Edit Plan
Plan an edit from a recording's transcript. Tighten it, find short shareable clips or mark chapters, as an edit decision list that Apply EDL renders.
Available on Nodaro Cloud
The Edit Plan node reads the timed transcript of a recording and writes an edit decision list (EDL): a JSON plan that the Apply EDL node renders into a finished cut. Edit Plan reads the transcript and never the pixels, so it plans quickly and cheaply. It has three modes: Tighten cleans up the whole recording, Clips finds short shareable moments, and Chapters marks chapters with titles.
Edit Plan runs on Nodaro Cloud. On a self-hosted install, connect the install to Nodaro Cloud, under Integrations › nodaro.ai or with an API key, and the node relays each run to the cloud. Without a connection, the node saves on the canvas but cannot run.
When to use it
- Tighten a long podcast or interview recording before you render it.
- Find the strongest short moments of an episode and render each one as its own clip.
- Generate chapter markers with titles for a long upload.
Quick start
Add the node
Press Tab on the canvas and choose Video › Cut & Assemble › Edit Plan.
Connect the transcript
Wire the JSON output of a Transcribe node into the Transcript input. The transcript needs word-level timing.
Connect the media
Wire the recording into the Sources input. You can connect 1 to 6 sources, for example several cameras and a separate microphone. In the settings panel, give each source its role.
Choose the mode
Choose a Mode and a Tier. For Tighten, also wire a Silence Detect node into Silence, so the plan can cut dead air precisely.
Run it and render the plan
Click Run on the node, then wire its Edit plan (EDL) output into an Apply EDL node to render the cut.
Inputs
| Input | Accepts | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Transcript | JSON transcripts, such as the output of Transcribe | The timed, word-level transcript of the recording. Required. |
| Silence | The JSON output of Silence Detect | The silent ranges of the recording. Optional. They help Tighten cut dead air precisely. |
| Sources | Video and audio nodes | The media the edit draws from, 1 to 6 sources. Required. Each source becomes a source of the EDL. |
The output, Edit plan (EDL), depends on the mode:
| Mode | Output |
|---|---|
| Tighten | One EDL: a cleaned-up version of the whole recording. |
| Clips | A list of EDLs, one per clip. The output fans out, so an Apply EDL node connected to it renders every clip, in parallel. |
| Chapters | A list of chapters, each with a start time in milliseconds and a title. |
Settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mode | Tighten (clean up the recording), the default, removes silence, filler words and false starts. Clips (find short clips) finds the strongest short, shareable moments. Chapters (mark chapters) marks chapter starts with titles. |
| Tier | Economy (fastest), Standard (the default) or Premium (highest fidelity). The tier sets both the quality of the plan and its price. |
| Instructions | A short steer for the plan, for example keep the intro tight, drop the sponsor read. |
| Style guide | Longer editorial guidance that the plan should follow. |
| Number of clips | Clips mode only. How many clips to find, from 1 to 50. Leave it empty to let the planner decide. |
| Target clip length (seconds) | Clips mode only. The clip length to aim for, from 5 to 180 seconds. The planner aims near it, but it is not a hard limit. Leave it empty to let the planner decide. |
| Target aspect | Any (the default), 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:5. The delivery shape, which informs how clips are framed. |
| Sources | The connected media, in order. Drag to reorder them, and give each source a role: Auto (the default), Master audio, Camera, Wide or Screen. |
| Pre & post text | Text that is always added before and after the instructions. It is hidden from people who use your workflow as an app. See Prompt pre and post text. |
A source with the Master audio role gives its sound to every segment of the edit, so switching between cameras never changes the sound. See Apply EDL for how the roles are rendered.
Credits
Edit Plan is priced by the length of the recording and the tier. The length is rounded up to a bucket of 15, 30, 60, 90, 120 or 180 minutes.
credits = rate per minute × bucket minutes, plus a flat amount in Clips mode.
| Tier | Credits per minute | Flat amount in Clips mode |
|---|---|---|
| Economy | 2 | 10 |
| Standard | 4 | 20 |
| Premium | 8 | 40 |
| Example | Bucket | Calculation | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tighten, Standard, 45-minute episode | 60 minutes | 4 × 60 | 240 |
| Chapters, Economy, 20-minute episode | 30 minutes | 2 × 30 | 60 |
| Clips, Premium, 90-minute episode | 90 minutes | 8 × 90 + 40 | 760 |
Rendering the plan with Apply EDL is priced separately, per minute of output.
The estimate before you run
The cost on the node, on the Run button and in the run confirmation is an estimate. It uses the recorded length of the master source: the source with the Master audio role, or else the first source in the node's order.
- Uploaded audio and video, and generated video, carry their length, so the estimate lands on the right bucket.
- A YouTube link extracted with Reference Audio records the length of the extracted file, so the estimate is right too.
- A source with no recorded length, such as a direct audio link, is estimated at the largest bucket, 180 minutes. Extracting a YouTube source again records its length.
The estimate never takes the length from the wired transcript. That transcript comes from the previous run, and after you swap in a longer episode it would under-quote the new one. When the length is unknown, the estimate deliberately quotes high, so that a run is refused up front instead of failing halfway after earlier nodes were charged. Whatever the estimate shows, the charge is checked against the real length of the recording. The server measures the master source before it reserves credits, and a run whose master cannot be measured is refused and refunded.
Tips
- Wire the full chain. Connect Transcribe to Transcript, add Silence Detect to Silence for Tighten, and connect Edit plan (EDL) to Apply EDL.
- Render many clips from one plan. In Clips mode, one Edit Plan node feeds many renders through a single Apply EDL node.
- Draft on Economy. Use Economy for a fast first pass, and Premium for the final plan.
- Name the master audio. When you record with several cameras and one good microphone, give the microphone source the Master audio role.
From the API
The MCP plan_edit tool and POST /v1/edit-plan run the same planner with 1 to 6 media sources. The API also accepts a platform hint, which informs the pacing and the length of the plan. The finished plan is in the job result, ready to pass to apply_edl. See the MCP tools and Run a single node.
Frequently asked questions
Related
Apply EDL
Transcribe
Silence Detect
Add Captions
Connect to Nodaro Cloud
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