Edit videos with Claude Desktop
One click in PandaStudio registers it with Claude Desktop. Quit Claude, open it again, and ask it to edit your video in plain English. No JSON editing, no terminal.
Install PandaStudio + Claude Desktop
PandaStudio from writepanda.ai. Claude Desktop from claude.ai/download. Sign into Claude with any paid plan (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise) so tool use is available.
Make sure PandaStudio is running at least once after install. The first launch writes a local credentials file that the extension auto-discovers; no token entry or env-var setup is required.
Turn on Local automation, then click Connect
In PandaStudio, open Settings → Automation. Check that Local automation is on — that's the loopback server Claude talks to. Then scroll to Connect agents, find Claude Desktop, and click Connect.
That writes PandaStudio's MCP server into claude_desktop_config.json for you, and switches Local automation on if it was off. Nothing to download, no JSON to edit, no token to paste.
Quit Claude Desktop and open it again
Claude Desktop reads its MCP config only at launch, so it can't see PandaStudio until it fully restarts. PandaStudio says so right after connecting, and this is the step people miss.
On a Mac press ⌘Q (closing the window isn't enough); on Windows quit it from the tray icon. Open Claude again and PandaStudio is in its tools.
Install the Skill from PandaStudio Settings
The MCP extension above gives Claude access to PandaStudio's tools. The Skill teaches Claude when and how to use them — the full command surface, editorial defaults, async job patterns. Open PandaStudio, go to Settings → Local automation, and click Install Skill. It lands at ~/.claude/skills/pandastudio/ and Claude Desktop picks it up on the next launch — no restart of PandaStudio needed.
Prefer the terminal? npx skills add kamskans/pandastudio-skills does the same thing and also covers Cursor, Cline, Continue and 40+ other agents.
Ask Claude to edit your video
Start a fresh chat in Claude Desktop and try something like:
- "Open my latest recording, transcribe it, remove filler words and silences, then export an MP4."
- "Create a new 9:16 project, import the file at ~/Recordings/launch.mov, add bold captions, and preview it."
- "List all my projects from this week and tell me which one is longest."
Claude will use the PandaStudio tools to drive the editor. It opens the project in PandaStudio, runs edits, renders previews, and shows you what it did. You stay in the chat; the editor stays open as a visual checkpoint you can inspect any time.
If Connect doesn't take: install the extension
Same tools, a different way in. PandaStudio ships the Claude Desktop Extension inside the app: in Settings → Automation → Connect agents, click the small extension link beside Claude Desktop. Claude opens its install sheet; click Install. It works without restarting Claude and shows up under Claude's Settings → Extensions, where you can remove it.
Claude warns that an extension can access everything on your computer and that its developer isn't verified by Anthropic. Claude shows that for every unverified extension; it isn't specific to PandaStudio. The extension runs locally and talks only to your own copy of PandaStudio over loopback.
Want the file itself? Download pandastudio.mcpb and drag it onto Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions.
Optional: generate video with Higgsfield and HeyGen
PandaStudio edits. Higgsfield and HeyGen generate. Connect them to Claude Desktop too and Claude can make a clip, bring it into PandaStudio and edit it, all in one chat.
- In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Connectors and click Add custom connector.
- Add one or both, then click Connect and sign in with that account:
- Higgsfield (Sora 2, Veo, Kling, Seedance, Soul videos and images):
https://mcp.higgsfield.ai/mcp - HeyGen (talking-head videos with your own avatar and voice, translation, lip-sync):
https://mcp.heygen.com/mcp/v1/
- Higgsfield (Sora 2, Veo, Kling, Seedance, Soul videos and images):
- Ask for the whole job in one message, for example: "Make a 5 second Higgsfield shot of a coffee cup on a sunny desk, put it at the start of my latest PandaStudio project and add a title."
Claude generates with Higgsfield or HeyGen, then uses PandaStudio's media.import tool to download the result into PandaStudio before placing it (their links expire after about a week). Generations use your own Higgsfield or HeyGen plan credits; PandaStudio doesn't bill for them. HeyGen's connector works on every HeyGen plan, free included.
Using PandaStudio's built-in AI agent instead? Connect the same services in PandaStudio → Settings → Integrations. Those connections belong to the in-app agent only, so Claude Desktop needs its own connectors as above.
Troubleshooting
- Claude doesn't see PandaStudio at all — nine times out of ten Claude Desktop wasn't fully quit. Closing the window leaves it running: quit with ⌘Q (or the tray icon on Windows), then open it again.
- "Server disconnected" or an empty tool list — open PandaStudio and check that Settings → Automation → Local automation is on. Claude talks to that local server, so PandaStudio must have been launched at least once. If the row reads "Needs reconnecting", the copy of PandaStudio it pointed at was moved or deleted: click Connect again.
- "Why doesn't this need an API token?" — The extension talks to PandaStudio's local automation server (loopback only, not exposed to the internet). The desktop app writes a token + port to
~/.config/pandastudio/(or the Windows equivalent), and the extension reads them at startup. No remote calls, no token to manage. - Prefer to edit the JSON yourself? — Connect writes
claude_desktop_config.json, so you can hand-edit or version-control it afterwards. See the CLI/MCP reference for the JSON shape.