How to connect Claude to a video editor, step by step

Claude can write a script, plan a shot list and explain a color grade. On its own, it cannot touch your footage. Connect it to a video editor it can operate, and it can do the edit itself: cut, caption, grade, mix and export, on a timeline you can watch and change.

This guide connects Claude to Arsaze. It takes a few minutes, needs no code and no API key, and works on the free Arsaze plan.

What you need

• An Arsaze account. The free plan is enough to connect Claude and edit.
• A Claude account that can add custom connectors. You will find Connectors in Claude's settings.
• A video to edit. Upload it to an Arsaze project, or use a local project in the desktop app if the footage should stay on your computer.

Step 1: Add Arsaze as a custom connector

In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector. Name it Arsaze and paste this server URL: https://api.arsaze.com/mcp

Step 2: Sign in and approve

The first time Claude connects, it opens an Arsaze sign-in page. Sign in, check that the request is yours, and approve it. That is the whole setup: there is no key to copy and nothing to install.

Step 3: Switch it on in a chat

Start a new conversation and make sure the Arsaze connector is switched on for it. Then ask Claude to list your Arsaze projects. If it answers with your project names, it is connected.

Step 4: Open the project and ask for an edit

Open the same project in Arsaze, in your browser or in the desktop app. Every edit Claude makes plays back live on the timeline, so you can watch it work. Start with something small and specific:

• "Cut the long silences and the filler words from the first clip."
• "Add word-by-word captions in a clean white style at the bottom of the frame."
• "Find the part where I talk about pricing and put a title card before it."
• "Even out the loudness so my voice sounds the same all the way through."

Then move up to whole edits, such as "Turn this 30-minute interview into a 3-minute story with captions." Claude plans the cut, makes it, and tells you what it did.

Optional: give Claude the Arsaze skills

Arsaze publishes skills for your AI: short guides that teach an assistant how to read a project, cut by editing the transcript, run a full edit and handle review notes. Download them and upload them in Claude under Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills. Claude then uses them whenever you edit in Arsaze. Without them, Claude can still read the same guides straight from Arsaze once it is connected.

You stay in control

• Every edit is saved to version history as it happens, so you can undo any change or go back to any earlier state.
• You can take over by hand at any point, and hand the project back to Claude afterwards.
• Lock a clip you are happy with, and nothing Claude does can change it.
• In a local project, your video, audio and images stay on your computer. Claude works with just the moments it needs, and nothing is kept.
• You can remove the connector from Claude's settings whenever you want.

What it costs

Connecting Claude and editing with it works on Arsaze's free plan. Generating new media, such as AI video, images, voiceover or music, needs a paid plan. Your Claude plan is separate.

If something does not work

• Claude does not see your projects: check that the Arsaze connector is switched on in the conversation, then ask again.
• The sign-in page did not appear: remove the connector and add it again with the exact URL above.
• Claude picked the wrong project: name the project in your request. Claude can list your projects for you.

Once it works, read what agentic video editing is and the full list of what an AI agent can do in Arsaze.