Palmier Pro vs PilotCut: Proprietary Builds, Agent Comments, and Edit Craft
Palmier Pro ships proprietary builds after v0.7.6, timeline Comments for its agent, and Claude Code or Codex in its own chat. PilotCut is free during beta: 83 purpose-built tools, a plan before meaning-changing cuts, and a 250-entry edit history.
You edit with an agent, and you want to know which Mac editor gives it the better timeline. In September 2026 Palmier Pro put Claude Code and Codex inside its own chat and renamed its timeline markers to Comments, weeks after its builds went proprietary. Both Palmier Pro and PilotCut now take the agent you already pay for. What matters is what that agent can do on your timeline, what you can read back afterward, and whose terms you edit under.
Free during beta. Bring the agent you already pay for.
- The full editor, free while the beta runs. There is no published price.
- Claude Code, ChatGPT Codex, Grok Build, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode or Antigravity runs the edit on the plan you already have.
- 83 purpose-built editing tools, shaped by tens of thousands of hours of video-editing practice.
- The edit history keeps 250 entries that you and the agent can read back.
What Palmier Pro ships as of v0.10.0
The dates are Palmier's release dates, US Pacific time.
- Comments for the agent. Timeline markers for leaving comments to the agent, at the playhead or across a range, shipped on 2026-08-14. Transcript markers followed in v0.8.1. v0.10.0, released 2026-09-22, renamed Markers to Comments in the Index tab (changelog).
- Claude Code and Codex inside the app. Since v0.9.0, released 2026-09-09, the in-app chat runs Claude Code, Codex or the Palmier harness. You bring your own API keys or use an existing Claude or Codex subscription. The agent can run scripts and command-line tools such as ffmpeg and yt-dlp (changelog).
- External agents over MCP. The README documents a local MCP server and setup for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and Claude Desktop (README). The FAQ says you "can review or undo the edits in Palmier Pro" (palmier.io).
- Plans. The editor and MCP connection are free. Pro and Max are monthly plans that add generation credits, more accurate cloud transcription and Palmier chat (pricing).
- Platform. macOS 26 (Tahoe) on Apple Silicon only (README).
Palmier Pro is closed source now
Releases through v0.7.6, published 2026-08-18, were GPLv3, and that source stays GPLv3. Binary releases after v0.7.6 are proprietary, and their source is not published (README). Public source development ended on 2026-08-28 in the commit Retire public source development, and the repository no longer accepts code contributions.
The binary license grants no permission to copy, modify, redistribute, reverse engineer or create derivative works without a separate written agreement with Palmier, Inc.
Changing a license is a company's decision. It still changes what you get:
- Every agent feature above ships only in proprietary builds. Transcript markers, Claude Code and Codex in the chat, and the Comments view all arrived after v0.7.6.
- Staying on GPLv3 means staying on v0.7.6 or the last published source. The repository now hosts the proprietary binary releases and their update metadata.
- Older pages still say open source. Palmier's Y Combinator company page, Summer 2024 batch, calls Palmier Pro "open-source and free to download". The README notice is the current statement.
Palmier's FAQ states: "We do not use customer content to train Palmier or third-party AI models" (palmier.io).
PilotCut is a commercial, closed-source product as well. What PilotCut gives you in place of source is a protocol you can read: a plan before the edits that change meaning, a marker rule the agent follows, and a history of what the agent did.
Same agent, different rules on the timeline
- Read the cut list before a single cut lands. Ask for a cut, a silence pass or filler-word removal, and the first answer is the list of changes. Nothing moves until the agent applies it.
- Your markers stay yours. Leave a marker for the agent. The agent may create a marker and resolve yours. It never deletes a marker you placed. Each marker carries its origin and a confidence value.
- See what the agent changed. Scroll back through 250 edit history entries. The agent reads the same history, so it can explain or build on its last pass.
- Let the agent look before it hands back. The agent can pull a filmstrip of the timeline and check the frames.
- Cuts that respect breath. Transcript cuts snap to breath-safe points, and the agent proposes each cut from evidence.
- Hand off to Final Cut. The agent can write the project timeline as FCPXML 1.11 with absolute media paths.
- Pay nothing to PilotCut during the beta. Palmier's paid plans are monthly. PilotCut is free during beta, and your agent bills to the plan you already pay for.
