ClipKit

The video infra for agents. ClipKit turns a JSON timeline — the open ClipKit Protocol — into rendered video on the GPU. Describe a video as structured data; get an MP4. Built for AI agents and the developers shipping them.

clipkit.dev · Docs · Protocol · Agent quickstarts

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ff4b7e9b-2e0a-40f4-a6a1-042e981fc65f

_{↑ Made with ClipKit. Every frame of this promo was rendered from a ClipKit Protocol document — no editor, no timeline UI, just structured data. ▶ Play if it doesn't load inline.}

Quick start

npm install -g @clipkit/cli

clipkit new my-video.json                 # scaffold a Source
clipkit render my-video.json -o out.mp4   # render locally (headless Chrome)

…or from code:

import { render } from '@clipkit/renderer';
import { writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const { buffer } = await render({ source });   // source = a ClipKit Protocol document
await writeFile('out.mp4', buffer);

Local rendering uses your installed Google Chrome (for WebCodecs). For GPU-accelerated and pro-format (ProRes / AV1 / transparent) output, render on the hosted service with clipkit render --cloud.

What's here

A monorepo; each package publishes to npm under the @clipkit scope.

Package	What it is
`@clipkit/protocol`	the ClipKit Protocol — schema, types, validation
`@clipkit/runtime`	the engine — WebGPU/WebGL2 compositor + WebCodecs encoder
`@clipkit/renderer`	render a Source to MP4 locally (headless Chrome)
`@clipkit/editor`	a configurable, embeddable editor over the schema
`@clipkit/editor-core`	the editor's UI-free data layer
`@clipkit/playback`	browser playback engine
`@clipkit/patterns`	composable motion-graphics units
`@clipkit/sfx`	procedural sound-effects synthesis
`@clipkit/music-analysis`	beat / tempo analysis for authoring
`@clipkit/speech-to-text`	transcription → captions
`@clipkit/lint`	protocol-aware validation + plain-language summaries
`@clipkit/mcp-server`	an MCP server so agents can author + render video
`@clipkit/cli`	the local-first CLI

For AI agents

ClipKit ships an MCP server — point your agent at it and it can build, validate, preview, and render ClipKit videos:

npx -y @clipkit/cli mcp        # stdio MCP server

See the agent quickstarts for Claude, Cursor, and more.

License

Apache-2.0 — except @clipkit/runtime, which is under the Business Source License 1.1 and converts to Apache-2.0 four years after each release. In plain terms: use it, embed it, build your own product on it, and render for your own customers — all free. The one thing you can't do is offer a competing hosted ClipKit-rendering service. See LICENSING.md and TRADEMARK.md.