OpenCut Has 92,200 Stars, but the Editor People Use Is the Classic One and the Rewrite Is Not Taking Contributions
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OpenCut Has 92,200 Stars, but the Editor People Use Is the Classic One and the Rewrite Is Not Taking Contributions
The open-source CapCut alternative rebuilt its default branch in May. The README and a third-party walkthrough disagree on how much of the new code is Rust.
OpenCut, the MIT-licensed video editor pitched as a CapCut alternative, had 92.2k stars on Oct. 5 and is partway through a ground-up rewrite that its README says is not yet open to outside contributions. People who want to edit video today are sent to the classic version. The new one is a work in progress.
The numbers on the repository
The OpenCut repository listed 9.1k forks, 432 watchers, 275 open issues and 99 pull requests. It gained 512 stars on the day this desk read it, per the GitHub trending list.
An older third-party walkthrough, a July 2026 post on mer.vin put it at more than 64k stars. Another 28,000 followed in the months after.
Classic versus rewrite
The README describes a free video editor for web, desktop and mobile, with the classic version kept at opencut-app/opencut-classic and the new one previewed at new.opencut.app. Promised for the rewrite are an Editor API, third-party plugins, an MCP server for AI agents, headless mode and a scripting tab inside the editor.
| Piece | Status per the sources |
|---|---|
| Classic editor at opencut.app | Working: timeline, masks, keyframes, per-clip effects |
| Rewrite preview at new.opencut.app | Scaffold, per mer.vin |
| Editor API | Planned; only health and echo routes exist, per mer.vin |
| Plugins, MCP server, headless mode | Listed on the roadmap in the README |
| Outside contributions | Not accepted yet, per the README |
According to mer.vin, the classic line shipped v0.1 through v0.3 between February and April 2026, and the codebase was replaced in May. That sequence comes from one source and is not confirmed by the README.
Where the two sources disagree
The README says the rewrite is built with a Rust core that runs on web, desktop and mobile. The mer.vin walkthrough read the new monorepo as "scaffold-level": a React 19 web app, an Elysia API worker on Cloudflare and a GPUI desktop shell, with TypeScript dominating and Rust confined to the desktop scaffold.
Both can be true at different dates. A README states intent, and a code walk shows what had landed when it was written. The reader should treat the Rust core as a goal until the repository shows it running the compositor in the new app.
What the open issues say
The tracker reflects a project whose name outran its infrastructure.
- #899 (Aug. 31): fake websites appear at opencut.net.
- #902 (Sept. 1): new.opencut.app is not visible.
- #892 (Aug. 26): the Windows README says no dependencies, but an MSVC linker is required.
- #896 (Aug. 30): a colour accuracy bug involving an OKLab transform.
A reader hunting for the editor should start from the README's own links, since #899 reports lookalike domains. The issue list also shows repeated reports of lag, freezing and crashes during editing and transcript generation.
Why the star count is a weak guide
Stars say a repository was bookmarked. They do not say how many people finished a video in it, and no source read for this piece gives a user count. Compare DwarfStar and ds4, a repo whose appeal was a narrow, testable claim, and Claude-Mem, where the README's own settings mattered more than the star count.
The next milestone is the Editor API. The mer.vin walkthrough found only health and echo routes, so the first real endpoint will show whether the plugin-first design exists in code.
Sources
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