# Open source Opus Clip alternatives for AI agents

2 alternatives to Opus Clip. 2 have an interface an agent can drive. 2 are open source.

Page: alternatives/opus-clip.html

## OpenShorts

Self-hosted AI clip generator with an eight-tool MCP server for clipping, captioning, and publishing shorts.

- Listing: apps/mutonby--openshorts.html
- JSON: apps/mutonby--openshorts.json
- License: MIT (cloud/ directory under a commercial license)
- Agent interface: MCP server, from the builder
- Reach: 5 of 9 jobs
- Last activity: 2026-09-02
- Effort: config-only
- Agent cannot reach: Generate AI Shorts with UGC actors; YouTube Studio: titles, thumbnails, descriptions; Dub clips into other languages; Force a reframing layout per video
- Use it when: I publish a weekly podcast and want clips cut, captioned, and posted without a $20/mo clipper subscription
- Use it when: I want an agent to turn every new livestream VOD into shorts overnight on my own GPU box
- Gotcha: The cloud/ directory is under a commercial license, not MIT; GitHub shows the license as 'other' for that reason
- Gotcha: CPU-only by default: 5 to 8 minutes per 8-minute video; NVIDIA Container Toolkit needed for NVENC
- Gotcha: Self-hosted /mcp only answers while your machine is on; the hosted endpoint at mcp.openshorts.app needs an osk_ API key
- Gotcha: Provider keys go into the dashboard Settings, not .env

## podcli

Local podcast clipper with face tracking and burned captions, driven from a CLI, a web studio, or 26 MCP tools.

- Listing: apps/nmbrthirteen--podcli.html
- JSON: apps/nmbrthirteen--podcli.json
- License: AGPL-3.0
- Agent interface: MCP server, from the builder
- Reach: 9 of 10 jobs
- Last activity: 2026-09-02
- Effort: config-only
- Use it when: I host a weekly podcast and want captioned vertical clips without uploading episodes to a cloud clipper
- Use it when: I want Claude Code to clip, title, and publish shorts from a transcript as one conversation
- Gotcha: AGPL-3.0; a commercial license is offered by email
- Gotcha: 58 stars and a young repo: thin evidence of users beyond the Builder
- Gotcha: First run downloads Python, Node, ffmpeg, whisper.cpp, and models into a managed folder
- Gotcha: Intel Mac support is in progress

## Questions

### Is there an open source alternative to Opus Clip?

Yes. Both listings here are open source: OpenShorts (MIT (cloud/ directory under a commercial license)), podcli (AGPL-3.0).

### Which Opus Clip alternatives have an MCP server?

OpenShorts and podcli have MCP servers from their builders.

### Which Opus Clip alternative can an agent do the most with?

podcli: 9 of 10 recorded jobs reachable. Jobs differ by listing, so read each list before you choose.