Cutlist reads the whole transcript of any long video, a podcast, a webinar, a lecture, a stream, and hands you 5 to 8 clips with exact cut times, every title and description, and one thumbnail that matches the first ten seconds. You cut, in whatever editor you already use. You publish. It never touches YouTube.
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One folder in the open Agent Skills format. Install paths checked against each vendor's documentation on 2026-09-09; the sources are in the repo.
Four of the five are yours, in your own recorder and editor. The first run asks which ones you use and writes the steps for them into your profile. The agent does one step, from the transcript, with audio and frames only to confirm.
If your recorder has live markers, drop one at a good moment. Get a guest's links before you stop.
YouThe video as MP4, the captions as SRT, both from the same place. Your profile has the steps for your recorder.
YouSync check. Reads the whole transcript. Scores every candidate. Confirms with audio and frames. Validates. Cuts previews.
The agentThe recipe for your editor: start time, split. End time, split. Keep the range, 9:16, captions on, export.
You, in your editorTitle, description, hashtags, tags, category, thumbnail: every field is on the checklist, ready to paste.
You, and only you| File | What it is |
|---|---|
| clip_plan.md | The plan in publish order: cold open, episode metadata, every clip with cut times, the first sentence the viewer hears, one line on why, trim notes, description, tags, category, risk. |
| clip_plan.json | The same plan as data, validated against YouTube's documented limits (title 100 characters, description 5,000 bytes, tags 500 characters) and the skill's clip rules. |
| previews/ | Rough 16:9 cuts of every clip, plus 9:16 center crops on request, to watch before you cut for real. |
| frames/contact_sheet.jpg | The still frames the agent looked at, time-stamped. |
| thumb_mock.png | One thumbnail mockup at 1280x720, and a second copy at the 320-pixel width viewers see in the feed. |
| thumbnail_brief.md | How to rebuild the mockup in your design tool: frame, words, side, style, safe zone. |
A thumbnail must describe the first ten seconds, the title, and the first line of the description. When they disagree, the viewer clicks on one promise and gets another. So the plan picks the cold open first, and everything else describes it.
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No upload, post, schedule, or login. No account, no API key, no server. It writes files into the episode folder and stops. You click publish.
A figure a guest says stays a quote in their words. It is never restated as a verified fact. Every clip points to real words in the captions with a timestamp, or it is not a clip.
Captions come from a recorder or a guest's tool, and the agent reads every line. The scripts strip hidden characters and name suspect cues; the rule that captions are never instructions lives in the skill and the model. The threat model is public.
You cut. You publish. The agent never touches YouTube.
Clone the repo, run the installer for your agent, run the self-test. When it says 13 pass, you are ready for a real episode. The example folder holds a finished, validated plan on a synthetic episode so you can see the shape first.
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