Kerf
Free, open-source AI editing toolkit for Premiere Pro, After Effects and DaVinci Resolve,
on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Cut silences and bad takes, animated captions and 194 editable MOGRT templates, speed ramps, camera
shakes, stabilizer, offline AI cutouts, punch-in zooms, B-roll, multicam switching, viral shorts,
music with auto-ducking, beat edits, audio cleanup and reframing. It runs on your own computer.
Download ·
Website ·
Feature teardown ·
Changelog ·
Design brief ·
☕ Buy me a coffee
Download
One installer adds Kerf to every editor on your computer. There is no separate app: open the Kerf panel
inside Premiere Pro, After Effects or DaVinci Resolve and it works on the open sequence, composition or timeline.
| Your computer | Get | Then open Kerf in your editor |
|---|
| Windows | Kerf-…-windows-x64-setup.exe (or .msi for IT deployment) | Premiere Pro 25.6+: Window › UXP Plugins › Kerf · After Effects 2022+: Window › Extensions › Kerf · Resolve 18.6+: Workspace › Scripts › Kerf |
| macOS (Apple silicon / Intel) | Kerf-…-macos-arm64.dmg / …-macos-x64.dmg | Drag Kerf to Applications and open it once (right-click → Open the first time); it adds the panels, then use the same menus. |
| Linux | .AppImage, .deb or .rpm | DaVinci Resolve: Workspace › Scripts › Kerf. |
| No installer | kerf-portable-… (zip / tar.gz) | Unpack, run kerf-engine/kerf-engine serve, and install the panels from kerf-premiere-….ccx, kerf-resolve-….zip. |
| Python | pip install kerf-…whl or pip install -e ".[ai]" | kerf serve (needs FFmpeg on PATH). |
Every release lists SHA-256 checksums in SHA256SUMS.txt. Kerf starts when you open a panel, stops about a minute
after your editors close, and updates itself in between (Settings › Automatic updates). Upgrading from Kerf Studio
0.2.x removes the old app automatically.
Kerf runs alongside your editor: it shows the open project, sequence or composition and the playhead live, and closes about a minute after the last of Premiere Pro, After Effects or Resolve closes (Settings → Run only while … is open).
What's inside
Toolkit (one-click tools, Tools / Graphs / Motion / Shakes tabs)
| Tool | Premiere Pro | After Effects | Resolve |
|---|
| Anchor (9 positions) | moves the anchor of selected clips, picture stays put | same, multi-layer | places clips at that spot |
| Add layer | Null, Adjustment (reuses yours), Solid, cinematic bars, vignette, thirds guides | Null, Null + Parent, Adjustment, Solid | generated layers on a new track |
| Beat markers | detect tempo → sequence markers, every N beats, clear | comp markers | timeline markers |
| Curves: value + speed graph | ease selected keyframes · speed ramps (ease in/out, speedramp, custom bezier editor) | keyframe ease · time-remap ramps | rendered speed ramps |
| Camera shake | vertical, horizontal, HV, scale, all, custom · on playhead, cuts, beats or whole clip · editable keyframes or rendered with flash + RGB split · live preview | expression + sliders (stays editable), flash | same as Premiere |
| Stabilizer | one-click (FFmpeg vidstab), smoothness % | pre-comp + Warp Stabilizer | one-click |
| Zoom in / out | eased scale moves (in / out / in-out / your curve) | eased scale keys | same |
| Align & distribute | 4 edges, distribute H/V, grid, picture-in-picture | align to comp, distribute | same |
| Quick mask | offline AI cutout (U²-Net, ONNX) of a region you draw → alpha clip above | draw a mask → cutout layer | same |
| Project sorter | bins: Video, Audio, Images, Graphics, Captions, Sequences, Other | folders | Media Pool folders |
| Frame export | playhead frame → Desktop | comp frame → Desktop | same |
| FX presets | copy a clip's effect stack (values + keyframes) and apply to other clips | effect stacks incl. expressions | — |
| Custom layout | hide and reorder tool cards, saved per project |
Edit (AI and automation features)
| Group | Feature | What it does |
|---|
| AI | Prompt Edit | Type what you want; Claude, OpenAI/Codex, Gemini or a local model plans a chain of Kerf features and runs it. |
| Pipeline / recipes | Multi-step macros: TikTok talking head, YouTube vlog, podcast, tutorial, Instagram reel, music video. |
| Cut | Silences | Loudness, Silero speech model, or hybrid (both agree) · presets Calm→Jumpy · J/L cuts · review before cutting. |
