ClipStudio

A desktop app for managing, tagging, and curating your gameplay replay library.

Built for players who record everything but never have time to find the good moments — ClipStudio turns a folder of raw OBS replays into a searchable, tagged, exportable highlight reel.

• Automatic import — watches your OBS replay folder and imports new clips as they land, no manual steps
• Game detection — reads the [Game Name] tag embedded by the OBS script (or set it manually from a Steam-backed picker)
• Highlight editor — mark in/out points on the timeline to create named, tagged, rated highlights; overlapping highlights are fully supported
• Tag system — hierarchical general tags + game tags; clips inherit tags from their highlights for search
• Players — track who was in each session; mark yourself with IsMe and get auto-tagged on every import
• Audio track mixing — multi-track clips get per-track volume and mute controls; FFmpeg preview mix in real time
• Subtitle / caption support — local Whisper transcription generates searchable captions synced to the timeline
• Trim & Export — non-destructive (stream copy) or destructive (re-encode) export, queued and processed in the background
• Stats dashboard — play counts, rating distribution, top games and tags
• Bulk edit — select multiple clips and apply tags, game, or players in one action; copy metadata from one clip to others with the format-brush
• Duplicate detection — recognises a recording you already have, even under a different name, on import and across the whole library
• Clip links — connect clips as the same moment, a sequel, a reaction or a variant; each is findable from the other
• Game import — reads the games your launchers have installed and creates game tags from them, cover art included
• Attention required — one list of everything the library needs you to decide about: missing files, disconnected drives, un-imported files, duplicates and out-of-range highlights
• Automatic updates — tells you when a new version exists and never downloads it without asking
• Cross-platform — Windows, macOS, Linux (Avalonia UI)

Library	Unreviewed Queue

Games	Stats

Tags	Players

Highlights Page	Clip Editor — Metadata

Clip Editor — Highlights & Captions	Clip Editor — Trim & Export

Install Linux dependencies on Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install libvlc5

Use the provided launcher script instead of running the binary directly — it automatically resolves the LibVLC library path so no developer packages are required:

./ClipStudio.sh

Why not bundled on Linux? VideoLAN does not publish an official Linux NuGet bundle (unlike Windows). Linux .so files are compiled against a specific distro ABI and glibc version, so there is no single binary that works across all distributions. VLC also ships hundreds of codec plugin files that would add ~100 MB to every release. Using the system VLC keeps the package small and ensures security patches flow through your distro's package manager automatically.

Grab the latest installer from the Releases page.

Pick the file for your platform: ClipStudio-win-Setup.exe, ClipStudio-osx-Setup.pkg, or ClipStudio.AppImage. After the first install, ClipStudio keeps itself up to date — see Updates.

git clone https://github.com/Phazertron/ClipStudio.git
cd ClipStudio
dotnet restore
dotnet run --project src/ClipStudio.UI

Run tests:

dotnet test

A setup wizard runs on first launch and guides you through:

1. Source folders — select the folder(s) where your recording software saves replays (OBS, NVIDIA ShadowPlay, Xbox Game Bar, etc.)
2. FFmpeg — auto-detected or configured manually
3. Transcription — optional local Whisper model for caption generation
4. Theme — light or dark (dark by default)

Once the wizard completes, ClipStudio watches your source folders in the background. Any new video file that lands there is imported automatically and appears in the Unreviewed queue.

Tip — multiple profiles: Launch with --profile <name> (e.g. ClipStudio.exe --profile demo) to run a completely isolated library under %AppData%\ClipStudio_<name>\. Useful for keeping a demo library separate from your real one.

The bundled OBS script renames each replay buffer save to embed the active game name, so ClipStudio can auto-suggest the game tag without any manual input.

Produced filename format:

Replay 2025-03-03 22-49-45 [Battlefield 1].mp4

Installation:

1. Open OBS Studio and go to Tools → Scripts.
2. Click + and select obs-scripts/clipstudio_replay_tagger.py from the repo (or your local copy).
3. Click Close. The script is now active for all replay buffer saves.

