Resolve Toolkit

Everything I use to edit video with DaVinci Resolve + Claude Code. The short version: Resolve ships with a full scripting API, and once you wire Claude Code into it, most of the boring parts of editing (rough cuts, silence removal, captions, renders, uploads) become things you ask for instead of things you do.

Start here (the learning path)

1. Film Simplified (filmsimplified.com) — the best beginner Resolve course I've found, really easy to follow. Do this first; everything below assumes you know your way around the Edit page.
2. DaVinci Resolve — the free version covers most of what a home editor needs. Studio ($295, one-time, lifetime) adds GPU acceleration, better noise reduction, and the AI features.
3. When you're comfortable editing by hand, come back here and automate the boring parts.

The "REPL": Claude Code + the Resolve scripting API

Resolve has a full Python/Lua scripting API — you can build timelines, cut clips, apply titles, and render, all from code. I run it through an MCP server so Claude Code can drive Resolve conversationally.

Setup:

1. Install Claude Code.
2. Clone the MCP server (public repo, this is what I run):

   git clone https://github.com/samuelgursky/davinci-resolve-mcp.git
   cd davinci-resolve-mcp && python3 -m venv venv && venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. In Resolve: Preferences → System → General → External scripting using → Local.
4. Register it with Claude Code (claude mcp add) pointing at venv/bin/python src/server.py.
5. Open Resolve, open Claude Code, and say "list my timelines." From there you can say things like "cut the silence out of this clip" or "add a title at every marker."

The raw scripting docs live inside your Resolve install at /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Developer/ — the Scripting README there is the API reference.

One hard-won warning: if you ever script Fusion (the motion-graphics page), issue node connect calls one at a time, never in parallel — Fusion's scripting queue is single-threaded and a parallel batch deadlocks Resolve so hard you have to force-quit it.

The skills (skills/)

These are Claude Code "skills" — instruction files + Python scripts that Claude follows. Drop any of them into ~/.claude/skills/ and Claude picks them up. They're written for MY machine (my NAS paths, my footage folders, my YouTube channel), so treat them as working reference code, not plug-and-play — but the scripts are real and battle-tested.

Skill	What it does
perfect-cuts	Raw talking-head recording → frame-perfect rough cut. Transcribes with WhisperX, finds retakes/false starts, removes them, emits Resolve XML + EDL + SRT + a cut log. The workhorse.
dr-tighten	Takes a built cut and removes dead air + filler words (um, uh, "you know") — cuts only in silence or on word boundaries so nothing gets chopped mid-phrase. shorts and longform profiles.
podcast-punch-in	One static wide shot of two people → auto-switched "multicam" edit by digitally punching in on whoever's talking. Speaker ID by voice pitch, no cloud, no GPU.
dr-snap-captions	Applies a Fusion title template per caption beat (TikTok-style snap captions), setting the text via the scripting API.
resolve-vo-finish	Voiceover finishing pass — level, de-breathe, master to −6 dBFS peak.
dr-export	Scripted rendering — kick off renders without touching the Deliver page.
script-to-broll	Matches script lines to a b-roll footage catalog (a JSONL index of your clip library) so Claude can suggest shots per line.
ship-video	Uploads the finished render to YouTube via the Data API — title/description generated locally, resumable upload, no clicking through Studio.

If you're just editing family/home footage, start with perfect-cuts + dr-tighten (turn 20 minutes of raw takes into the 90 seconds that matter) and maybe dr-snap-captions.

Plugins (plugins/forge-title-pack/)

Five Fusion Text+ title macros I built (chapter card, lower third, stat callout, terminal heading, repo URL). Install by copying the .setting files to:

~/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Fusion/Templates/Edit/Titles/<YourFolder>/

They show up in the Effects → Titles panel and are fully editable on the timeline. They use the Unbounded and Space Mono fonts (Google Fonts, free) — install those or Fusion will error "font not found." Mostly useful as a reference for how to build your own editable title templates.

Apps + the rest of the stack

See APPS-AND-PLUGINS.md for the full roster of what I actually run.