GhostReel

Local video search · private on your computer

Search inside your videos.
Cut them into a story.

GhostReel transcribes the speech, describes the keyframes and indexes it all on your computer. Find a moment by what was said, shown or written on screen, then draft the edit in a chat and hand it to Premiere Pro.

✓   Models run inside the app✓   Your videos are only read
Get GhostReel See how it stays local

Free & open source   ·   Linux, Windows & macOS

Your computer · standalone mode
GhostReel · Sample project
Library+ Add folder
~/Videos/shootWhole tree, every subfolder

Each video is identified by its content: moved or duplicated files are indexed once.

IndexingResumable
Transcribing speechWhisper
Describing keyframesVision model
Embedding for searchembeddinggemma
Checking camera shakeSteadiness

Stop any time. Indexing again resumes where it left off.

people talking about the park
Said
interview_03.mp4 · 01:12“The park is where the whole street meets.”
Shown
broll_07.mp4 · 00:08Two neighbours chatting on a park bench
On screen
street_02.mp4 · 00:31Sign: “Community Park”
Script · Neighbourhood promov2
Hookinterview_03 · 01:12–01:20
The parkbroll_07 · 00:08–00:14 · voice-over
Closestreet_02 · 00:31–00:36
MP4FCP 7 XML.otio
✓ Ready for Premiere Pro
Indexing on your computer…
Everything happens on your computerSTANDALONE MODE
Your footage
Local models
Moments & cuts

Add a folder: GhostReel finds every video in it.

Interactive walkthrough · sample footage · click any step to explore

Find it, then hand it off
What was said
What was shown
On-screen text
Premiere Pro
MP4

Your computer does the work

Index the footage.
Keep the footage.

In standalone mode, speech recognition, frame descriptions and search embeddings run in helper processes inside GhostReel, on your GPU. Nothing leaves your machine, and your videos are only read: never modified or copied.

  1. 01
    Download the modelsOpen the Models page and pick what you need, once.
  2. 02
    Add a folder and index itTranscripts, keyframes and vectors go into one local database.
  3. 03
    Search, script and exportJump to the moment, draft the cut, hand it to your editor.

You can also point a capability at a model server or a coding-agent CLI you already use. Then frames, transcripts and prompts go to that server or tool. Keep each capability on This computer to keep the work on your machine.

Transcribe · describe · search

See GhostReel at work.

From a folder of raw footage to the exact second you need, and from there to a cut you can finish in your editor.

Every word, with its time

Whisper transcribes the speech with timestamps and detects the language. Click any line to play from that moment.

Keyframes, described

Scene changes, plus a frame at least every few seconds, each described by a vision model: subject, setting, shot and on-screen text.

Keywords and meaning

Hybrid search combines SQLite full-text keywords with semantic vectors, merged into moments you can play from the right second.

Explore search

Script · preview · export

From moments to a story.

Chat your way to a script

Describe the video you want. The model explores your footage with search, transcripts and keyframes, drafts beats with clips and voice-over, and revises from your feedback. Talking clips keep whole sentences.

Explore script chat

Preview it, then hand it off

Render a low-res preview of any script version with titles and narration. Export an MP4 to share, FCP 7 XML for Premiere Pro, or OpenTimelineIO.

Explore export

Steady shots first

GhostReel measures camera movement and handheld tremor in the background, finds the shaky stretches, and the script chat and editor cut around them.

Reference edits

Mark a finished video as a reference. The script chat studies its length, pacing and structure, but never uses it as footage.

Organise · scope

Big libraries, small searches.

Projects and watched folders

Add whole folder trees to a project. Indexing is a resumable queue with progress and an ETA, and moved or duplicated files are indexed only once.

Search just what you picked

Check videos in the library, Shift-click a range or drag a selection, or choose a watched folder, and search only those files.

Model manager

Your models, where you want them.

Download and choose a model for each capability: speech, vision and chat, and search embeddings. Run each one on this computer, on a server you already have, or let Auto decide.

⇄
Choose per capabilityAuto uses a server only when it is reachable and capable, and falls back to the local helper otherwise.
↗
Reuse what you haveGhostReel picks up GhostPen's Whisper models and LM Studio models instead of downloading them again.
▣
Made for one GPUThe default setup fits an 8 GB GPU.

Runs on your GPU with CUDA or Vulkan on Linux and Windows, Metal on macOS, and MLX for vision and chat on Apple Silicon.

GhostReel · Models⌁   This device
MODELS

One per capability

●   Local

Defaults on Windows, Linux and Intel Macs

S
Whisper large-v3-turboSpeech
1.6 GBThis computer
V
Qwen3.5 9BFrame descriptions & script chat
6.9 GBAuto
E
embeddinggemma-300MSearch embeddings
334 MBAuto
✓   Runs inside GhostReelghostreel doctor shows why ↗

Open source, end to end

Built on tools you know.

A Rust core shared by the desktop app and the ghostreel command line. The AI engines run as separate helper processes.

Tauri v2

Rust backend, React and TypeScript frontend.

ggml

whisper.cpp and llama.cpp, each in its own helper.

SQLite

FTS5 keywords and sqlite-vec vectors in one file.

ffmpeg

Bundled, for probing, previews and export.

For terminals and AI agents

Script it. Or let an agent edit.

The ghostreel command line covers indexing, search, transcripts, scripts, exports and models. ghostreel mcp speaks the Model Context Protocol, so an AI agent can index footage, search it and build an edit.

  1. 01
    Learn the footagecreate_project, add_folder, index, then search, get_transcript, get_video.
  2. 02
    Build the editdraft_script, or save_script with your own JSON. Clips outside the footage come back as issues.
  3. 03
    Hand it offexport_script writes FCP 7 XML or .otio.
Read the CLI and MCP guide
Terminal
ghostreel folder add ~/Videos/shoot -p "Promo"
ghostreel index -p "Promo" --watch
ghostreel search -p "Promo" "people talking about the park"
ghostreel script chat --project "Promo" \
  "a 60 second promo using the interviews"
ghostreel script export <script-id> --format fcp_xml -o promo.xml
MCP client config
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ghostreel": { "command": "ghostreel", "args": ["mcp"] }
  }
}

For your desktop

Bring your footage. Keep your footage.

Pick your platform and download the latest release directly. Free and open source.

Finding the latest version…

Linux

01

AppImage for x86-64. Choose CUDA for NVIDIA (driver 570+), or Vulkan for compatible AMD, Intel and NVIDIA GPUs.

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Windows

02

Installer for Windows 10 and 11. Choose CUDA for NVIDIA (driver 570+), or Vulkan for compatible AMD, Intel and NVIDIA GPUs.

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macOS

03

Disk images for Apple Silicon (macOS 14+, MLX and Metal) and Intel Macs (macOS 12+, Metal).

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Files are hosted on GitHub Releases. On first start, open Models and download what you need. ffmpeg is included. Vulkan builds require a Vulkan 1.2-capable GPU driver. Install notes ↗