmier-pro --url http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp

What Claude Can Do Once Connected

Once the MCP server is connected, Claude has tool access to your Palmier Pro project. Practically, this means you can give it natural-language edit instructions and it will make the changes on the timeline directly.

Editing instructions:

• "Trim the first clip to 8 seconds"
• "Remove the gap between clip 2 and clip 3"
• "Reorder the sections so the B-roll comes before the talking head"
• "Split this clip at the 12-second mark"

Generation (requires Palmier Pro subscription):

• "Generate a 5-second aerial shot of a city at sunset and add it after clip 1"
• "Create a title card image that says 'The Future of AI' and place it at the start"
• "Regenerate that clip with better lighting — same subject, golden hour"

Review and iteration:

• "What clips are currently on track 2?"
• "How long is my total edit?"
• "Which AI-generated clips have prompts I can iterate on?"

Claude maintains full project context across the conversation, so follow-up instructions work without re-explaining the structure each time.

The AI Generation Layer

If you subscribe (Pro at $29/month, Max at $69/month), you unlock generative AI directly inside the timeline. The models available:

To generate: right-click on a track in the timeline, choose "Generate," write a prompt, pick a model. The clip generates and lands on the timeline in place. If you don't like it, hit regenerate with a revised prompt. No downloading, no re-importing.

This is the workflow loop Palmier Pro is designed around: generate on the timeline → trim → regenerate if needed → finish the cut in the same project.

How It Compares to Descript and Other AI Video Tools

The AI video tool landscape in 2026 is crowded, so it is worth being precise about where Palmier Pro actually fits.

Descript edits video by editing a transcript. You read the transcript, delete the words you don't want, and the video cut follows. It is powerful for talking-head footage with clean audio. It does not have a traditional timeline editor and it is not designed for AI agents to operate it. Descript's AI features are editing-assistant tools; Palmier Pro's AI is a timeline operator.

CapCut / Adobe Premiere are traditional NLE editors with AI features added. They do not have an MCP server. Your AI agent cannot operate them.

Runway, Pika, Kling are generative video tools. They generate clips; they do not have a video editor. You generate a clip, download it, import it into a separate editor to use it.

Palmier Pro is the only editor where generation and editing live in one project, and where an AI agent can operate the timeline directly via a standard protocol. That is a structural difference, not a feature list comparison.

The limitation is real: macOS 26 (Tahoe) on Apple Silicon only. If you are on Windows or Linux, Palmier Pro is not an option yet.

The explainx.ai Skill for Palmier Pro Shorts

We built a reusable Claude agent skill specifically for cutting YouTube Shorts inside Palmier Pro: palmier-pro-shorts.

The skill gives Claude a structured workflow for working inside Palmier Pro on short-form vertical video:

• Import and inventory your raw clips
• Identify the strongest hook moment and anchor the cut there
• Trim for pacing, remove dead air
• Generate B-roll shots if gaps exist
• Review the final timeline length and structure

It is available in the explainx.ai skill registry and works with any Claude Code session that has the Palmier Pro MCP connection active. If you are using Palmier Pro for Shorts production, the skill removes the need to write out the editing instructions from scratch each time.

What's changed since we first published

• License: Source is no longer published for current builds. GPLv3 covers releases through v0.7.6 (GitHub README).
• Version: The latest release is v0.12.1, up from v0.3.5 (releases page).
• Models and features: The Palmier site now lists Seedance 2.5, Kling V3, and ElevenLabs, plus voiceover, music, sound effect, dub, and upscale generation. Exports include H.264, H.265, ProRes, and NLE XML for Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Final Cut.
• Pricing: Pro is $29/month (5,000 credits) and Max is $69/month (12,000 credits). The pricing page shows these as discounts from $49 and $99, and lists an Enterprise tier.
• Unchanged: The MCP URL, the connect commands, and the macOS 26 on Apple Silicon requirement still match the README.

Open Source Notes

Palmier Pro was GPLv3 at launch. The GitHub repository is at palmier-io/palmier-pro. As of June 21, 2026, it had over 3,500 stars and 291 forks; the README now shows 14.7k stars and 1.2k forks. The GPLv3 source ends at the last-gpl-source tag (releases through v0.7.6). Later binary releases are proprietary.

If you want to run the editor without any generative AI — as a free, agent-operable NLE for your own raw footage — the free editor and MCP connection still cover that.

Contributors include the Palmier team (Harrison Tin, Marcos Rico Peng) and a Cursor Agent contributor, which is a reasonable signal for a project where AI agents are a first-class part of the development workflow.

Quick-Start Summary

1. Download: github.com/palmier-io/palmier-pro/releases → latest .dmg → drag to Applications
2. Open Palmier Pro — the MCP server starts automatically
3. Connect Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http palmier-pro http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp
4. Import your footage and start a Claude Code session
5. Give edit instructions in natural language — Claude operates the timeline directly
6. Optional: Add the palmier-pro-shorts skill for a structured YouTube Shorts workflow

If you want to see the output: this YouTube Short was edited using Palmier Pro.

Related Reading

• Update — September 8, 2026: DaVinci Resolve 21.1 ships a native MCP server — first-party AI agent control lands in a major, free professional NLE.
• X iOS Video Editor: Captions, Green Screen (July 2026) — in-app social capture vs agent-driven timeline editing
• Fable 5 Edited Its Own Launch Video Using Claude Code
• How to Generate Videos with Google Vids and Veo
• What Is MCP (Model Context Protocol)
• AI Agents: The Complete Guide to Goal-Mode Workflows