March 16, 2026
Vibes of Vim, cuts like a knife
Lazycut: A simple terminal video trimmer using FFmpeg
Terminal video trimmer drops, devs yell “Vim for video” while AI flexes
TLDR: Lazycut is a keyboard-driven video trimmer that runs in your terminal using FFmpeg, with a text-art preview and simple in/out cuts. Commenters split between loving the “Vim for video” vibe, flexing that AI could build it in minutes, and grumbling that Windows should bundle FFmpeg.
Lazycut just crashed the party: a tiny keyboard-first tool that lets you trim videos right in your terminal using the video workhorse FFmpeg. Tap Space to play, hit i/o to mark start and end, smash Enter to export, and yes—there’s even a text-art preview thanks to Chafa. It installs via Homebrew on Mac and a downloadable build on Windows, with the code on GitHub.
But the tool is only half the show—the comments are pure theater. One user gushed it’s the first time they’ve seen a real terminal video player and called it “very fun,” while another wondered if they can stitch multiple clips after cutting. Then the plot twist: the AI crowd rolled in. A veteran builder bragged that “Claude Code can put one together in just a couple prompts,” and another chimed in they’ve been using AI + FFmpeg as their video editor for ages. Cue the debate: is Lazycut a neat utility or just a shiny wrapper around FFmpeg that any chatbot can whip up?
Meanwhile, Windows users sparked a mini-riot: a top comment demanded “Just bundle it,” complaining about separate FFmpeg downloads. Others shrugged—this is the terminal life, bring your own engine. The meme of the day? “Vim for video” and “Hollywood, but make it ASCII.”
Key Points
- •Lazycut is a terminal-based video trimmer that marks in/out points and exports clips with aspect ratio control.
- •Installation is available for macOS via Homebrew and for Windows via downloadable binaries.
- •Lazycut requires FFmpeg and Chafa; FFmpeg can be installed via winget or ffmpeg.org, and Chafa via Scoop.
- •Users can build Lazycut from source by cloning the GitHub repository and compiling with Go.
- •Keyboard shortcuts include play/pause, seek ±1s/±5s, set in/out points, export, help, quit, and repeat counts (e.g., 5l).