media-editor

name	media-editor
description	Edit, convert, trim, inspect, or prepare audio and video files with FFmpeg/ffprobe. Use when the user asks for audio/video conversion, clipping, compression, normalization, extracting audio, adding/removing streams, subtitles, thumbnails, or voice-note/video cleanup.
homepage	https://ffmpeg.org
metadata	{"openclaw":{"emoji":"🎞️","displayName":"Audio & Video Editing","requires":{"bins":["ffmpeg","ffprobe"]},"install":[{"id":"brew","kind":"brew","formula":"ffmpeg","bins":["ffmpeg","ffprobe"],"label":"Install FFmpeg (brew)"}]}}

Audio & Video Editing

Use this skill for practical media-file work: trim clips, convert formats, compress files, extract audio, normalize volume, inspect metadata, create thumbnails, prepare voice notes, or burn/strip subtitles.

Routing

• Use ffprobe first when the task depends on duration, streams, codecs, dimensions, rotation, or audio layout.
• Use existing narrow skills when they match better:
  • video-frames for quick frame extraction.
  • openclaw media transcribe --file <path> --json for transcription. This uses the configured managed audio/transcription route first and only falls back to local tools such as Whisper when that is how the runtime is set up.
  • songsee for spectrograms or audio feature visualizations.
• Prefer deterministic FFmpeg commands over GUI automation for file conversion and clipping.
• Never overwrite the original media file unless the user explicitly asks. Write a new output path and sanity-check it exists.

Common Jobs

• Inspect: ffprobe -hide_banner -i input.mp4
• Trim without re-encode: ffmpeg -ss 00:01:00 -to 00:02:00 -i input.mp4 -c copy output.mp4
• Convert to mp3: ffmpeg -i input.m4a -vn -codec:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 output.mp3
• Compress video: ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 24 -preset medium -c:a aac output.mp4
• Extract audio: ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -acodec copy output.m4a

After edits, verify with ffprobe or a file-size/duration check before saying the output is ready.

Proof Inspection

Before sending a video as proof, verify the file is readable, nonblank, and matches the intended capture. Use metadata first, then a black-frame check, then a local visual sheet:

ffprobe -v error \
  -show_entries format=duration,size \
  -show_entries stream=codec_name,width,height,avg_frame_rate \
  -of json "/path/to/review.mp4"

ffmpeg -hide_banner -nostats \
  -i "/path/to/review.mp4" \
  -vf blackdetect=d=0.2:pix_th=0.10 \
  -an -f null -

ffmpeg -y -hide_banner -nostats \
  -i "/path/to/review.mp4" \
  -vf "fps=1,scale=360:-1,tile=5x1" \
  -frames:v 1 "/path/to/review-contact.png"

Confirm ffprobe shows the expected codec, dimensions, duration, and file size. Treat any blackdetect interval as a proof blocker until explained. Open the contact sheet locally and confirm it shows the target flow. Contact sheets, frames, thumbnails, and other inspection artifacts stay local unless the user explicitly asks for them.