◆
Moment scoring
Speech-aware scoring finds the lines that matter and marks them on your timeline — with the marker count verified, not guessed.
AI assistant editor · DaVinci Resolve
It edits with you. It asks before it touches a timeline.
Sottocut is a local-first assistant editor that lives inside your open Resolve project. It scores your footage, proposes the cut, and verifies every change it makes — by reading it back from the timeline.
Apple Silicon · DaVinci Resolve Studio 21 · 7-day free trial
project SOTTO BENCHtimeline INTERVIEW Afps 24✓ 8 markers placed — read back, all match
The problem
The edit isn't the hard part. Getting to the edit is.
A two-hour interview holds maybe six minutes that matter. Finding them — scrubbing, logging, stringing out selects — eats the day before the creative work even starts. AI tools promise help, then generate footage you didn't shoot or wreck a timeline you can't get back.
How it works
Score. Confirm. Verified.
The core loop runs on your machine, inside your open project — and every write is governed.
01 — Score
It finds the moments
Sottocut transcribes on-device and scores your timeline for the moments that carry the story — the lines, speeches, reactions — ranked and marked, ready to review.
On-device transcription · scored moments
02 — Confirm
You approve the plan
Ask the Co-Editor for a string-out, captions, stills, a render. It shows you exactly what it will do — files, frames, timecodes — and waits for your yes.
Proposal-gated writes · nothing silent
03 — Verified
It proves what it did
After every change, Sottocut reads the timeline back and shows the receipt. If Resolve did something different, you see that too — honestly.
Read-back verification · no fake green checks
See it work
A real project. A real timeline. No staging.
DEMO — Raw footage to finished cut
DEMO — Co-Editor: propose, confirm, verify
What ships
A full assistant-editor pipeline.
≋
Story Mode
Reorder scored moments into a narrative arc and compile straight to a new timeline. Your project stays additive — nothing deleted.
Aa
Captions
Styled captions generated from your on-device transcript, with a build report that admits mismatches instead of hiding them.
✂
Co-Editor chat
A full-page chat that drives 40 validated tools — and shows you a plan before anything writes. Paste a screenshot; it can see it.
⇩
Deliver
Render presets, batch queues, dual-cut archival + marketing pairs, stills at your scored moments — files read back from disk.
♪
Audio sync
Waveform sync for dual-system sound, verified per clip — because Resolve's API says "done" even when it isn't.
Local-first
Your footage never leaves your machine.
Nothing to upload, nothing to leak
Transcription runs on your Neural Engine. The bridge talks to Resolve on localhost. Sottocut sends no analytics, no telemetry, and never your footage. The only thing that leaves your machine is the Co-Editor's text — your prompts, plus any screenshot you paste in. On bring-your-own-key plans that goes straight to Anthropic on your key, at cost; on managed plans it routes through us to Anthropic for a flat subscription. Your video never leaves either way.
on-device whisperlocalhost bridgeBYO or managedzero telemetry
plan → stills at 3 scored moments
confirm → operator approved
write → 3 files exported
✓ read back from disk — 3 of 3 exist, frames match
quit → 0 orphan processes
Pricing
Try it on a real project first.
7 days · 3 projects · no card. Then pick how you'd rather pay.
Bring your own key
Managed — no API key needed
A project is one Co-Editor session for up to 24 hours — every turn within that window is free. A session that runs past its 24-hour window counts as a new project.
FAQ
Fair questions.
Does this replace DaVinci Resolve?
No — it lives inside it. Sottocut drives your open Resolve project through the scripting API: it organizes, scores, marks, captions, and renders in the project you already have open. You stay the editor. It's the assistant.
Can it wreck my project?
Every write is proposal-gated — you see the plan and approve it before anything happens — and verified by reading the result back from Resolve afterward. Destructive operations (deleting clips, timelines) are excluded by policy. You should still keep backups; the app makes you acknowledge that on first run, because we mean it.
Do I need my own API key?
Only if you want one. On a bring-your-own-key plan the Co-Editor runs on Claude via your own Anthropic key — billed to you at cost, no markup, no middleman. On a managed plan we provide the AI for a flat monthly subscription and you need no key. Either way your footage stays on your machine; only the Co-Editor's text and any screenshot you send it leave — to Anthropic directly on BYO, or routed through us to Anthropic on managed.
What are the requirements?
An Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later), macOS 14+, and DaVinci Resolve Studio 21 — the paid version, installed from blackmagicdesign.com. The free version and the Mac App Store build are not supported: Sottocut drives Resolve through external scripting, which only the Studio build from Blackmagic's own site provides. Transcription runs on-device via the Neural Engine — that's why Apple Silicon is required.
Is this a subscription trap?
You can buy it once — $129, yours for the major version — or pay monthly and cancel whenever. Manage or cancel anytime via the receipt link in your purchase email — no account needed. The 7-day trial is the full app with no card up front. The refund policy is the trial: try it on a real project before you pay.
Download
Open Resolve. Add an assistant editor.
7-day free trial · Apple Silicon · notarized by Apple
v1.3.3 · signed & notarized · auto-updates
Requires DaVinci Resolve Studio (the paid version), installed from blackmagicdesign.com — the free version and the Mac App Store build are not supported.