EditRush is a lightweight, native video editor for the Mac. It launches instantly, plays and scrubs smoothly, and saves your work continuously. Everyday editing, without the wait.
Signed with Developer ID & notarized by Apple Updates itself
Built with Swift, SwiftUI and AppKit on AVFoundation, with Core Image on Metal for the picture. It launches instantly and plays and scrubs smoothly.
Every edit is written to disk 1.5 seconds after you make it, and EditRush reopens your last session on launch. Quitting never loses work.
No log-ins and no cloud. Your projects and media never leave your Mac; the only thing EditRush fetches from the internet is the update check.
Features
Cut clips together, add titles, fades, transforms and colour, record a voiceover and export an MP4 or MOV. Every edit can be undone.
Multi-track timeline
Stack video and overlay tracks over audio tracks. Split at the playhead with ⌘B, join clips back with ⌘J, ripple delete, close gaps, detach audio and nudge by a frame. Snapping keeps everything lined up.
Media bin
Import MP4, MOV, MP3, WAV, OGG, PNG and JPG with ⌘I, or drag files from Finder anywhere onto the window. Double-click an item to add it after the playhead; repeat to build a sequence.
Titles
Press ⌘T for a title, then set its font, size, colour and placement in the inspector, with an outline, a drop shadow or a background box. Titles sit on the timeline as their own clips, so you trim, move and fade them like anything else.
Transform
Scale and move clips right on the canvas with handles in the viewer. Put a clip on an overlay track, shrink it into a corner, and you have picture-in-picture.
Colour & filters
Exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature and vignette on every video and image clip, plus fifteen filters with adjustable intensity, all rendered with Core Image on Metal.
The same frame at 0:11, before and after. Rendered by EditRush from the Treetop Pan clip, once without its grade and once with it. No filter is applied.
Colour
Adjust brightness, contrast and saturation, plus exposure, temperature and a vignette, on any clip. Change one clip without touching the rest of the edit, and Reset All takes it back.
Filters
Pick a look from live thumbnails of your clip in the Filters tab, then dial in its intensity.
Speed
Set any video or audio clip from 10% to 1000% on the slider, type an exact percentage, or tap a preset: 25%, 50%, 100%, 200% or 400%. The clip gets shorter or longer and later clips on its track move to make room. Audio keeps its pitch.
Voiceover
Click the microphone on an audio track, or press ⇧⌘R. After a 3-2-1 countdown the timeline plays from the playhead while you speak. Press Space, Esc or Stop and the take lands on the track where you started.
Export · New in 1.3
Export at 720p, 1080p, 4K or project size, in H.264 or HEVC, as MP4 or MOV. The new File size slider runs from best quality down to a target size, and EditRush picks the bitrate to land near it. Handy when an upload has a limit.
And the rest
The last 1000 steps, with ⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z.
Fade up from black or fade to black on any clip. Set the length in the Fades tab, or use Fade In 1s and Fade Out 1s in the Clip menu.
Toggle snapping with N. Zoom in and out, or Zoom to Fit with ⇧Z.
Cut, copy, paste and duplicate clips with the usual ⌘X, ⌘C, ⌘V and ⌘D.
Reconnect a drive and thumbnails and preview reload when you switch back.
One .editrush file that points at your media. Double-click it in Finder to open.
Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.
New versions arrive through Sparkle. That check is the only network access.
Scripts & AI agents
A project is a single .editrush file of JSON, so a script or an AI agent can build an edit by writing one. The app binary probes media, validates a project, renders a frame and exports, all without opening a window.
The open project’s file is watched, so an agent can edit it while you work. Its changes appear live as one undoable step, merged with your own.
# media entry for the project
$ ./EditRush --probe clip.mov
# check the file before rendering
$ ./EditRush --validate edit.editrush
# look at the frame at 5 seconds
$ ./EditRush --frame f.png \
--project edit.editrush --at 5
# export, aiming for about 25 MB
$ ./EditRush --export out.mp4 \
--project edit.editrush --size 25Keyboard shortcuts
J, K and L shuttle, single keys for the common edits, and they step aside while you’re typing in a text field.
Free download. Signed with Developer ID, notarized by Apple, and it keeps itself up to date.
Screenshots show “Big Buck Bunny” © 2008 Blender Foundation, www.bigbuckbunny.org, licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Clips via test-videos.co.uk.
Swift, SwiftUI and AppKit, AVFoundation, and Core Image on Metal.