01 Overview
Assistant Editor is a macOS app and bundled Final Cut Pro extension that takes on the work of an assistant editor — logging footage, building string-outs and rough cuts, organizing selects, generating auditions, and making edits from plain-language prompts.
It transcribes and diarizes footage on-device, tags B-roll with Vision, and reasons about editorial structure using a hybrid of Apple’s on-device models and Claude — then emits Final Cut Pro project files that import cleanly and round-trip without loss.
02 What it does
Logging
Transcribes, diarizes, and logs footage as it ingests — the tedious first pass, done automatically.
String-outs & rough cuts
Assembles string-outs and first rough cuts from the selects, ready for the editor to shape.
Organizing selects
Sorts and tags the keepers, keeping the bin coherent as the project grows.
Auditions
Generates Final Cut auditions so alternate takes and structures sit side by side.
Prompt-driven edits
Makes edits from plain-language instructions — describe the change, get the cut.
03 How it works
01
Transcribe & diarize
On-device speech-to-text with speaker separation — nothing leaves the machine to be understood.
02
See the footage
Tags B-roll with Vision, building a searchable picture of what each clip actually contains.
03
Reason about structure
Thinks through editorial structure with a hybrid of Apple’s on-device models and Claude.
04
Emit FCPXML
Writes Final Cut Pro project files that import cleanly and round-trip without loss.
04 Architecture
Built entirely in Swift for Apple Silicon, it’s designed to consume and extend Final Cut’s own AI rather than reinvent it — meeting the app where it already is, and adding intelligence on top.
It grows through clean extension points — new analysis producers, new import adapters, new timeline capabilities — all feeding a single validated contract that keeps every hard-won FCPXML quirk sealed inside one carefully guarded generation core.
analysis producersimport adapterstimeline capabilities→ one validated contract