OpenCut A free, open-source video editor for web, desktop, and mobile.

Sponsors

Thanks to Vercel and fal.ai for their support of open-source software.

Why?

• Privacy: Your videos stay on your device
• Free features: Most basic CapCut features are now paywalled
• Simple: People want editors that are easy to use - CapCut proved that

Project Structure

• apps/web/: Next.js web application
• apps/desktop/: Native desktop app built with GPUI (in progress)
• rust/: Platform-agnostic core: GPU compositor, effects, masks, and WASM bindings. We're actively migrating business logic here from TypeScript.
• docs/: Architecture and subsystem documentation

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Bun
• Docker and Docker Compose

Note: Docker is optional but recommended for running the local database and Redis. If you only want to work on frontend features, you can skip it.

Setup

1. Fork and clone the repository

2. Copy the environment file:

   # Unix/Linux/Mac
   cp apps/web/.env.example apps/web/.env.local
   
   # Windows PowerShell
   Copy-Item apps/web/.env.example apps/web/.env.local
   

3. Start the database and Redis:

   docker compose up -d db redis serverless-redis-http
   

4. Install dependencies and start the dev server:

   bun install
   bun dev:web
   

The application will be available at http://localhost:3000.

The .env.example has sensible defaults that match the Docker Compose config — it should work out of the box.

Desktop setup

Desktop is opt-in. If you're only working on the web app, skip this entirely.

If you want to get ready for apps/desktop, see apps/desktop/README.md. It's a two-step setup: Rust toolchain first, then desktop native dependencies.

Local WASM development

Only needed if you're editing rust/wasm and want the web app to use your local build instead of the published package.

Prerequisites — install these once before anything else:

# Rust toolchain
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# build the WASM package
cargo install wasm-pack

# reruns the build on file changes, used by bun dev:wasm
cargo install cargo-watch

1. Build the package once from the repo root:

   bun run build:wasm
   

2. Register the generated package for linking:

   cd rust/wasm/pkg
   bun link
   

3. Link apps/web to the local package:

   cd apps/web
   bun link opencut-wasm
   

4. Rebuild on changes while you work:

   bun dev:wasm
   

To switch apps/web back to the published package, run:

cd apps/web
bun add opencut-wasm

Self-Hosting with Docker

To run everything (including a production build of the app) in Docker:

docker compose up -d

The app will be available at http://localhost:3100.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! While we're actively developing and refactoring certain areas, there are plenty of opportunities to contribute effectively.

🎯 Focus areas: Timeline functionality, project management, performance, bug fixes, and UI improvements outside the preview panel.

⚠️ Avoid for now: Preview panel enhancements (fonts, stickers, effects) and export functionality - we're refactoring these with a new binary rendering approach.

See our Contributing Guide for detailed setup instructions, development guidelines, and complete focus area guidance.

Quick start for contributors:

• Fork the repo and clone locally
• Follow the setup instructions in CONTRIBUTING.md
• Working on apps/desktop? See apps/desktop/README.md for setup
• Create a feature branch and submit a PR

License

MIT LICENSE

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