How it is built
- One tool surface for the UI, the CLI and the agent. The same 83 tools drive the buttons, the command line and the agent, so an agent edit is an ordinary edit you can undo.
- Propose, then commit, on named actions. The timeline cut, the silence, word and dead-air cuts, generated chapters, caption import and patch, and voiceover and camera replacement return a plan on the first call and mutate nothing. A second call applies it. Removing a track applies at once, and so does accepting a B-roll slot.
- The approval step is in the chat panel, not the server. The server never waits for a human. The Core Agent chat panel gates each tool on its risk tier. An agent on the CLI or a third-party MCP client is not gated and can send both calls, so read the plan in the client you use.
- A dry run where it fits. The canvas and layout tools and the effect tool return the result without writing it. Asset and track tools have no dry run.
- Local project files. One prompt drives many tool calls on a local project bundle, and your footage stays on your Mac.
Palmier Pro vs PilotCut for agent editing
| Need | Palmier Pro | PilotCut |
|---|---|---|
| Your own agent | Claude Code or Codex in the app chat; Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and Claude Desktop over MCP | Claude Code, ChatGPT Codex, Grok Build, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode, Antigravity over local MCP and CLI |
| Notes for the agent | Comments on the timeline and transcript | Markers that carry origin and confidence; the agent may resolve yours and never deletes one you placed |
| See meaning-changing edits first | FAQ: review or undo edits in the app | Plan first on the cut, transcript cuts, chapters, caption import and patch, voiceover and camera swaps |
| Read back the agent's work | Agent activity shows which clips the agent is working on (changelog) | 250-entry edit history, readable by you and the agent |
| Hand off to another editor | NLE XML for Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut | FCPXML 1.11 written by the agent |
| How you pay | Free editor; Pro and Max monthly plans for generation credits, cloud transcription and chat | Free during beta; no published price |
| License | GPLv3 through v0.7.6, proprietary builds after | Commercial, closed source |
| Platform | macOS 26 (Tahoe), Apple Silicon only | macOS; no Windows build |
Facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Product | PilotCut |
| Platform | macOS. There is no Windows build. |
| Price | Free during beta. There is no published price. |
| Agent surface | The same 83-tool editor surface as ScreenKite. CLI: pilotcut tool list, pilotcut tool describe, pilotcut tool call. |
| Plan first | confirm:false returns the change and mutates nothing; confirm:true applies it, on the actions named above. |
| Edit history | 250 entries, readable by a human and by an agent. |
| Export for another editor | export type=fcpxml, FCPXML 1.11 with absolute media paths. |
| Agents | Claude Code, ChatGPT Codex, Grok Build, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode, Antigravity |
| PilotCut facts checked | 2026-09-12 |
| Palmier Pro facts as of | v0.10.0, released 2026-09-22 |
Questions
Is Palmier Pro open source?
No. Releases through v0.7.6, and source through the last-gpl-source tag, remain GPLv3. Binary releases after v0.7.6 are proprietary and their source is not published (README).
Can Palmier Pro run Claude Code or Codex inside the app?
Yes. Since v0.9.0 its in-app chat runs Claude Code, Codex or the Palmier harness, with your own API keys or an existing Claude or Codex subscription (changelog).
Does Palmier Pro have comments or markers for the agent?
Yes. Timeline markers for comments to the agent shipped on 2026-08-14, and v0.10.0 renamed them Comments (changelog).
If both editors take my own agent, what does PilotCut add?
A plan before the cuts that change meaning, a marker rule under which the agent never deletes your marker, a 250-entry history you and the agent can read, and FCPXML export the agent can write. All of it is free during beta.
Does PilotCut wait for my approval before the agent cuts?
The server never waits for a human. A cut returns its plan first and applies on a second call. In the Core Agent chat panel that second call is gated on the tool's risk tier. An agent on the CLI can send both calls itself.
What does PilotCut cost?
PilotCut is free during beta. There is no published price after the beta. Your agent bills to the plan you already pay for.
Also read
- Palmier Pro vs PilotCut: macOS 26, credits, and local MCP
- Descript filler and silence cuts vs PilotCut propose-then-commit
- Resolve Studio 21.1 native MCP vs PilotCut agent editing
Conclusion
PilotCut gives the agent you already pay for 83 purpose-built editing tools, a plan before the cuts that change meaning, and a 250-entry history you can read back. Free during beta.
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