RoughCut documentation
Every setup, workflow, privacy, purchase, evaluation, and troubleshooting topic for RoughCut on macOS.
RoughCut is a native macOS app for Apple Silicon that turns voice-driven footage into a reviewed, frame-accurate FCPXML timeline for Final Cut Pro. It transcribes on your Mac by default, proposes cuts for silences, false starts, retakes and tangents, and lets you approve every cut before export. This documentation covers the whole product: installing the speech model, choosing an AI provider, creating and reviewing a cut, exporting to Final Cut Pro, transcription-only work, settings, privacy and data flow, the trial and purchase model, the optional evaluation system, and troubleshooting. Every page is verified against the shipping app and published in English and Arabic.
On this page
Start with your task
RoughCut takes a recording you already made and gives back an edit decision you can open in Final Cut Pro. It never re-renders or re-encodes your video — the exported timeline references your original file in place.
- Get started in ten minutes — download, set up, and export a first cut.
- Create your first rough cut — every control on the
New Rough Cutscreen. - Transcribe without cutting — free, unlimited SRT and plain-text transcription.
- Set up an AI key — what the AI editing pass does and when you need a key.
- Connect Final Cut Pro — send media straight from Final Cut Pro to RoughCut.
- Review the proposed cuts — approve, reject, and recompute.
- Export to Final Cut Pro — FCPXML export and import.
- Measure accuracy — the optional evaluation system for power users.
- Troubleshoot by symptom — the fastest route to a fix.
What stays on your Mac, and what does not
RoughCut is built around one trust rule: nothing leaves your Mac unless a feature you chose sends it, and each feature is separate.
| What | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Your original video and audio | Stay where they are. RoughCut reads them in place and never copies or re-encodes them. |
| On-device transcription (the default) | Runs entirely on your Mac with Whisper. Nothing is uploaded. |
| The AI editing pass | Sends transcript text to the provider you chose, under your own API key. No video, no audio. |
| Cloud transcription (Pro, per job) | Sends that job's audio to OpenAI under your own key — only for jobs where you select it. |
| Langfuse tracing | Off by default and inert without your own keys. Sends run metadata and scores only. |
There is no RoughCut server in any of these paths. Full detail, including how to turn each one off, is in Privacy and data flow.
New to RoughCut
Work through Get started in ten minutes, then Create your first rough cut. If you only need a transcript or subtitles, Transcribe Only is free, unlimited, and needs no AI key.
Already cutting
Go straight to the reference you need: Recording environments and silence threshold, Bad-take removal, Second Look, Recompute, or the complete Advanced settings reference.
Questions about cost or privacy
Trial, core unlock, and RoughCut Pro explains the three-part commercial model and what your AI provider bills separately. Privacy and data flow gives a feature-by-feature account of what leaves your Mac.
This documentation describes the shipping RoughCut app and is checked against the app source before each publication. Where a third-party interface is involved — Google AI Studio, the OpenAI Platform, Langfuse, or Final Cut Pro — treat the provider's own current documentation as authoritative, because their interfaces change independently of RoughCut.