Lazycow Studio

You shot it. Lazycow edits it.

The footage you never edited becomes reels and trip films. You only press Approve.

Lazycow Studio finds the right clips in your photos and videos, cuts short vertical reels on the beat of free music, and builds long YouTube videos in parts, with maps and chapters. Then it books the posts. It runs on your own computer.

Lazycow Studio is made by kensaurus. It is free and open source under Apache-2.0.

• Your footage stays on your computer. Tagging and search run on your own processor. The studio only reads your files. Nothing leaves your computer unless you connect a network or add a key for a paid AI tool.
• A person approves every post. Nothing is booked or posted until you press Approve. AI agents can make drafts and post approved reels. They cannot approve.
• Your AI agent can drive it. An MCP server, an HTTP API (OpenAPI) and an npm package. One line connects Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Cursor.

Who it is for: a small hotel, guesthouse, café or shop, or a creator, with a folder of footage and no time to edit it. You do not need to code: download, unzip, double-click. It posts to YouTube, Facebook and Bluesky, and fills in the schedulers of X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Google Maps and LINE in your own Chrome.

Download · Quick start · Connect your AI agent · User guide · Support Lazycow · 日本語

Review, Approve, booked. ▶ Watch the 40-second demo: a folder of café clips becomes reels, a person approves one, and it lands on the posting calendar.

Connect your AI agent

Start the studio first. Then, in Claude Code:

claude mcp add lazycow -- npx -y lazycow mcp

In Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json) or Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{ "mcpServers": { "lazycow": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "lazycow", "mcp"] } } }

This needs Node 20 or newer on your PATH. The double-click setup keeps its own Node out of your PATH, so use the lines in the studio's Settings › Keys & AI › Use with Claude or Cursor instead: they have your paths filled in. The agent can check the studio, make reels, plan posts and publish approved reels. It has no approve tool. Every tool: docs/mcp.md.

Contents

• Connect your AI agent
• Quick start
• The building blocks
• How it works
• A person approves every post
• Everything stays on your computer
• What you need
• More, when you need it: first run, a made-up brand, costs, accounts, YouTube, a second studio, AI agents
• Documentation
• Licence, credit and support

Quick start

The easy way: download, unzip, double-click

No terminal, no Node, no Python to install first. Just like 1997, minus the CD.

1. Download Lazycow-Studio-<version>.zip from the latest release and unzip it somewhere you will keep it.
2. Open README.TXT first. Yes, really. It has the steps, and some jokes.
3. Double-click Start Lazycow (Mac: right-click Start Lazycow.command › Open, the first time). If Windows says "Windows protected your PC", choose More info › Run anyway: the file is new, not bad. You can read every line in scripts/bootstrap/windows.ps1.
4. A blue 1997-style setup screen asks where to keep the studio's work and where your footage is, then downloads pinned copies of Node, Python and ffmpeg (each checked against its SHA-256, kept in your user folder, no admin rights). It takes 10 to 30 minutes, about 1.5 GB.
5. The studio opens, and Lazy Kenji shows you around. Next time, double-click Lazycow Studio on your desktop.

Windows 10/11 (64-bit), or a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14+. If anything goes wrong, double-click Start Lazycow again: it carries on where it stopped, and setup.log says what happened. How it works: scripts/bootstrap/README.md.

For developers: the terminal way

You need Node 20+, Python 3.12+ and a current ffmpeg (details).

1. Get the code:

   git clone https://github.com/kensaurus/lazycow-studio.git
   cd lazycow-studio
   npm ci
   

2. Set up this computer. This writes .env, makes the Python environment, and fetches the picture-quality model and some free music:

   npm run setup
   

3. Start the studio:

   npm run review
   

4. Open http://127.0.0.1:4317. The first load takes 10 to 20 seconds while the search model starts. Follow the Getting started list on the page.

npm run setup ends with a list of anything still missing and the exact fix. Usually that is ffmpeg: put a current ffmpeg and ffprobe in the data folder's bin, or on your PATH. Run it again any time. npm run setup -- --check only reports.

To choose where things go on a first run:

npm run setup -- --data D:\studio-data --footage "D:\My Footage"

Both are optional. By default everything the studio makes goes in ./data beside the code. Your footage is never moved or changed.