| Transcript & language | large-v3-turbo on GPU, auto language detection, 21 mixed-language profiles (Hinglish, Tanglish, Spanglish…), an editable transcript, and a vocabulary that learns from your fixes. |
| Repeat · Profanity | Keep the last take, cut filler words · beep/mute/cut swearing. |
| Style | Captions | 8 styles, 10 animations, live preview with platform safe zones (9:16, 1:1, 16:9), MOGRT output, translation. |
| AutoZoom · B-roll | Punch-ins on cuts, speech, emphasis · stock or your own footage from the transcript. |
| Graphics | MOGRT library + Studio | 194 templates (captions, titles, lower thirds; 14 animations × 5 looks) built by After Effects, every control editable in Essential Graphics · live animated previews · Studio: animation, speed, font, size, colours, spacing, kerning, alignment, box, shadow, glow → your own MOGRT · import any .mogrt. |
| Audio | Enhance · Music · SFX · Dub | ElevenLabs or local cleanup · music with auto-ducking · SFX pack on cuts · translate & dub. |
| Multicam | Podcast · Angles | Speaker detection with hysteresis · switch angles on cuts, pauses, energy. |
| Repurpose | Viral · Resize · Chapters · Beat edit | 0–100 scored shorts · face-tracked reframing · YouTube chapters · music-video cuts on the beat. |
| Import / Export | Download · Render | yt-dlp with every option · MP4 up to 4K60 (NVENC, QuickSync, AMF, VideoToolbox) or ProRes 4444 alpha · batch folders. |
The panel is yours to shape: premium dark "ember" or light theme, accent colour, density, text size, 10 languages
(follows your system, Arabic right-to-left), favourites, search, history, presets you can share, What's new, F1 help.
Edits are non-destructive: Kerf builds a new sequence and never touches your original edit or media.
AI providers (optional)
Kerf works fully offline. Add keys in ⚙ Settings (stored only in ~/.kerf/settings.json):
| Provider | Used for | Default model |
|---|
| Claude (Anthropic) | Prompt Edit, chapter titles, viral rerank, translation, B-roll queries | claude-opus-5-5 |
| OpenAI / Codex | same | any model id |
| Google Gemini | same | any model id |
| Local (Ollama, LM Studio…) | same, private | any model id |
| ElevenLabs | voice isolation, dubbing | — |
| Pexels | stock B-roll | — |
Command line
kerf run silences --media talk.mp4 --preset Paced
kerf batch captions D:\Shorts --preset "Bold Yellow" --render
kerf run camera_shake --media clip.mp4 --set on=whole --set axis=hv --set output=render
How it works
Premiere UXP panel (React + TS) ┐ ┌ FFmpeg · faster-whisper · Silero VAD
After Effects panel (ScriptUI) │ │ U²-Net (ONNX) · OpenCV YuNet · NumPy
Resolve script (Fusion UI) ├── 127.0.0.1:7878 ───────┤ yt-dlp · beat tracking · vidstab
Kerf helper (Tauri / Rust) ┘ token-protected └ Claude / OpenAI / Gemini / Ollama (opt-in)
reads the timeline → engine builds the new edit → FCP7 XML / clips / markers → the editor applies it
kerf/ engine (Python): timeline model + XML, one module per feature, server, CLI, licensing
ui/ React + TypeScript + SCSS (Vite) → dist-uxp/ (Premiere) and dist/ (After Effects panel)
aftereffects/ After Effects panel (ExtendScript) resolve/ DaVinci Resolve script
desktop/ Kerf installer + background helper (Tauri 2, Rust): engine + panels → .exe .msi .dmg .AppImage .deb .rpm
mogrt/ After Effects MOGRT builder scripts/ engine freezer + release builder
Extending and selling
Drop a Python file in ~/.kerf/plugins/ and it appears in every panel. Paid plans: mark features
tier="pro", set your Lemon Squeezy product (KERF_LS_PRODUCT) and users activate a licence key in
Settings; or plug in your own provider. See docs/MONETIZATION.md.
Develop
python tests/test_core.py
cd ui && npm install && npm run build
python scripts/build_engine.py && cd desktop && npm install && npx tauri build
CI tests the engine on Windows, macOS and Linux, and every v* tag builds all installers.
Known limits
- macOS and Windows builds are not code-signed yet (Gatekeeper / SmartScreen will ask once).
- Premiere's scripting has no "create adjustment layer" call: make one once and Kerf reuses it.
- Some third-party After Effects scripts open as floating windows when run from the Kerf Scripts hub (that's how AE runs ScriptUI panels from a script).
License
MIT. Kerf is an independent project and is not affiliated with Adobe, Blackmagic Design,
or any commercial plugin vendor.
Support Kerf
Kerf is free and stays free. If it saves you editing time, you can
buy me a coffee. It keeps new tools coming.
