Real timeline edits
Trim, split, ripple, retime, and snap clips on an editable timeline. Remove dead air and filler words from transcript timing, then add transitions, captions, audio automation, and motion.
Timeline tools Features
AI video editing that lands on a real Mac timeline.
AVE is not a prompt box pretending to be an editor. It is a local Mac video editor where AI can understand footage, propose a plan, and execute supported timeline actions you can inspect.
What AVE can do
Built for the boring parts editors actually lose time on.
Find the moment, build the first pass, adapt the format, add the caption pass, close the gaps, and still keep a timeline you can touch. See these in real use cases.
Footage intelligence
Search and rank imported assets with transcripts, visual notes, metadata, and timeline context, then preview source moments before adding them to the edit.
Transcript + visionMedia generation
Generate video and images with Google Veo, Google Nano Banana, Runway, Luma, Kling, fal.ai, Seedance. AVE adapts the setup to the selected provider, then saves completed results directly into Assets.
Video + imageFootage Memory
Teach AVE the people, places, products, and subjects you recognize, then recall confirmed source moments across your local projects.
Semantic + localMulti-format editing
Create deliverables for 16:9, 4:5, 1:1, 9:16, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Shorts, YouTube, websites, and custom formats.
Platform formatsGraphics and finishing
Design titles, lower thirds, and shapes with layers, direct canvas resizing, brand styling, camera tools, color correction, chroma key, masks, and motion.
Design toolsLocal AI included
AVE includes its Local AI engine plus starter vision and caption models. Project files, media analysis, timeline edits, and native exports stay on your Mac by default.
Private + on-deviceSmart asset organization
Turn camera filenames into collection-aware AVE names using visual, transcript, metadata, and project context. Review, edit, or exclude every proposal while original files stay unchanged.
Smart Rename Comparison
AVE compared with the tools around it.
The goal is not to replace every pro editor, web editor, or generation tool. AVE sits in the gap: a real local timeline with AI that can help operate it.
Capability
AVE
Traditional NLEs
Web/template editors
Generation-first AI
Real timeline edits from AI
Plans can turn into supported edits on the AVE timeline.
Powerful manual tools, but the editor performs the work.
Often template or transcript driven, with less timeline depth.
Usually creates media assets, not a controllable edit timeline.
Review before changes land
Plan mode previews the edit path before timeline mutation.
Manual review is natural, but AI planning is usually separate.
May offer quick automation, but edits can be abstracted away.
Prompt output is reviewed after generation, not as a timeline plan.
Footage-aware search
Finds exact source moments by related meaning, confirmed memory, transcripts, visual evidence, and project context.
Metadata search exists, but semantic AI context varies by app.
Strong for transcript-first workflows, weaker for full NLE context.
Usually works from prompts and references, not project history.
Multi-format campaign output
Plans 16:9, 4:5, 1:1, 9:16, social, web, and custom deliverables.
Possible, but usually manual duplication and reframing.
Fast presets, but less control when the edit needs nuance.
Can generate variants, but continuity and editorial control are harder.
Local-first privacy posture
Local projects, media, analysis, execution, and export by default.
Usually local, but AI workflows may be separate or cloud tied.
Cloud upload is commonly part of the workflow.
External services are usually required to create the media.
Bring your own AI stack
Local models, installed assistants, custom API endpoints, and generation with Google Veo, Google Nano Banana, Runway, Luma, Kling, fal.ai, Seedance.
Plugin ecosystems vary, but provider routing is not the core model.
Provider choices are usually owned by the product.
You use the provider, then still need an editor for the final cut.
Editing core
A real Mac video editor, not a prompt box.
AVE includes the editing surface you expect before AI enters the room: local projects, sequences, tracks, clips, assets, captions, graphics, playback, preflight, and export.
Multi-track timeline with video, audio, and graphics tracks.
Multiple saved sequences per project for drafts, ratios, and versions.
Clip trimming, splitting, ripple edits, movement, duplication, deletion, retiming, source replacement, and smart snapping with a live Option bypass.
Exportable dissolve, fade, flash, wipe, slide, blur, zoom, luma, and glitch-style transitions.
Native export preflight and local MP4 rendering.
Media intelligence
Understand, find, and organize the footage you already have.
AVE turns local analysis into practical editor context: searchable moments, reviewable asset names, reusable analysis, and exact source previews that stay connected to the project.
