Build your own CapCut with Claude Code

A short-form video editor: timeline with clips, trim and split, text overlays and captions, music track with volume and more.

1–2 weeksMore screens, accounts and a backend

The Claude Code prompt

Build my own take on CapCut: a short-form video editor. Give it an original name, logo, colours and copy, and do not use CapCut's name, branding or assets.

Version one should have:
- Timeline with clips, trim and split
- Text overlays and captions
- Music track with volume
- Aspect ratio presets for Reels and TikTok
- Export to MP4

The hard part: Rendering video in the browser. Use ffmpeg.wasm for small edits or render on a server with ffmpeg.

How to build it:
1. Read this folder first. If it is empty, set up Next.js (App Router, TypeScript, Tailwind) with Postgres through Prisma or Supabase, and Supabase Auth or Auth.js for sign-in. Write a short PLAN.md with the data model, screens, third-party services and what you are leaving out of version one.
2. Build the core loop end to end before anything else: timeline with clips, trim and split, working with real data saved to the database.
3. Add the rest of the features one at a time, and seed realistic demo data so every screen looks alive.
4. Keep API keys in environment variables, and put any paid service behind a small interface with a local stub, so the app runs on a fresh machine without accounts.
5. Run it, click through every screen on desktop and mobile widths, fix what breaks, and finish with a summary of what works, what is stubbed and how to deploy it.

Paste it into Claude Code in an empty folder. It plans first, so read PLAN.md and steer before it starts building.

Version one

  • Timeline with clips, trim and split
  • Text overlays and captions
  • Music track with volume
  • Aspect ratio presets for Reels and TikTok
  • Export to MP4

The hard part

Rendering video in the browser. Use ffmpeg.wasm for small edits or render on a server with ffmpeg.

Make it yours: a niche CapCut ignores, an original name and brand, and one feature it does badly done well.

More to build

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