What is clypra?

Clypra is a free, open source video editor that aims to offer the kind of professional editing features found in paid tools like CapCut, without watermarks, feature limits, or a subscription. It runs as a desktop app on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and can also be packaged for iOS and Android, built using the React and TypeScript for its interface and Rust for the parts that actually process video. The core editing features include importing many common video, audio, and image formats, trimming clips down to the exact frame, a multi-track timeline for arranging clips, and up to one hundred levels of undo and redo. On the audio side, it shows detailed waveforms so you can see sound levels visually, keeps audio and video in sync during playback and export, and lets you adjust volume per clip. Visually, it supports filmstrip-style thumbnails of your footage, text overlays with custom fonts and animations, and a live preview where you can move and resize elements directly. Under the hood, Clypra leans on your computer's graphics hardware to decode and process video faster, using platform-specific technologies on each operating system, and it keeps a pool of decoders ready in advance so playback starts almost instantly. Thumbnails are generated in parallel across multiple background workers to keep the interface responsive. Projects are saved automatically to a local database file, and exporting supports several common video formats. The base editor is free forever under the MIT license, while an optional paid layer adds AI-powered features such as editing based on natural language instructions, automatic captions, and smart reframing. Installation is straightforward: prebuilt apps are available for each platform, including a one-line installer for Mac users through Homebrew.