Install Cut Valet, set up your first project, and let it take over ingest, backup, and organization. Then a short walkthrough of how a real project flows through the app.
| Operating system | macOS 13 (Ventura) or later (Apple Silicon), or Windows |
| DaVinci Resolve | Resolve Studio 18+ for the editing tools (the free version lacks the scripting API). Not required just to ingest, back up, and organize. |
| Disk space | ~1.5 GB for the app, plus room for your footage and the AI models it downloads on first use. |
| Claude API key | Optional — only for the AI text features (e.g. YouTube titles/descriptions). Pay-per-token, and you bring your own key. |
| YouTube | Optional — connect your own channel if you want to publish from the Deliver step. |
Download the app for your platform and open it. On first launch it downloads the local AI models it needs (transcription and clip analysis) — this happens once and runs in the background.
Point Cut Valet at DaVinci Resolve, and — if you want the AI features — paste your Claude API key. You can connect your YouTube channel here too, or later when you first publish. Resolve doesn't have to be running to ingest and organize, only for the editing tools.
Set up your project once: your cameras, your working drive, and a backup destination. Cut Valet remembers these so every future shoot just works.
Plug in a card (or drop a folder onto the app). Ingest is deliberately simple — two toggles, Copy files and Analyze clips. Cut Valet copies your footage to the working drive and your backup, verifies every file, organizes it, and catalogs it.
Watch the Processing Queue do its thing, then head to the Edit page to find shots by tag or transcript and run the tools you need. When you're done, use Deliver to export and publish.
Cut Valet is a simple shell — Projects, Edit, and Settings — but a lot happens between plugging in a card and publishing. Here's the journey.
Start or open a project. A project ties together your cameras, drives, and backup location. Open one and the working window loads with your sources, backup status, and tools.
Offload safely. Card in → footage is copied to your working drive and mirrored to a backup, with checksum verification so you know nothing corrupted. Clips are sorted by project and date and given consistent names.
You control it with just two toggles. Leave "Analyze clips" on and Cut Valet also transcribes and tags everything in the background.
Every clip becomes findable. Transcription and clip analysis run on-device, so you can search your footage by what's actually in it — a spoken line, a tag — instead of scrubbing through C0042.MP4.
Find shots and run tools. Use Search & Import to pull matching clips into Resolve, then reach for the tools you need: Build a Rough Cut, AI Rough Cut, Colour Grade, Speed Ramp, Find a song, Create a Graphic, Shorts Studio, Thumbnail Lab, and more. Each one acts on your real Resolve timeline — you stay in control of the cut.
Export and publish. When the cut is done, prep the export and publish straight to your own YouTube channel — with a title, description, chapters, and thumbnail ready to go.
Cut Valet uses color for state, so you can read progress at a glance — in the queue rows, the completion ring, and every progress bar: