The Video Stack

01Why this exists

Every AI-video workflow has the same hidden tax: the mechanical glue between generation and edit. Re-encoding WebMs into ProRes-friendly MP4s. Watermarking a folder. Cutting fifteen-second teasers from a one-minute master. Generating thumbnails. Stitching frames. Pulling audio out. None of it is creative. All of it eats hours.

If you already work with Claude, you already have the brain. What you're missing is the hands. This manual installs the hands — two free tools that let Claude actually do video work on your Mac instead of just talking about it:

• Claude Code — the command-line surface of Claude. Same Claude, just sitting in your Terminal where it can run things.
• Desktop Commander — the MCP that gives Claude permission to execute commands on your Mac.
• FFmpeg — the open-source video engine behind Chrome, YouTube, Netflix, and most editors' internals.

You type a sentence. Claude figures out the FFmpeg command. Desktop Commander runs it. FFmpeg does the work — fast, lossless, the actual engine YouTube uses. Output lands in a folder you choose. The whole thing collapses the distance between describing a task and the file being done.

It's not a replacement for DaVinci, Premiere, FCP, CapCut, or your taste. It's the batch processor that frees those tools to do the work that needs taste. Mechanical work → Claude + FFmpeg. Creative work → you.

The hard work isn't the AI. It's the spec. Once you can describe what you want with precision, the rest is just plumbing. — Lab Module 8, May 2026

02What you can do after the install

Non-exhaustive. Everything FFmpeg can do, you can now ask Claude to do — in plain English.

03The pipeline at a glance

┌─────────────────────────┐    ┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  Stage 01 — Source      │ →  │  Stage 02 — Batch            │
│  iPhone, Lovart,        │    │  (Claude + FFmpeg)           │
│  Higgsfield, Kling,     │    │  Mechanical work             │
│  Nano Banana, Runway    │    │                              │
└─────────────────────────┘    └──────────────────────────────┘
                                          ↓
┌─────────────────────────────┐    ┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  Stage 03 — Creative        │ →  │  Stage 04 — Distribute       │
│  (you + your editor)        │    │  (Claude + FFmpeg)           │
│  Taste, color, the cut      │    │  Format variants per channel │
└─────────────────────────────┘    └──────────────────────────────┘

Stage 02 is what this manual installs — the catch-net for everything your AI gens, your iPhone, your screen recordings, and your downloads produce. Mechanical processing, no editor needed.

Stage 03 stays yours. The cut, the color, the rhythm. DaVinci, Premiere, FCP, CapCut — whichever your hands already know.

Stage 04 is the distribution pass — three sizes, three formats, one source, one command.

04The install path · five steps, thirty minutes

Open Terminal (Spotlight: Cmd+Space, "Terminal") and run each step in order.

Step 01 — Homebrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

It'll ask for your Mac password (characters don't display — normal). Wait a few minutes. Verify with brew --version.

Step 02 — FFmpeg

brew install ffmpeg

Verify with ffmpeg -version — should report 6.x or later.

Step 03 — Node.js

brew install node

Verify: node --version and npm --version.

Step 04 — Claude Code

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Run claude for first launch. Walks you through Anthropic sign-in. Pro plan ($20/mo) is plenty for this work — only go Max ($100/mo) if you start running multi-hour sessions or batch-processing huge volumes daily.

Step 05 — Desktop Commander

Inside Claude Code:

claude mcp add desktop-commander -- npx -y @wonderwhy-er/desktop-commander

Restart Claude Code. Done.

05Three tests to confirm it works

In Claude Code, type each prompt in plain English:

Test 01 — Desktop Commander is alive

Should report your Node version.

Test 02 — File system access

Open Finder. Check Desktop.

Test 03 — FFmpeg is reachable

If Claude reports a version — full stack confirmed. Move to real work.

06Four workflows you'll use this week

Each is one sentence to Claude. Adapt the file paths to your own projects.

Workflow 01 — Batch watermark a folder

Time saved: 5 min per video × 10 videos = ~50 min → ~30 seconds.

Workflow 02 — Convert AI-gen output to editor-friendly format

Use case: Lovart, Higgsfield, Kling, Veo, Runway, Nano Banana — they each export differently. This normalizes the whole batch before you import.

Workflow 03 — Three distribution variants from one master

Three variants, one source, seconds.

Workflow 04 — Batch thumbnails

Every video gets a matching thumb. Listings, social posts, web grids.

07Under the hood

The whole stack is local to your Mac. Video files never leave your machine. Anthropic doesn't see your footage. What goes to Claude's servers: the text of your request and what files exist in the folders you point it at — folder listings, not file contents.

The chain:

1. You type a request in plain English.
2. Claude figures out which FFmpeg command(s) to run.
3. Desktop Commander runs them on your Mac, with your permission.
4. FFmpeg does the actual work — fast, lossless, the same engine powering YouTube and Netflix encode pipelines.
5. Claude reports back: what happened, where the files landed, what's next.

It's a conversation, not a script. If a command fails, Claude reads the error and tries again — same as a human collaborator would.

08What it costs

The first watermark batch pays for the month.