Palmier Pro
- title
- Palmier Pro
- type
- toolbox
- summary
- Swift video editor for macOS that exposes its timeline to coding agents over a local MCP server
- tags
- macos, video, mcp, swift, watchlist
- language
- Swift
- license
- GPL-3.0
- created
- 2026-07-29
- updated
- 2026-09-01
Palmier Pro is a video editor for macOS written from scratch in Swift, with Premiere Pro as the stated north star, whose distinguishing feature is that an agent can drive the timeline alongside you. While the app is open it serves an MCP endpoint over HTTP at http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp, so an external coding agent edits the same project you have in front of you. There is also an in-app agent for working without an external client.
claude mcp add --transport http palmier-pro http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp
codex mcp add palmier-pro --url http://127.0.0.1:19789/mcp
Cursor takes the same URL in ~/.cursor/mcp.json with "type": "http", and the app bundles an mcpb package for one-click installation as a Claude Desktop extension. Both are reachable from Help -> MCP Instructions inside the app.
The licensing split is spelled out. The editor, the MCP server and the agent chat are open source under GPLv3; the generative AI processing is not. Generation of video and images inside the timeline runs against hosted models โ Seedance, Kling, Nano Banana Pro are the ones named โ and requires login and a subscription. Everything else, including the MCP server, works free with no login, so using it purely as a CapCut or Premiere substitute that a coding agent can also operate costs nothing.
openscreen covers the step before the timeline: recording the screen for a product demo, with the zoom and motion-blur effects that would otherwise be added in an editor like this one.
Constraints
macOS 26 (Tahoe) on Apple Silicon only. That is a hard floor on the current release of the OS, not merely "Mac-only", and it rules the tool out for anyone not already on the newest system.
The README is essentially a landing page, and the question that decides whether this is interesting โ what the MCP server actually exposes, whether an agent addresses clips, tracks, keyframes or effects, and at what granularity โ is not answered anywhere in it. The tool list would have to come from connecting to a running instance. Take the repo as an announcement rather than a description.
The MCP surface is the service-access side of mcp-vs-skills pointed at a local desktop application instead of a remote API, which is a shape the vault has little of: the agent is not calling a web service but operating a GUI's document model through a protocol. claude-code is the client the install line assumes.
On watchlist for its floor and its core: macOS 26 on Apple Silicon only, with the generative half closed and subscription-gated.
Repo: https://github.com/palmier-io/palmier-pro โ 12,690 stars, GPLv3, first commit April 2026.