Installation

cutcli ships as a single binary (recommended, no Node required) and as an npm package.

Recommended: one-line install

curl -s https://cutcli.com/cli | bash

The script will:

1. Detect your system (macOS Intel / Apple Silicon / Linux x86_64 / Linux arm64 / Windows)
2. Download the matching binary from the CDN
3. Install it to /usr/local/bin/cutcli (or an equivalent user path)
4. Verify that cutcli --version works

Platform support

OS	Architecture	Status
macOS	Apple Silicon (arm64)	Supported
macOS	Intel (x86_64)	Supported
Linux	x86_64	Supported
Linux	arm64	Supported
Windows	x86_64	Supported (use PowerShell or Git Bash)

Alternative: npm

If you already have Node.js (≥ 18), you can install the npm package:

npm install -g cut_cli

Note the naming: the npm package is cut_cli (with underscore). The command itself is cutcli (no space, no underscore).

Verify

cutcli --version
cutcli --help

If both print output, you're good.

Configure the draft directory

By default cutcli writes drafts into the standard CapCut/Jianying draft directory:

OS	Default path
macOS	~/Movies/CapCut/User Data/Projects/com.lveditor.draft/
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Movies\CapCut\User Data\Projects\com.lveditor.draft\
Linux	~/.config/CapCut/Projects/com.lveditor.draft/

Which means CapCut sees the new draft as soon as you open the app.

Custom draft directory

If you want drafts stored elsewhere (e.g. an external drive):

# Persistent
cutcli config set-dir ~/Desktop/my-drafts

# One-shot via env var (current process only)
export CUT_DRAFTS_DIR=~/Desktop/my-drafts
cutcli draft create

Inspect the current config:

cutcli config show --pretty

Upgrade

Re-run the install script:

curl -s https://cutcli.com/cli | bash

Or via npm:

npm install -g cut_cli@latest

Uninstall

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/cutcli
# Or for the npm install
npm uninstall -g cut_cli

What's next

• Build your first draft in 30 minutes
• Time units (microseconds)
• AI tools integration (Cursor / Claude / OpenClaw)

Troubleshooting

curl: command not found

On Windows use PowerShell:

iwr https://cutcli.com/cli -UseBasicParsing | iex

Or run the script in Git Bash.

command not found: cutcli

Re-open your terminal, or add it to PATH manually:

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

CapCut can't see the generated draft

Make sure the path printed by cutcli config show matches the "Draft location" in CapCut's settings. If not, fix it with cutcli config set-dir <path-shown-by-capcut>.