The building blocks

How it works

1. A folder of footage. Point the studio at it. It only reads the files, tags them on your computer and finds them by words.	2. Make reels. Pick a theme or two. Each reel gets clips that fit its words, licence-clean music and every size the networks want.
3. You review. Watch it, trim it, swap a clip, change the words. The timeline shows every clip, caption, sound and effect.	4. You approve. Nothing goes anywhere before this. Faces need Consent OK first.
5. Booked. One post a day per network at the hour your audience is awake. Results come back a few days later.	6. Help when you want it. A guided tour, the Getting started list, Ctrl K to find anything, and a Problems list that says what went wrong.

flowchart LR
  F[(Your footage<br/>read only)] --> T[Tag and search<br/>on this computer]
  T --> M[Make reels<br/>theme, approved words,<br/>a style of its own]
  M --> R{A person<br/>reviews}
  R -- Reject or edit --> M
  R -- Approve --> B[Book<br/>one post a day<br/>per network]
  B --> P[Posted<br/>YouTube, Facebook, Bluesky,<br/>X, TikTok, LINE ...]
  B -. a better cut is made .-> V{Versions:<br/>a person picks}
  V -- Use the new version --> S[Swap the bookings<br/>same time slot]
  S --> P
  T --> L[Long videos<br/>a trip in 16:9 parts]
  L --> Y[YouTube<br/>private, unlisted, public<br/>or on a schedule]

Three programs run on one computer: a Node server and the studio page (server/), a Python pipeline (py/studio/), and Remotion for the words on screen (src/). More in docs/architecture.md.

A person approves every post

This is the one rule the studio never breaks.

• A new reel is a draft. It cannot be booked, uploaded or posted until a person presses Approve.
• A reel with a face in it cannot be approved until someone confirms the person agreed (Consent OK), or blurs the face.
• When a reel's words change, it goes back to review.
• A new version replaces a booked reel only when a person presses Use the new version.
• AI tools, agents and scripts can make drafts and suggest changes. They cannot approve.

Everything stays on your computer

• Your footage is only read, never changed, and never uploaded to be tagged. Search and tagging run on your own processor (OpenCLIP).
• Keys and sign-ins stay in .env and in your data folder. They are never in git.
• The studio listens on 127.0.0.1 only. Nothing leaves your computer unless you connect a service: a network you post to, or a paid AI tool you add a key for.
• On a shared computer, set STUDIO_API_TOKEN so other programs need a token.

What you need

Software: Node 20 or newer, Python 3.12 or newer, and a current ffmpeg (the build must support -fps_mode; builds from 2021 do not). A current Chrome, Edge or Safari for the studio page.

Windows is where the studio is used every day. macOS and Linux work for the main flow but are tested less.

A 9-clip reel takes about 6 to 7 minutes on a 32-thread desktop, and roughly twice that on 8 threads. Press System in the top bar to see what your computer can do.

More, when you need it

python -m studio youtube accounts
python -m studio youtube upload-vlog --part 1 --account a2 --privacy unlisted
python -m studio youtube upload-vlog --part 2 --account a2 --at 2026-12-01T19:00

STUDIO_PROJECT=my-trip STUDIO_PORT=4318 STUDIO_QUIET=1 npm run review

npm run review
claude mcp add lazycow -- npx -y lazycow mcp

Documentation

Licence

The studio's code is under the Apache License 2.0.

Remotion is not open source in the same way. The studio uses Remotion to draw the words on screen. Remotion has its own licence: it is free for individuals, non-profits and companies of up to 3 people. A for-profit company with more than 3 people needs a Remotion company licence to make reels with the studio. That licence is between you and Remotion; the studio's Apache licence does not cover it.

Every other component, model, font and piece of music, with its licence, is listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md. The fonts in public/fonts each have their licence file beside them. Each reel's music credit travels with it in credits.txt.

The names "Lazycow" and "Lazycow Studio" and the icon are trademarks of kensaurus LLC and are not covered by the licence. A fork needs its own name and icon: see TRADEMARKS.md.

Credit and contributing

Lazycow Studio is made by Kenji Sakuramoto (kensaurus) and contributors, and published by kensaurus LLC.

• Using it? Nothing to do. A link back to https://kensaur.us is always appreciated.
• Forking it? Keep LICENSE and NOTICE, give your fork its own name and icon, and please keep "Based on Lazycow Studio by kensaurus" in your About screen.
• Helping? Read CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct. Security problems: SECURITY.md.
• Writing about it? Use "Cite this repository" on GitHub (CITATION.cff).

Support Lazycow

The studio is free and stays free. If it saves you evenings of editing, you can pay for its development: once, any amount, or monthly with small benefits (your requests looked at first, your name or logo in the About window).

What each plan includes, and how to cancel: SUPPORTING.md. Thank you to everyone who does.