# Work with your agent

> Choose Claude Code, Codex or GitHub Copilot, ask for edits in plain words, and review, apply or undo what it does.

Formats Studio docs · Agents · https://formats.app/docs/agent · Updated 2026-09-27

## The AI panel

Open the **AI** tab in the tools column to talk to your agent. It sees the project the way you do: the timeline, the media, transcripts, what is selected and where the playhead is. It works by calling the editor's own tools, so everything it does is ordinary editing you can inspect and undo.

## Choose an agent and model

- Pick the agent from the picker at the right of the composer: **Codex** (built in), **Claude Code** or **GitHub Copilot**. The last two are found on your Mac when installed.
- Choose the model, and the reasoning effort where the agent offers one, from the same picker.
- The first request for a project asks **Use … for this project?** Choose **Continue and send** to go ahead. Your agent uses its own account and quota; Formats never sees those credentials.

## Ask for an edit

1. Select clips first if the request is about them; the composer shows how many are selected.
2. Type the request in **Describe the next edit...** and press Return to send. Shift-Return starts a new line.
3. Attach images, video or audio with the paperclip. Attachments are added to Assets so the agent can use them.
4. While it works, the send button becomes **Stop agent**, which ends the run at once.

Say what you want the way you would to an editor. For example:

- “Cut the dead air, but keep the pacing natural.”
- “Turn this into a vertical short with a hook up top and bold captions.”
- “Remove the filler words from the interview.”
- “Find the shot where she smiles into the sun and put it after the intro.”
- “Add a lower third for Aiko Tanaka, Head of Design.”
- “Give it a warm, filmic look and letterbox it.”
- “Generate a five-second shot of fog rolling over a forest for the opening.”
- “Export the first minute as an MP4 for YouTube.”

## What your agent can do

| Area | For example |
| --- | --- |
| Look and read | Read the project, tracks, markers and transcripts; look at source frames, timeline frames and contact sheets |
| Cut and arrange | Place, move, trim and split clips; ripple delete, close gaps, join, duplicate and reorder; speed, reverse and freeze frames |
| Speech | Transcribe, cut by words, remove filler words and silence, search what was said, find matching takes |
| Captions | Add word-timed captions in any built-in style, in the original language, in Latin letters or translated to English |
| Graphics | Create and revise editable titles, lower thirds, charts, maps and animated scenes, and preview them before placing |
| Finish | Text styles, looks, effects, adjustment layers, crop and layout, audio levels, EQ and ducking, transitions |
| Media | Import files and folders, search and import stock footage, add bundled sounds, organize the library |
| Understand footage | Analyze video on your Mac with Local AI and search it by what it shows |
| Generate | Images, video, music, sound effects and voiceover, after you approve the price |
| Deliver | Render a short preview, check export readiness, export the video, subtitles or an editable bundle |
| History | Undo and redo its own edits, never skipping a newer edit of yours |

## Approval modes

The approval button in the composer, an eye while **Review edits** is on, sets how much the agent may do before it asks.

| Mode | What happens |
| --- | --- |
| **Review edits** | Approve each change first. Project reads need no approval |
| **Auto-edit** | Local edits apply straight away and stay undoable |
| **Full access** | The agent's own tools run without asking, and it can use your personal and project skills. Always confirmed before it turns on |

> **Note:** In every mode, paid services, audio and video uploads, final exports and new file access still ask first. In Full access, changes the agent makes to files directly bypass timeline Undo.

## Read the activity

- Each tool call is one row: a spinner while it works, then a check and a one-line outcome.
- Rows that wait for you say what they wait for, such as **Review edit**, **Review service** or **Review file access**.
- Other outcomes read **No change**, **Declined**, **Timeline changed**, **Stopped**, **Needs correction** or **Failed**. Expand a row for its details.

## Review an edit

A proposed change arrives as a card: what it will do, the clips and ranges it touches, and **Undoable timeline change**. Choose **Apply edit** or **Decline**. If the timeline has changed since the agent proposed it, the edit is not applied and the row reads **Timeline changed**.

| Card | Button | Means |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Timeline edit | **Apply edit** | One undo step |
| Hosted service | **Approve and generate** | Starts an upload and may use credits; Undo cannot reverse a completed charge |
| Images for the model | **Share images** | Sends the requested frames to your agent's provider |
| Files | **Choose files** | Only the files you choose are read |
| Delivery | **Queue export**, **Render preview** or **Save project** | Writes only inside the project's workspace |

## Answer its questions

When a choice changes the result, such as the format or the caption style, the agent asks in a card with the options laid out. Pick one and choose **Continue**, or **Cancel** to let it go. Your answer is a preference, never permission for an action.

## After the edit

- When the run ends, **Applied edits** lists what changed. **Show** selects exactly those clips and moves the playhead to them; the sliders button opens them in the Inspector to fine-tune.
- `⌘Z` undoes the agent's edits the same way it undoes yours, one step at a time.
- Keep going in the same chat: follow-ups build on the current timeline.

## Related

- [Skills](https://formats.app/docs/skills): The twelve skills that come with Formats, starting a request from the library, and using your own skills.
- [Generate with AI](https://formats.app/docs/generate): Images, video, music, sound effects and voice from hosted models, priced before you start and added to your project.
- [Editor layout](https://formats.app/docs/editor): The toolbar, the tools column with your agent, Media, Library and Transcript, the preview, the Inspector and the timeline.
- [How Formats Studio works](https://formats.app/docs/concepts): The mental model: your agent and you on one timeline, local files and linked media, sequences, and frames.