AgentCut

Turn a text prompt into a fully produced video. 6 AI agents collaborate through a structured pipeline -- from creative direction to final cut.

How It Works

User Prompt
    |
    v
[Director Agent] -- Analyzes creative vision, plans shots
    |
    v
[Script Agent] -- Writes production script with video prompts, narration, subtitles
    |
    +------------------+------------------+
    |                  |                  |
    v                  v                  v
[Visual Agent]    [Voice Agent]     [Music Agent]
 Hailuo Video      Speech TTS        Music Gen
    |                  |                  |
    +------------------+------------------+
    |
    v
[Editor Agent] -- ffmpeg: concat, mix audio, burn subtitles
    |
    v
Final MP4

Visual, Voice, and Music agents run in parallel after the Script is ready. The Editor waits for all three, then composites the final video.

Features

• Multi-agent SOP -- 6 specialized agents, each with a single responsibility, orchestrated in a production pipeline
• Parallel execution -- Video, voice, and music generation run concurrently to minimize total wait time
• Real-time progress -- SSE streaming shows every agent's status with completed/active/pending card states and elapsed timer
• One prompt, full video -- From text description to a complete MP4 with narration, subtitles, and background music
• ~$0.50 per video -- Typical cost for a 3-shot video using MiniMax APIs
• Style presets -- 5 one-click preset templates (Tech Product, Travel Vlog, Social Media Ad, Explainer, Brand Story)
• Script preview -- Collapsible preview of the production script after the Script agent completes
• Production summary -- Total time, shot count, agent count, and estimated cost displayed after video completion
• Job isolation -- Each job gets a separate output directory, enabling safe concurrent production
• Auto-cleanup -- Jobs older than 1 hour are automatically cleaned up (memory + disk)
• Graceful error handling -- Per-stage error propagation with structured logging and frontend error display

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
LLM	MiniMax M1 (Director + Script agents)
Video	MiniMax Hailuo 2.3 (1080P, 6s clips)
Voice	MiniMax Speech-2.6-HD (TTS with emotion)
Music	MiniMax Music-2.0 (instrumental BGM)
Composition	ffmpeg (concat, audio mix, subtitles)
Backend	Python FastAPI + SSE streaming
Frontend	HTML + Tailwind CSS

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• ffmpeg (brew install ffmpeg or apt install ffmpeg)
• MiniMax API key

Setup

git clone https://github.com/calderbuild/agentcut.git
cd agentcut

pip install -r backend/requirements.txt

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and add your MiniMax API key

Run

python -m backend.main

Open http://localhost:8000

Docker

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and add your MiniMax API key

docker compose up

Usage

1. Enter a video description (e.g. "A sunset over Tokyo, cinematic aerial view")
2. Choose duration and shot count
3. Click Start Production
4. Watch the 6 agents work in real-time
5. Download the final MP4

API

Endpoint	Method	Description
/api/create	POST	Start a production job
/api/stream/{job_id}	GET	SSE event stream for progress
/api/status/{job_id}	GET	Poll job status
/api/download/{job_id}	GET	Download final video
/api/health	GET	Health check

Create a video

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/create \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"prompt": "A sunset over Tokyo", "duration": 18, "num_shots": 3}'

Cost

Each video generation uses MiniMax API credits:

• LLM calls (Director + Script): ~$0.01
• Video generation (3 shots): ~$0.30-0.60
• Voice TTS (3 shots): ~$0.01
• Music generation: ~$0.05

Estimated total per video: ~$0.40-0.70

Troubleshooting

ffmpeg subtitle filter not available: If subtitles are not burned into the video, your ffmpeg build lacks libass. Install with brew install ffmpeg (macOS, usually includes it) or apt install ffmpeg libass-dev (Linux). AgentCut will still produce videos without subtitles if the filter is missing.

API key errors: Make sure .env contains a valid MINIMAX_API_KEY. The server will refuse to start if the key is missing.

Video generation timeout: Hailuo video generation can take 2-5 minutes per shot. The pipeline polls every 10 seconds with a 5-minute timeout per shot.

Music generation fails: Music generation is non-blocking. If it fails, the pipeline continues and the Music card shows an amber "Skipped" state. The final video is produced without background music.

LLM returns invalid JSON: Director and Script agents automatically retry once with an explicit "return valid JSON" instruction if the first response fails to parse.

Concurrent jobs: Each job writes to its own backend/output/job_{id}/ directory. Multiple simultaneous productions will not conflict.

Project Structure

backend/
  agents/
    director.py   -- Creative director: prompt -> shot outline
    script.py     -- Scriptwriter: outline -> production script
    visual.py     -- Visual artist: script -> video clips (parallel)
    voice.py      -- Voice artist: script -> narration audio
    music.py      -- Composer: style+mood -> background music
    editor.py     -- Editor: ffmpeg composition
  pipeline.py     -- Agent orchestration (parallel execution)
  main.py         -- FastAPI server + SSE streaming
  config.py       -- Configuration + validation
frontend/
  index.html      -- Single-page app with real-time pipeline UI

License

MIT