Hybrid lexical and semantic search across names, dialogue, scenes, subjects, actions, objects, frame notes, metadata, and related meaning.
Browse Assets or exact timecoded Moments, filter the local library, preview source ranges, and use a selected moment in a project.
Smart Rename proposes collection-aware AVE names from project evidence, with editable before-and-after review and per-asset exclusion.
Smart Rename changes project-visible names only; original source files and AVE-managed media stay unchanged.
Global Asset Library access, cross-project moment deduplication, and content-aware analysis reuse when the same footage appears in another saved project.
Media generation
Generate new footage without leaving the project.
Connect your own account for Google Veo, Google Nano Banana, Runway, Luma, Kling, fal.ai, Seedance. AVE shows the modes and controls supported by the selected provider and saves the finished result directly into project Assets.
Create video from text with Google Veo, Runway, Luma, Kling, fal.ai, or Seedance.
Animate a reference image with Google Veo, Runway, Kling, or Seedance.
Generate or edit images with Google Nano Banana, and generate images through selected fal.ai models.
Choose provider-specific models, aspect ratios, durations, resolutions, reference inputs, audio options, seeds, formats, and advanced controls where supported.
Track queued and running jobs, cancel work, recover completed results, and import generated files as normal AVE assets.
Keep provider credentials in encrypted desktop storage and send generation requests only to the provider the user selects.
Footage Memory
Teach AVE what your footage means.
Remember an exact moment as a person, place, product, object, event, topic, or custom subject. AVE keeps confirmed meaning local and recalls it only within the scope you choose.
Remember one exact source range with project-only scope or across the AVE Library on this Mac, then forget it when the label is no longer useful.
Search confirmed memory by its label or the underlying visual and transcript evidence without returning unremembered footage as a substitute.
Find visually similar moments inside the current project with Apple Vision and calibrated weak-match rejection.
Use the same evidence-backed moment retrieval through the editor Assets panel, Ask, Plan, and connected MCP assistants.
Keep every result reviewable with its exact asset, source range, rationale, and source-project references.
AVE never silently confirms an identity, renames original files, or changes the timeline just because footage looks similar.
Speech, captions, and audio
Turn transcript timing into a tighter, cleaner edit.
Speech-aware tools can remove repetitive timeline work while keeping the resulting cuts, captions, and volume changes visible and editable.
Remove silences, long pauses, dead air, and filler words from transcript-backed timeline clips.
Generate Standard or Karaoke captions, including word-level highlighting when timing data is available.
Keep generated captions attached through trims, moves, gap closing, and speech-based recuts.
Apply speech-aware music ducking, audio normalization, voice cleanup, background-bed levels, fades, and volume automation.
Detect beats in imported audio or video and show beat markers on the clip.
Graphics and finishing
Design and finish inside the editor.
AVE combines template speed with a real graphics surface, direct canvas interaction, framing tools, and exportable finishing controls.
Dedicated Graphics panel with a browsable layers tree, component selection, rename, duplicate, delete, and Hug Contents controls.
Direct canvas movement and resizing with centered resizing and safe-area snapping.
Titles, template-aware lower thirds, shapes, captions, brand kits, style packs, and motion templates.
Camera presets and Target-Aware Camera for local subject-aware reframing with an honest cover fallback.
Validated hex colors, a screen eyedropper, color correction, opacity, transforms, chroma key, masks, and mask animation.
AI workflow
Ask for creative work in editor language.
AVE uses AI where it helps: understanding footage, planning edits, finding moments, and proposing changes that can be reviewed before they touch the timeline.
Ask mode for questions, simple commands, captions, search, and timeline help.
Plan mode for approval-gated, project-aware edit plans.
Auto, Fast, and Reason execution routing for different levels of AI involvement.
Transcript search, visual search, talking-head identification, rough-cut analysis, and asset ranking.
Reviewable tool calls with accepted, declined, retried, and inspected changes.
Providers
Choose the right AI for reasoning and generation.
AVE separates creative reasoning, media generation, and local timeline execution. Change the model or provider without giving up the editable project underneath.
Bundled Local AI engine with starter on-device vision analysis and transcription models.
Downloadable local assistant and analysis model options for stronger private planning and footage understanding.
Installed assistant support when you prefer command-line AI tools.
Custom API endpoint support for teams with their own provider setup.
Bring-your-own media generation with Google Veo, Google Nano Banana, Runway, Luma, Kling, fal.ai, Seedance.
Encrypted provider-key storage through the desktop app.