Minicut

Minicut is a local-first browser app for dataset preprocessing. It helps you trim and crop videos in your browser while keeping original files untouched.

What You Can Do

• Browse videos from a workspace folder.
• Trim by start time + duration (seconds or frames).
• Crop with an interactive on-video rectangle (draw, move, resize).
• Set output FPS (default 24).
• Preview trim range before processing.
• Process videos and keep originals unchanged.
• Review processed outputs (preview, open file, delete).
• See useful stats like duration, FPS, resolution, codec, size, and timestamps.

Requirements

• Python 3.11+
• ffmpeg on PATH
• ffprobe on PATH
• uv package manager

Quick Start

uvx minicut

See all available options:

uvx minicut --help

By default Minicut uses:

• workspace: current directory
• output folder: processed
• host: 127.0.0.1
• port: 8765

How To Use

1. Launch Minicut and open your workspace videos.
2. Select a video from the Workspace Videos list.
3. Set trim mode and values:
   • Seconds mode: begin second + duration seconds
   • Frames mode: begin second + duration frames (at output FPS)
4. Adjust crop rectangle on top of the video preview.
5. Optionally use preview controls to check the selected trim range.
6. Click Run Trim + Crop.
7. Review outputs in Processed Videos:
   • Preview in-app
   • Open file directly
   • Delete if needed

Output Behavior

• Original files are never overwritten.
• Output files are written under the output folder in your workspace (default: processed).
• Output naming is collision-safe:
  • <stem>_processed.mp4
  • <stem>_processed_1.mp4
  • <stem>_processed_2.mp4
  • ...

Troubleshooting

If Minicut fails to start:

• Verify ffmpeg is installed and on PATH.
• Verify ffprobe is installed and on PATH.
• Check that your workspace path exists and is readable.
• Check that the output folder is writable.

If processing fails:

• Confirm trim duration is positive and inside video duration.
• Confirm crop rectangle stays within video bounds.

Notes

• Workspace scanning is currently non-recursive.
• Job state is in-memory; active jobs are not persisted across app restart.