OpenCut-app/OpenCut

What it is

OpenCut is an MIT-licensed video editor positioned as an open-source alternative to CapCut, targeting web, desktop, and mobile from a shared codebase OpenCut. The repository is currently mid-rewrite: the maintainers describe a ground-up rebuild that will add an Editor API, a plugin-first architecture for first-class third-party plugins, a Rust core shared across desktop/web/mobile, an MCP server for AI agents, headless mode for automation and batch rendering, and a scripting tab inside the editor.

The stable product users should look at today is the previous version, opencut-classic classic version; opencut.app still serves that classic build, while the rewrite is being developed at new.opencut.app new.opencut.app.

Quick start

The README's current instructions are for building the rewrite locally; they are not an end-user install guide. Prerequisites: proto, installed via the platform-specific script:

# Linux, macOS, WSL
bash <(curl -fsSL https://moonrepo.dev/install/proto.sh)

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://moonrepo.dev/install/proto.ps1 | iex

If shims fail to run on Windows, the README suggests allowing locally created scripts for the current user:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned

Then, from the repo root:

proto use              # installs the tools pinned in .prototools
moon run web:dev       # localhost:5173
moon run api:dev       # localhost:8787
moon run desktop:dev   # see apps/desktop/README.md

The web dev server is expected at localhost:5173. For actual editing today, use the classic version or the hosted opencut.app site rather than the in-progress rewrite.

Constraints

• The rewrite is explicitly unfinished; features listed in the README status section are described as coming, not shipped.
• Outside contributions are not being accepted while the new architecture is designed; the README directs interested people to Discord or issues instead Discord issues.
• The build relies on proto and moon tooling, so the pinned toolchain comes from .prototools; desktop development has its own separate README.
• License is MIT LICENSE. The project lists fal.ai as a sponsor.

HotRepo's take

HotRepo recorded this repository climbing from roughly 70.6k to 97.9k stars across daily snapshots between July and November 2026, including a 6th-place finish on the TypeScript daily list on 2026-11-09 with 201 stars gained that day, alongside single-day gains as large as 3,290 stars in mid-July 2026. Earlier, the project drew a 447-point Hacker News thread in July 2025; in that discussion, skeptics noted the absence of screenshots and reported that build instructions did not work at the time HN discussion build comment, while others pointed to activity on the project's social account X account. A separate 128k-line pull request prompted debate about low-signal, LLM-generated contributions to open source PR discussion comment. The rewrite status section should be read as the current engineering reality: the star curve reflects attention around the announced architecture, not a finished cross-platform editor.