Kaestral — The AI-operated video editor for Windows

What it does

Three things, done for you.

01 — DIRECT

AI-operated. You direct, it edits.

Type “cut the boring parts, add captions, punch in on the hook” — and watch your timeline change. Every action runs through the editor’s own tools, so you get a real, editable project, not a black-box render. Drive it with Claude Code (free) or the in-app chat.

Kaestral editor: multi-track timeline with media, preview, and transport controls

02 — CONDENSE

Raw footage → publish-ready reel.

Drop a 20-minute recording; get a tight, captioned, beat-cut short. Kaestral removes filler words, finds the hook, and captions on the word — automatically. Transcription runs on-device; cuts land on silences and beats.

03 — CREATE

Make SaaS & product videos without an editor.

Animated intros, logo reveals, data-viz, and transition stingers — generated from a sentence and rendered onto your timeline. Launch videos, demos, and ads, without hiring an editor.

Real pro timeline — multi-track, keyframes, 16 blend modes Vision — the AI sees your frames Transcription — word-level, on-device Beat / silence detection Palette extraction Color — wheels, curves, LUTs Motion graphics — Remotion Import from a URL Export — H.264 / H.265 / ProRes + Premiere / Resolve 50 MCP tools

Getting started

Up and running in three steps.

No project setup, no timeline tutorial. Install, connect, and start describing the edit you want.

Install Kaestral

Download the Windows installer and run it. The editor and its engine start together — nothing else to configure.

Connect Claude

One command connects the Claude Code you already have. Requires Node/npm and FFmpeg on your PATH.

claude mcp add kaestral -- npx kaestral

Describe your edit

Type what you want in plain language — “cut the dead air and add captions” — and watch the timeline do it.

Jobs to be done

What people make with it.

SAAS · DEMO

Make a SaaS demo video

Screen recording in, launch-ready demo out — intro, captions, punch-ins, an outro CTA.

“Add an animated intro titled Acme 2.0, caption the walkthrough, and end with ‘Try free → acme.com’.”

PODCAST · REELS

Turn a podcast into reels

One long recording becomes several vertical, captioned, beat-cut shorts for every platform.

“Find the 3 best 30-second moments, make each a 9:16 reel with karaoke captions.”

TALKING-HEAD · SHORT

Cut a talking-head into a viral short

Filler removed, hook up front, captioned on the word, punched in on the punchline.

“Cut the ums and pauses, open on the strongest line, add bold captions and a zoom punch.”

Why Kaestral

An AI editor with eyes and ears.

Native to Windows, free, and open source. It doesn’t just take commands — it watches your frames, hears every word, and edits through a real, editable timeline.

	Kaestral	What that means
Platform	Windows	Native desktop app · macOS on the roadmap
AI editing over MCP	✓	Drive it from the Claude Code you already have
Perception	✓ on-device	Transcribe · see frames · detect beats & silence — locally
Real timeline	✓	Multi-track, keyframes, blend modes — a true editable project
Price	Free · GPLv3	Open source; yours to keep and modify
AI generation	⏳ Pro (waitlist)	Prompt-to-clip is coming to the Pro tier

Kaestral doesn’t compete on generation today — its edge is Windows + real perception + a free, open, Claude-Code-native workflow. Generation lands later, in the Pro tier.

Privacy

Your footage never leaves your device.

Kaestral is local-first. Your video, audio, and project files are processed and stored on your machine — never uploaded to a server. Transcription, vision, and beat detection all run on-device.

On your disk

Footage & projects — read, edited, and rendered locally. Nothing is synced to the cloud.

On your CPU/GPU

Transcription, vision, beat & silence detection — all run on-device, not through a remote API.

Open source

GPLv3 — the code doing this is auditable. See exactly what runs and where.

Two things — and only two — leave your device: your AI prompts, sent to Anthropic’s API if you use in-app chat with your own key; and your email, sent to our form provider only if you join the Pro waitlist below. Everything else — your video, audio, and project files — stays on your machine.

For developers

MCP-first. One line in.

Kaestral is an MCP server. Point the Claude Code you already have at it and start editing by prompt — no new app to learn.

# one command — connects Claude Code over stdio
claude mcp add kaestral -- npx kaestral
claude

# then just ask
# “cut the silent parts of demo.mp4,
#  add captions, and export it.”

# prefer HTTP? the editor app also exposes:
# claude mcp add --transport http kaestral \
#   http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp

MCP server — the fast path

claude mcp add kaestral -- npx kaestral — one command, no server to run manually. Requires Node/npm and FFmpeg on PATH.

Windows installer

Double-click; the editor and engine start internally — no terminal.

In-app chat

Bring your own Anthropic key and edit from the app window.

Compatibility

Standard MCP over stdio or HTTP with a stable tool contract. Exports Premiere (XMEML) and Resolve / FCP (FCPXML).

The AI-operatedvideo editor for Windows.