Documentation
Wabcut
Build Wabcut from source, learn how its modules fit together, and drive every edit from scripts, AI agents and extensions.
- C++23
- Qt 6.11
- CMake + vcpkg
- Windows 10 22H2+
- Linux x64 (preview)
- macOS 13+ (preview)
- GPL-3.0-or-later
Overview
Wabcut is a C++23 editor with a Qt Quick interface. Its core modules (the project model, the command protocol and its MCP server, the keymap, interchange and AI) build without Qt on any OS; the full app adds media, audio, rendering, playback and export.
Every edit is a typed, validated, undoable command. The same 285 commands serve the editor’s command palette, the AI assistant, wabcut-cli, the MCP server and JavaScript extensions.
Using Wabcut rather than building it? The user guide is written for editors.
Topics
Essentials
- Building Wabcut
Build the Qt-free core on any OS, or the full app with Qt, FFmpeg and vcpkg on Windows, Linux and macOS.
- Architecture and module contracts
The binding interfaces between Wabcut's modules, its threads, and the decision log behind them.
- Releasing Wabcut
How a release is versioned, built, packaged and checked before anyone installs it.
Automation
- Edit commands
The typed command protocol that agents, the CLI, scripts and MCP clients use to edit a project.
- MCP server
Serve a project to Claude, Codex, Cursor and other agents over the Model Context Protocol.
- Extensions
Add commands to Wabcut in JavaScript, in a sandboxed process with the capabilities the user grants.
Subsystems
- Export
Render a project snapshot to a file, exactly as the program monitor shows it.
- Interchange
Import and export timelines with Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, OpenTimelineIO and EDL.
- Keymap
Premiere Pro's default shortcuts per panel and OS, overrides and .kys import.
- Colour grading
The grade, LUTs, CDL, scopes, Auto and Match, on the GPU.
- Masks and redaction
Masks, tracking, AI object masks and source-anchored redaction.
- Motion graphics
Graphic clips, layers, animation presets, templates, the brand kit and Lottie.
- Audio plug-ins
CLAP and VST3 hosting out of process, with deadlines, scanning and editor windows.
- AI architecture
Providers, local models, transcription, text-based editing and the editing assistant.
Performance
- Performance
The benchmark suite, the reference machine, results, budgets and profiling.
- Zero-copy decode
Hardware-decoded frames straight from D3D11VA to the renderer, without a copy.
Design
- Design language
Echo: a black stage with rounded islands, pills, violet and lime, and the echo mark.
- Design system
The tokens, components and layout rules that implement the design language.
Command reference
- Timeline editing
117 commands: clip.*, sequence.*, timeline.*, edit.*, track.*, clipboard.*, source.*, marker.*, keyframes.*, timeRemap.*, transition.*, multicam.*
- Project and media
30 commands: project.*, media.*, bin.*, history.*, review.*, interchange.*, render.*, provenance.*
- Audio
32 commands: audio.*, record.*, takes.*, dub.*, plugins.*
- Effects, graphics and masks
36 commands: effect.*, adjustment.*, graphic.*, title.*, template.*, lottie.*, brand.*, layout.*, autozoom.*, mask.*, redaction.*
- Colour
10 commands: color.*, lut.*, cdl.*, scopes.*
- Captions and transcripts
35 commands: captions.*, transcript.*
- AI and analysis
25 commands: analysis.*, search.*, highlights.*, shorts.*, reframe.*, roughcut.*, narration.*, gen.*, llm.*, workflow.*