The Video Editor — Claude Operates Descript

Raw footage in, finished captioned cut out, and nobody opens the Descript UI. This is the editing companion to The Repurposer: that one turns a talk into articles, this one produces the video deliverable and hands back a share link.

Why it exists

Dennis teaches that Claude operates Descript to edit your videos. This is that, on tap — the long-empty Descript slot on the Agent Roster.

The reason it needed to be an agent rather than a tip is that video editing is the one Content Factory stage where a careless step destroys something irreplaceable. You cannot un-delete a master. So the safety rules are the design, not a footnote.

The non-negotiables

The three deliverables

How it picks what to keep

For reels and clips the agent applies the same STRONG-content test The Repurposer uses on articles: named guests, real numbers, a framework, or a story only this person can tell. That shared test is what keeps the clip and the article pointing at the same moment of the recording — which is the whole reason the pairing works.

Quotes stay verbatim. The agent never fabricates footage or words. Captions prefer a manually-corrected transcript, and proper nouns get fixed against the known entity list rather than left as whatever the auto-captions heard.

The loop it belongs to

Step 4 is the one people skip and the one that pays. The agent exports the transcript and hands it to The Repurposer, which hands the draft to Jennifer for grading, which feeds the winner to Dollar a Day. One recording becomes a clip and site articles and a $1/day boost.

That is Marko Sipila’s pattern exactly: phone-shot interviews → clips → repurposed articles → $1/day → 300+ customers. Nothing exotic in any single step. The compounding comes from never dropping the handoff.

How to run it

1. Copy the skill file below into 003-video-editing-descript.skill.md and add it to a Claude project with the Descript connector enabled.
2. Fill the job card: source project or media URL, which of the three deliverables, brand caption style and aspect ratio, and publish target.
3. Run it ad hoc, or rename a Descript project to include [edit] and let the weekly task pick it up.

The full skill file

START

---
name: "video-editing-agent"
description: "Edit video in Descript via MCP - clean filler/pauses, add captions and simple transitions, cut a captioned highlights reel or short clips, and publish a share/download link. Non-destructive. Use when someone wants raw footage (talks, interviews, demos) turned into a finished cut without touching the Descript UI, e.g. a speaker reel."
---

# Video Editing Agent (Descript via MCP)

Turn raw footage into a finished, captioned cut without anyone opening the Descript UI. This is
the *editing* companion to video-repurposing-agent (which turns a talk into articles): this one
produces the **video** deliverable - a cleaned talk, a captioned highlights reel, or short
vertical clips - and hands back a share/download link. Dennis teaches "Claude operates Descript
to edit your videos"; this is that, on tap.

**Non-negotiables (safety first - this touches real footage):**
- **Never edit a master destructively.** Duplicate into a NEW project/composition (or import the
  media fresh) and edit the copy. Never delete media or overwrite the source.
- **Publish/export only** - return share + download URLs; never replace an existing publish
  without being told to.
- Loop to done and self-verify: poll wait_for_job until each job completes, then confirm and
  DISPLAY the resulting share/download URLs (Descript MCP requires you to surface them).
- Draft/notify only - never send anything on the client's behalf.

## The job card (fill once per deliverable)
- **Source**: a Descript project name/id (use list_projects / list_folders to find it) OR a media
  URL to import_media.
- **Deliverable**: clean-talk (remove filler + long pauses, captions, light transitions, keep full
  length) - reel (60-120s captioned highlights montage) - clips (3-6 short vertical cuts for social).
- **Brand**: caption style, intro/outro if any, aspect ratio (16:9 talk / 9:16 clips), target length.
- **Publish target**: Descript share link (default) and/or download for upload elsewhere.

## Steps
1. **Find the source.** list_projects (filter by name) or list_folders. Confirm with get_project
   (media files, compositions, existing publishes - reuse an existing share URL instead of
   republishing when one already fits).
2. **Work on a copy.** Create/import into a new project or a new composition so the master is
   untouched.
3. **Edit via prompt_project_agent** (natural-language editing - do it in clear passes, verifying
   each):
   - Remove filler words ("um", "uh", "you know") and long silences.
   - For reel/clips: select the strongest 60-120s (named guests, real numbers, a framework, a
     story only they can tell - the same STRONG-content test as the repurposing skill), assemble
     the montage, add captions.
   - Add captions (prefer a manually-corrected transcript; fix proper nouns against known
     entities), a simple lower-third if brand supplies one, and clean cut/transition timing.
   - Keep quotes verbatim; never fabricate footage or words.
4. **Export the transcript** (export_transcript) and hand it to video-repurposing-agent ->
   definitive-article-writer so one recording becomes both a clip AND site articles (the Content
   Factory loop).
5. **Publish** (publish_project) as video (reel/clips) or the clean talk; wait_for_job; capture
   and DISPLAY the share + download URLs.
6. **Report** one run note: source -> deliverable(s) -> share/download URLs -> transcript path ->
   what a human still needs to do (e.g. approve before posting). File a Skill-Learnings note if
   the run taught something.

## Pairings
- Upstream: raw talks/interviews/demos (e.g. the "Dennis Reel" project, conference interviews).
- Downstream: video-repurposing-agent -> definitive-article-writer -> jennifer (grade A-) ->
  dollar-a-day-strategist (put $1/day behind the winning clip). The proof pattern is Marko
  Sipila's: phone-shot interviews -> clips -> repurposed articles -> $1/day -> customers.
- Reference: blitzmetrics.com/build-agents/ (Descript operation), blitzmetrics.com/content-factory/.

---
Registered as a Cowork skill 2026-07-25. Wired to the descript-reel-editor scheduled task
(weekly): it edits any Descript project whose name contains the tag [edit] (a safe opt-in that
can never grab a master by accident), then clears the tag/reports. Trigger ad hoc any time with
a job card.

END

Related reading

• The Repurposer — the article half of the same recording.
• Build Agents — Descript operation.
• The Content Factory
• Dollar a Day — The Master Course