From raw clips to a finished reel, in one conversation

Here's what a real session looks like end to end, not a highlight reel of cherry-picked prompts.

1. Start with the footage

Drop your clips and a song into a new project. Ask: "what's in my project, and what can we make from it?"

2. Get a plan, not just an edit

A good response describes the footage in plain English, then proposes 3–5 concrete deliverables (a long-form cut, short verticals, captions) — pick one before anything gets executed.

3. Cut, then finish

"Cut the filler and dead space, sync it to the beat of the song, and grade it warm." Each step chains onto the working file — cut → color → normalize loudness.

4. Captions last

"Now add captions." Always the final step, so timing matches the finished cut.

5. Watch it update live

There's no render-and-wait loop between steps — the preview updates as each tool call finishes. The only render that takes real time is the final export.

6. Export

"Render this at 9:16 for Reels." That's the one step that actually invokes ffmpeg for a final file.