Detection order (the script tries each in sequence):

1. OBS scene name — name your scenes after the game you are recording (e.g. Valorant, Deep Rock Galactic). This is the most reliable method.
2. Source name — if you use a Game Capture or Window Capture source with Capture Audio (BETA) enabled, the source name is used as the game title. Name that source after the game.
3. Foreground window title — fallback that reads the active window. Works for most fullscreen games; may be noisy for windowed games.

Generic default names such as Scene, Game Capture, Window Capture, and Game are automatically ignored so the script always tries the next detection step.

Only Replay Buffer saves are renamed. Regular recording stops are not affected.

ClipStudio works with any video files — OBS is not required.

1. Add any folder containing .mp4, .mkv, .mov, or .avi files as a source folder in Settings → Source Folders.
2. New files are detected automatically (or re-scan the folder manually from Settings).
3. Clips appear in the Unreviewed queue.
4. Open a clip to set the game tag manually: type a game name in the Game picker and select from the Steam-backed search results.

Files whose names already contain a [Game Name] bracket token (produced by any recording tool, not just OBS) are automatically parsed, and the game tag is pre-suggested in the Unreviewed queue.

New clips land in the Unreviewed queue. Open a clip to:

• Confirm or correct the suggested game title using the Game picker.
• Apply general tags from the Tags section in the side panel.
• Tag players (participants) from the Players section.
• Rename the clip inline using the pencil icon next to the title.
• Define highlights on the timeline — set in/out points, label them, add tags and a star rating.
• Export any highlight directly with the Export button on its row.
• Set a clip-level rating, write notes, or capture frame screenshots.
• View and search captions generated by local Whisper transcription.

Mark the clip as Reviewed when done to clear it from the queue.

• Tags are created in the Tags page and support a single-parent hierarchy and soft many-to-many relations.
• A clip inherits all tags from its highlights — searching for a tag matches both directly-tagged clips and clips that have a highlight with that tag.
• In the player, click a highlight row to jump to it and lock playback into a loop between its start and end times. Click the lock icon to unlock.
• The Highlights page shows all highlights across your entire library, filterable by rating, tag, and game.

1. Open a clip and scroll to Trim & Export in the side panel.
2. Click Begin Trim — an output path is pre-filled automatically.
3. Seek to the start point and click Mark Start. Seek to the end point and click Mark End.
4. Click Queue Export. The job runs immediately in the background.

Non-Destructive (default): stream-copy only — instant, lossless, no re-encode.
Destructive: FFmpeg re-encode — useful for precise frame-accurate cuts. Requires double confirmation. Optionally deletes the source file after export.

Export jobs and their status are visible on the Export page.

When a clip has multiple audio tracks (e.g., game audio + microphone on separate OBS tracks):

• The Audio Tracks section appears in the side panel after playback starts.
• Rename tracks, toggle the Include checkbox, and adjust per-track volume (0–200 %).
• Changes trigger a real-time FFmpeg preview mix (debounced 300 ms) loaded by VLC as an audio slave.
• Click Save Audio Settings to persist the mix for future sessions.
• On export, original tracks are passed through unchanged (stream copy — no re-encode).

Hover over a clip card to reveal a selection checkbox. Select multiple clips to open the bulk-edit panel:

• Add a tag, player, or game to all selected clips at once.
• Trash all selected clips with one confirmation.
• Copy Format brush — select exactly one clip and click the brush button. Click any other card to paste its tags, players, and game onto it. Press Escape to exit.

Use the filter panel (funnel icon in the Library toolbar) to combine:

• Free-text search against filenames, notes, and highlight labels
• Status (Unreviewed / Reviewed / Archived)
• Game tag, general tags, players
• Date range, duration range, star rating
• Has highlights / Is favourite

Use the sort dropdown to order by date, name, duration, or rating.
Use the view toggle to switch between the tile grid and a compact table view.

Any two clips can be linked from the Related clips panel in the clip editor. Choose how they relate and the link is shown from both ends — with the wording flipped where it should be, so the clip you marked as a Sequel shows its origin as a Prequel.

Trashing a clip hides its links; restoring the clip brings them back. Deleting it permanently removes them.

ClipStudio recognises a recording it already holds, even imported under a different name. On import you are asked whether to skip it, import it anyway, or import and link it to the copy you already have.

Duplicates that are already in your library are found by Settings → Attention required → Look for duplicates, which compares every hashed clip against every other. Matches are confirmed by reading both files in full, so two different recordings that happen to share a quick hash are never reported as duplicates.

