What leaves your Mac
Every network request Cutscript makes, what each one sends, and who receives it.
Cutscript does its work on your Mac. It contacts the internet only when you use a feature that needs it, and each of those features talks to a service you can name. There is no Cutscript account, and Cutscript sends no analytics or crash reports.
Like any request on the web, each one shows your Mac's IP address to the server it reaches. The editor window itself is not allowed to reach the internet at all. Requests come from Cutscript's background process, or from a program it starts for you, such as the link downloader or Claude Code.
The short version
- Recording, editing, zooms, cursor effects, blur, tracking, the graphics engine and export all run on your Mac.
- An AI step sends data to the provider you chose, with your own key or plan.
- Your API keys are encrypted on your Mac with the system keychain and are only sent to the provider they belong to.
- The optional support widget asks cutscript.dev for its public goal figures, and sends nothing about you.
AI providers
These requests happen only when you run the step, and only to a provider you connected in Settings › AI › Providers.
| Step | What is sent | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Transcription | The audio of your media, extracted by Cutscript as mono 16 kHz audio. The video is not sent. With fal.ai, the audio is uploaded to fal.ai's storage first. | ElevenLabs, fal.ai or OpenRouter, whichever Settings › AI › Transcription uses |
| AI chat and directing | Your message, the parts of the transcript it needs, facts about the project such as its graphics and brand kit, and any files you attach | OpenRouter, your ChatGPT plan (OpenAI), or your Claude plan |
| Review and the clipper's image check | Small still frames of your video, about 640 pixels on the long side | The vision model you set, through OpenRouter |
| Pictures made by AI | Your prompt and any reference pictures | OpenRouter or fal.ai |
| Music, sound effects, voiceover | Your prompt, or the text to speak | ElevenLabs, fal.ai or OpenRouter |
| Enhance voice | Your audio, only with the ElevenLabs or fal.ai engine and only after you confirm the price. The Apple and built-in engines stay on your Mac. | ElevenLabs or fal.ai |
With the Claude plan, Cutscript hands the request to Claude Code on your Mac, and Claude Code sends it to Anthropic. Cutscript never sees your Claude login. With the ChatGPT plan, you sign in on OpenAI's own page, and requests go to OpenAI.
While you sign in with ChatGPT or OpenRouter, Cutscript listens on a port on your Mac, reachable only from your Mac, for the browser's reply. It stops when the sign-in ends, or after ten minutes of waiting.
Cutscript shows a price before a paid AI step runs. The providers bill you, not Cutscript. See Prices before every paid step.
Model lists
If Keep model lists up to date is on, which it is by default, Cutscript reads public model lists when it starts: OpenRouter's, the model table on ElevenLabs' documentation site, and fal.ai's catalogue. If you saved a fal.ai key, it may be sent to fal.ai with that read. Turn the setting off in Settings › AI › Providers to stop these requests. Refresh models reads them on demand.
Other requests
| Feature | What happens |
|---|---|
| Link downloader | When you set it up, or bring in your first link, Cutscript fetches yt-dlp and Deno from their official GitHub releases. After that it checks once a week for newer ones. It checks each file against its published checksum. When you download a link, yt-dlp contacts that site. No cookies or sign-ins are used. |
| Import from website (brand kits) | Cutscript loads the page you name in a hidden, isolated browser window. It makes only read requests and refuses local and private-network addresses. |
| Media › Saved › Online | Only searches you submit go online. Your search words, and the icon you add, go to Iconify, which serves the Simple Icons logos and the Tabler icons. |
| Support widget | See below. |
| Donate, Hire us, Changelog | These open in your default browser. The sites see you as an ordinary visitor. |
The support widget
The heart and goal bar in the sidebar and top bars show how much has been raised. About eight seconds after launch, and then every six hours while Cutscript runs, Cutscript makes one plain request to cutscript.dev/api/donations/progress. It has no query, no cookies and no identifiers, and it is given up after five seconds. The answer holds the amount raised, the goal and the number of donors. Cutscript keeps the last answer in support-progress.json so the widget has something to show offline.
To stop it, turn off Show support widget in Settings › About. With it off, Cutscript makes no request.
What stays on your Mac
- Your videos and recordings, apart from the audio and frames in the table above.
- Your projects, settings and libraries. See File formats and where files live.
- Your API keys, except when one goes to the provider it belongs to. You can remove any key in Settings › AI › Providers.
- Cutscript's graphics engine runs in a sandbox that blocks network requests. Face, text and email tracking, and background removal, use Apple's tools on your Mac.
What works offline
Recording, the timeline, editing a script that already has a transcript, zooms, cursor effects, blur, captions, graphics from the Design pack and export all work with no connection. Transcription, AI steps, downloads from links, model lists and the support widget need one.
Related
Was this page helpful?
Comments
Longer questions go better in the forum.
No comments yet. Ask a question or add what you found.
Sign in with GitHub or Google to comment.
Sign in to comment