# How Formats Studio works

> The mental model: your agent and you on one timeline, local files and linked media, sequences, and frames.

Formats Studio docs · Start · https://formats.app/docs/concepts · Updated 2026-09-27

## Your agent edits the same timeline you do

- Your agent runs on your Mac through the app. It reads the project, the transcript and the frames it needs, then calls the editor's own tools: cut, trim, caption, add graphics, grade, export.
- Nothing it does is hidden. Each tool call appears in the chat as a row, and changes to the timeline arrive as edits you can review, apply, decline or undo.
- You and your agent share one undo history, so `⌘Z` steps back through both.
- Skills teach the agent how a kind of video is made. Formats ships twelve, and your agent can also follow your own. See [Skills](https://formats.app/docs/skills).

## Local first, by design

- Everything the app writes lives in a **workspace folder** on your Mac, by default **Movies › Formats Studio**.
- Your source video and audio are **linked**, not copied or uploaded: a project points to the files where they already are.
- Projects, caches, generated media and exports are plain files in the workspace, so you can back it up or move it like any folder.

> **Note:** Because media is linked, moving or renaming a source file shows up as **Missing Media** until you relink it. See [Workspaces and storage](https://formats.app/docs/workspaces).

## Projects, tracks and clips

- A **project** holds a timeline, its settings (resolution and frame rate) and references to the media you use.
- The timeline stacks **tracks**; higher tracks draw over lower ones.
- A **clip** is a window into a source file. Trimming a clip changes which part of the source plays; it never alters the file.
- An **adjustment layer** is a clip without media of its own that applies its effects and color to every clip below it.

## Sequences and compound clips

- A **sequence** is a standalone timeline in the same project, opened as a tab above the timeline. Each has its own tracks, clips and markers; the **Main** timeline is itself one.
- A **compound clip** folds a stretch of the timeline into a single reusable item that you can move, trim and add effects to like one clip.
- They are the same thing seen two ways: open a compound clip to edit it as a sequence, and drop any sequence into another timeline as a clip.

> **Note:** A sequence can contain other sequences but never itself; circular nesting is blocked.

## Frames and timecode

- Timing is measured in **frames** at the project frame rate.
- The preview and timeline show **timecode** as minutes, seconds and frames.
- Source media can have a different frame rate than the project; Formats converts between them as you edit.

> **Tip:** Set the project resolution and frame rate to match where the video is going when you create the project.

## Rendered on your Mac

- Playback, effects, color and export use your Mac's GPU and its hardware video encoders.
- **Proxies** are lighter copies of heavy media that keep editing smooth; exports always use the originals.
- Exports never carry a watermark, on any plan.

## Related

- [Work with your agent](https://formats.app/docs/agent): Choose Claude Code, Codex or GitHub Copilot, ask for edits in plain words, and review, apply or undo what it does.
- [Workspaces and storage](https://formats.app/docs/workspaces): Where your projects live on your Mac, switching workspaces, missing media and cache maintenance.
- [Editing tools](https://formats.app/docs/editing-tools): Selection, razor, trim and rate stretch, plus the ripple and rolling trim behaviors.