# AI shorts generator (short-video-maker)

> This MIT-licensed Python tool downloads a YouTube video (or takes a local file), transcribes it locally with faster-whisper, has an LLM (OpenAI, Gemini or MuAPI) score candidate moments 0-100, and renders the top clips at a chosen ratio such as 9:16, with an optional AI-written hook. It has a CLI, a local web UI and an API. It needs an LLM API key: Gemini has a free tier with daily limits, OpenAI and MuAPI are paid. The README does not describe face or speaker tracking when cropping, and there is no social publishing.

- Repository: https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker
- Official docs: https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker#readme
- Checked: 2026-10-18

## What it replaces
- Opus Clip: AI picks highlight clips from a long video, Auto-reframe to vertical 9:16 (speaker or face tracking), Animated burned-in captions on clips, Virality score per clip (partial). Picks and scores clips, crops to 9:16 and adds subtitles; crop tracking not documented, no social scheduling.
  - Use it instead of paying for Opus Clip? Personal use: Yes. Business: Yes.

## Facts, with sources

| Question | Status | Answer | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on my machine? | Confirmed | Yes, runs on your machine; transcription is local, highlight ranking calls a cloud LLM | https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker#readme | 2026-10-18 |
| Code licence | Confirmed | MIT | https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-10-18 |
| Model weights licence | Confirmed | No separate model weights | https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker#readme | 2026-10-18 |
| Commercial use | Confirmed | Yes, MIT (LLM provider terms apply separately) | https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-10-18 |
| Paid services needed? | Partial | Needs an LLM API key; Gemini has a free tier with a daily limit, OpenAI and MuAPI are paid | https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker#readme | 2026-10-18 |
| Hardware | Confirmed | Python 3.10+; Whisper runs on CPU or CUDA GPU, model size selectable | https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker#readme | 2026-10-18 |
| Operating systems | Confirmed | Windows, Linux and macOS install steps in the README | https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker#readme | 2026-10-18 |
| Setup effort | Confirmed | Easy-medium, clone, pip install requirements and add an API key to .env (README clone URL uses an older repo name) | https://github.com/mushigaite/short-video-maker#readme | 2026-10-18 |

GitHub: 631 stars, 77 forks, last push 2026-10-17, archived: no.
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Source: RepoQuarry (https://repoquarry.dev/projects/short-video-maker). Data licence: CC BY 4.0. Quotes are from project documentation and belong to their authors.