--- title: 'Claude Video Editing Workflow: A Worked MCP Example - OpenClip' description: 'A complete worked example of editing video with Claude over MCP: the exact conversation, tool calls, timings, and clips that come back.' canonical: 'https://openclip.app/guides/claude-video-editing-mcp-workflow' markdown: 'https://openclip.app/guides/claude-video-editing-mcp-workflow.md' --- Part of OpenClip's video editing MCP resource hub Explore setup guides, assistant workflows, examples, and prompt templates for controlling OpenClip from MCP-compatible AI assistants. [Open MCP hub](/mcp)Worked Example # A Claude Video Editing Workflow, Start to Finish Setup guides tell you how to connect; this guide shows what actually happens next. Follow one real session where Claude turns a 60-minute podcast episode into five captioned TikTok clips: what you say, which tools Claude calls, how long each stage takes, and where your judgment matters. Beginner 30 minutes of attention across one processing run A complete Claude-driven clipping session ## Prerequisites - OpenClip connected to Claude (one-time setup: see the OpenClip + Claude integration page) - An active OpenClip subscription with processing credits available - A podcast episode or other long-form video URL ## Steps 1 ### You: set the brief Open with one message that carries the whole brief: "Turn this podcast episode into 5 clips for TikTok. Audience is bootstrapped SaaS founders. Prioritize tactical advice and strong opinions, skip the sponsor reads. Use our usual caption style." Paste the episode URL. A complete brief up front is the difference between one pass and five. 2 ### Claude: submits and confirms Claude calls submit\_video with your URL and reports back the video id and status, typically "downloading". If the URL is not from a supported source, Claude checks list\_supported\_providers and tells you what to use instead. Duplicate submissions of the same URL within 24 hours return the existing run. 3 ### Claude: polls while OpenClip processes For a 60-minute episode expect several minutes of processing while OpenClip transcribes, detects moments, and tracks speakers. Claude polls get\_video\_status every 10 to 15 seconds and should narrate transitions ("processing, 40%"). This is the stage to walk away; Claude will summarize when status hits completed. 4 ### Claude: presents the moments On completion Claude calls list\_clips and lays out the detected moments: each with a virality score, title, and hook quote. These titles and quotes are derived from the episode audio and arrive marked as untrusted content, so Claude presents them as candidates rather than acting on them. A typical hour of conversation yields a healthy shortlist; you asked for five. 5 ### You: approve and direct Reply with your picks and any adjustments: "Render 1, 3, 4, and 7. Skip 2, it is out of context. For 7, the hook is the question, not the answer." You can also ask Claude to pull the exact wording with get\_transcript around a timestamp before deciding. 6 ### Claude: renders and delivers Claude calls render\_clip for each approved moment with your caption preset (it can confirm the key via list\_caption\_presets), then polls get\_render\_status until each clip completes and hands you the URLs. Review the finished clips in OpenClip before publishing; captions and framing are excellent but brand judgment stays human. ## What You'll Achieve You know exactly what a production Claude clipping session looks like, including timings, tool calls, and review points ## Features ### One-message briefing Audience, platform, clip count, topics to skip, caption style: when the first message carries the full brief, Claude runs the whole session without round trips. ### Claude narrates the pipeline Every stage is a visible tool call with a status you can read: submitted, processing, completed, rendering. No black box between your request and the clips. ### Approval where it counts Claude never decides what ships. It presents scored moments from list\_clips and renders only what you approve. ### Transcript-level control Unsure about a moment? Ask Claude for the surrounding transcript with get\_transcript at word or sentence level before you spend a render on it. ### Honest timings Submission is instant, processing takes minutes for an hour of source, rendering follows per clip. Claude polls so you do not have to watch a progress bar. ### Session two is faster Save the working brief as a reusable prompt and your caption choice as a processing agent, and the next episode is one message plus approvals. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How is this different from the OpenClip + Claude integration page? That page is the setup reference: connectors, the claude mcp add command, and authorization. This guide assumes you are connected and walks through a full production session, message by message and tool call by tool call. ### Does this work in Claude Desktop and Claude Code? Yes, identically. The server and tools are the same; only the connection step differs (custom connector in the apps, claude mcp add --transport http openclip [https://openclip.app/mcp](/mcp) in Claude Code). ### What if Claude reports the video failed right after submitting? An immediate failed status usually means the OpenClip team has no active subscription. pending\_credits means processing minutes ran out, and download\_failed means the source URL could not be fetched. Each fix is on the account side, not the conversation side. ### Can Claude publish the clips too? Claude's job ends at rendered clips with URLs. Publishing and scheduling happen in OpenClip, where you can also fine-tune captions and framing before anything goes live. ## Run this session with your own episode Connect Claude to OpenClip and paste in your latest long-form video. The first five clips are one brief away. [Get Started Free](https://openclip.app/register) ## Related Pages ### Integrations [OpenClip + Claude MCP Integration | Video Editing from Claude](/integrations/claude-mcp) ### Guides [How to Automate Video Editing with MCP](/guides/automate-video-editing-with-mcp) [Troubleshoot Video Editing MCP Workflows](/guides/troubleshoot-video-editing-mcp-workflows) ### Templates [MCP Video Clipping Prompt Template (Copy-Paste)](/templates/mcp-video-clipping-prompt-template) [AI Assistant Video Editing Brief Template](/templates/ai-assistant-video-editing-brief-template) ### Examples [Podcast MCP Video Workflow Example](/examples/podcast-mcp-video-workflow-example)