Editing
The Edit sub-mode is Kitlig's timeline: a player, a media bin, and multi-track lanes for video and audio. It's the same document Storyboard, Assistant Editor, and Redub all work on, so a shot generated in Storyboard or a cut drafted by the Assistant Editor lands here as real clips.
The player
The player has no single video element sitting behind it. Two hidden video elements swap under the playhead as playback crosses from one source clip to another, so intercutting footage from different files never black-flashes between cuts. Audio plays through its own mix graph, not the video elements directly. A one-line subtitle shows the current clip's transcript, resolved from whichever analyzed sequence that footage originally came from, so subtitles keep working even for a clip dragged in from another sequence.
Five capture buttons sit at the right end of the transport bar. Copy frame to clipboard and Save Screenshot grab the frame as it appears in the player, so a quick still is one click away. The other three decode the exact frame from the clip's source file with ffmpeg and register it as an image asset in the project, with lineage back to that source, the same way the Source Monitor's Screenshot button works. Screenshot to project stops there. Edit Frame also selects the new asset in Sandbox mode, where the image operations and AI edits live. Open Frame in Canvas opens it as a new layered canvas for painting, masks and adjustment layers. Park the playhead over a video clip first; a gap has nothing to capture.
Media Bin
The left panel lists every video and audio asset in the project, with a search box and all / video / audio filter tabs. Import brings a file in from disk. Double-click an asset to append it to the end of the first lane that accepts its kind.
Tools
Three mutually exclusive tools, shown as buttons on the toolbar:
- Select (V): move clips, or drag an edge to trim within the media's own bounds.
- Blade (B or C): click a clip to cut it at that point.
- Roll (N): drag the cut between two adjacent clips; both sides adjust up to their own media limits.
Split (S) cuts every clip under the playhead at once, on whichever tool you're using. A Blade click snaps the same way a drag does: within a few pixels of the playhead or of another clip's edge, the cut lands exactly there, so park the playhead where you want the cut and click near it. Delete removes the selection; select a gap instead of a clip and the button becomes a ripple delete, closing that gap and pulling everything after it earlier.
In and out points
Press I to set the in point at the playhead and O for the out point, or use the In and Out buttons in the toolbar. The range shows as a brass band on the ruler, the lanes outside it dim, and a chip in the toolbar reads the two times; its × clears them. Setting a side that would cross the other clears that other side. The range never limits playback or editing, it only tells Export Media what to render: the dialog gains an Export the in/out range only checkbox, on by default while a range is set.
Note
The range is saved with the sequence, so it's still there when you come back.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| V | Select tool |
| B / C | Blade tool |
| N | Roll tool |
| S | Split every clip at the playhead |
| Space | Play or pause |
| K | Pause |
| L | Play |
| I / O | Set the in / out point at the playhead |
| Q / W | Trim the selected clip's start / end to the playhead |
| [ / ] | Nudge the selected clip's start (Shift for ×10) |
| , / . | Jump to the previous / next cut |
| Home / End | Jump to the start / end of the timeline |
| Del / Backspace | Delete the selection, or ripple-delete a selected gap |
These are scoped to Edit and are disabled while you're typing in a field.
Clip references and frame edits
Double-click a video clip to open its Clip panel. The References section holds the images that belong with that clip. Add Asset picks project images; each thumbnail opens in Sandbox mode when clicked, and the × removes it. The same list feeds the Augment operation's reference images.
Edit Frame with AI makes a new image from one of the clip's frames. Choose an image edit engine, write a prompt, pick Clip start or Playhead (the playhead has to sit over the clip), and run it. Kitlig pulls that exact frame from the clip's source file, sends it to the engine together with the clip's references, and the result joins the references with a sparkle badge. Cutting the clip afterwards keeps the images on every piece.
Note
A generated version plays in step with the clip it was made for. Cut or trim the clip after the version lands and each piece keeps playing its own stretch of the generated video, so the second half no longer restarts from the beginning.
Overlapping clips
Two clips can overlap on the same video lane, for example when you drop a clip onto a lane that already has one there. The clip you placed last is on top, and that is what plays and what Export ▾ Media… renders; the clip underneath shows again where the top one ends. Mute the top clip to see the one below it without moving anything.
Export
Export ▾ Media… renders the whole timeline to one video file. A small dialog asks for the codec (H.264, H.265, VP9, AV1 or lossless FFV1, the same choices as the Re-encode tool), a speed preset for H.264 and H.265, and an optional target bitrate; leave the bitrate empty for a quality-targeted encode. The file type follows the codec: mp4 for H.264, H.265 and AV1, webm for VP9, mkv for FFV1. If a track has an effect from a plugin (no ffmpeg filter can stand in for it), that track's audio is pre-rendered through an offline audio engine before the render starts, since a plugin effect can only run there. Sequences using only Kitlig's built-in effects skip that step and go straight through.
Export ▾ FCP XML… writes a Final Cut Pro 7 interchange file (the format Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Final Cut 7 all read), probing each distinct source file first, then asks where to save it.
Package
Package ▾ As Directory… and As Zip… bundle the FCP XML together with a copy of every media file the timeline references. A bare XML export points at absolute paths on your machine, which becomes a relinking problem the moment you hand it off. Package fixes that by carrying the media along. You pick the destination first; the copy runs as a job, since real footage can take a while.