Inspect a group to resolve it. The dialog plays the copy you have selected to keep, so you can remind yourself what the clip actually is, and shows the two copies' tags, players, highlights, rating and notes side by side. You choose which copy survives and what metadata it keeps; the others go to the Trash, where they can be restored for 30 days.

Only one player is shown, deliberately: a confirmed duplicate is byte-identical, so playing both copies would show the same pixels twice. What differs between them is the metadata, which is what the comparison puts in front of you.

Once a scan has confirmed a group, it survives closing the app. The confirmed hashes are stored, so the groups are rebuilt on the next launch from a single database query without re-reading a single file — a scan you have already paid for is never lost.

Games → Import from launchers reads the titles installed on this computer and shows you what it found. Nothing is created until you import: games you already have are unticked, and so is anything that is not really a game — dedicated servers, soundtracks, demos and redistributables all install as separate entries. Steam titles bring their AppId with them, so imported games get their cover art without a search.

Steam is supported on Windows, macOS and Linux. Epic and GOG are not implemented yet.

Scans, library repairs, duplicate searches, transcriptions and exports all report into the activity indicator at the bottom of the sidebar. It shows what is running from any page, spins the icon of the page the work belongs to, and keeps each finished task's full summary so a long message is readable rather than truncated. Scans, repairs and duplicate searches can be stopped from there.

Shortcuts are active when the clip editor has focus, and are suppressed while a text field has it — typing always wins over a shortcut. The full list is in Settings → Keyboard shortcuts.

ClipStudio checks for a new release when it starts and every six hours after that, so a long session still hears about one. A check downloads nothing.

When a newer version exists it appears in Settings → Attention required, and the Settings navigation item is badged:

1. ClipStudio x.y.z is available — press Download update when you want it. Packages are around 250 MB, so nothing is transferred until you ask.
2. The download runs as a background task with live progress and a working Cancel, visible from any page. Cancelling is not refusing — the offer stays.
3. Ready to install — press Restart and install. Installing restarts the app, so it only ever happens when you say so.

Your library, settings and database are untouched by an update.

Checking on demand. Settings → About has a Check for updates button and a status line showing where this build stands.

Turning it off. Settings → Preferences → Check for updates automatically stops ClipStudio looking on its own. The About button still works with it off — the setting means "do not go looking", not "refuse when asked".

graph TD
    UI[ClipStudio.UI\nAvalonia MVVM]
    APP[ClipStudio.Application\nServices & Pipelines]
    DATA[ClipStudio.Data\nEF Core + SQLite]
    CORE[ClipStudio.Core\nDomain Model]
    OBS[obs-scripts/\nOBS Python Script]
    VLC[LibVLCSharp\nVideo Playback]
    FFMPEG[FFMpegCore\nTrim, Export & Preview Mix]
    WHISPER[Whisper.net\nLocal Transcription]
    STEAM[Steam Community API\nGame Metadata]
    FS[File System\nSource Folders]

    UI --> APP
    UI --> CORE
    UI --> VLC
    APP --> CORE
    APP --> DATA
    APP --> FFMPEG
    APP --> WHISPER
    APP --> STEAM
    DATA --> CORE
    OBS --> FS
    APP --> FS

ClipStudio/
├── docs/
│   └── screenshots/            # README screenshots
├── documentation/
│   ├── SPECIFICATION.md        # Full software specification
│   └── DECISION_LOG.md         # Architectural decision log
├── src/
│   ├── ClipStudio.Core/        # Domain entities, enums, repository interfaces
│   ├── ClipStudio.Data/        # EF Core DbContext, SQLite, repository implementations
│   ├── ClipStudio.Application/ # Application services, import pipeline, Steam integration
│   └── ClipStudio.UI/          # Avalonia MVVM UI (Views, ViewModels, Assets)
├── tests/
│   └── ClipStudio.Tests/       # xUnit + Moq + EF Core InMemory
├── obs-scripts/                # OBS Python replay-tagger script
└── ClipStudio.sln

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Please open an issue first for significant changes so we can discuss the approach before implementation.

If ClipStudio saves you time, consider supporting development:

ClipStudio is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0.