Anwar Bouilouta

Let Claude Edit Your Reels in Instagram's Edits App on Mac

The steps to plug Claude Code into Edits, Instagram's free video editor for Mac, so it can cut, caption, grade and export a reel for you.

A free guide by Anwar Bouilouta 3 min read

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So in the reel I showed Edits, Instagram's own video editor, which landed on the Mac on 5 November. It's free, and there's a setting inside it that lets Claude Code drive the whole app. Here's where it is, how to connect it and what to ask first.

Instagram's own post about it is on the Edits blog.

What it does

  • It cuts the dead air. Claude transcribes your clip word by word, finds every pause and cuts it out.
  • It writes the captions. It generates them from your audio and sets the caption style.
  • It adds music. It searches Instagram's own music library and drops a track onto the timeline.
  • It grades and exports. It sets the colour, applies a built-in LUT and exports the finished video.
  • It's still your project. You can grab the mouse and keep editing by hand whenever you like.

Before you start

Step 1: find the command

Open Edits, then Settings, then the Automation tab. You'll see a command labelled "Add Edits to Claude Code". Copy it.

The same tab shows your Access token. That's a key to your app, so keep it to yourself and out of any screenshots.

Step 2: run it in Terminal

Paste the command into Terminal and press return. It adds Edits to Claude Code as a server called metapilot-native. You can check it's there with this:

Paste this in Terminal
claude mcp list

Then quit Claude Code and open it again, so it picks up the new server.

Step 3: open a project in Edits

Claude only sees the full set of tools when a project is open in the editor. With one open, it gets over 270 of them. On the home screen it sees far fewer.

Step 4: give it your first job

Import your clip into the project, then paste this into Claude Code:

Paste this into Claude Code
In Edits, take the clip in my open project and:
1. Transcribe it and cut out every pause and dead-air gap.
2. Generate captions and give them a clean, bold style.
3. Search the music library for a calm background track and add it under my voice.
4. Give it a light colour grade.
5. Export it as a vertical video.
Tell me what you changed after each step.

Watch the timeline while it works. If you don't like a cut, undo it or fix it by hand, then tell Claude to carry on.

Using Codex instead

The Automation tab has a Codex command too. Run both of its lines in Terminal before you open Codex.

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