Gausian Native Editor

Fast, native video editor and preview tool built in Rust with GPU rendering, timeline editing, and local ComfyUI integration.

Get Started • Features • Architecture • Desktop • CLI • Decoders

Visit gausian.xyz ↗  •  Join our Discord ↗

Gausian is a native editor focused on snappy preview, practical timeline tools, and smooth ingest/export. It supports hardware decoding (VideoToolbox on macOS, GStreamer pipelines cross‑platform), a WGPU preview pipeline, and integrates with a local ComfyUI for prompt‑based generation via an embedded WebView and auto‑import of outputs. A CLI is included for headless operations.

👥 Contributors

✨ Features

• GPU-accelerated preview (WGPU) with YUV→RGB shaders and readback
• Timeline editing, assets panel, project persistence (SQLite)
• Local ingest: FFmpeg/ffprobe probing, image/video/audio
• Exporters: FCPXML (1.9/1.10), FCP7 XML, EDL, JSON
• Proxy generation via GStreamer (ProRes/NVENC/VAAPI/software)
• Local ComfyUI: optional embedded WebView and auto‑import from a local ComfyUI output folder
• Screenplay/Storyboard helpers with LLM providers (OpenAI, etc.)
• Footage analysis with Twelve Labs Pegasus (opt‑in): describe, summarise, or shot‑list a clip from a URL or asset
• Cross-platform desktop (macOS/Windows/Linux)

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust (stable)
• FFmpeg/ffprobe on PATH
• GStreamer for proxy/advanced decode paths (recommended on all platforms; required for some proxies)
  • macOS (Homebrew): brew install ffmpeg gstreamer gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-libav
  • Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-plugins-{base,good,bad} gstreamer1.0-tools
  • Windows: install a recent GStreamer build (system PATH), FFmpeg
• ComfyUI (local, optional): required if you want to open the embedded WebView or auto‑import its outputs. Install and run ComfyUI locally (default at http://127.0.0.1:8188). See https://github.com/comfyanonymous/ComfyUI

Desktop app

cargo run --bin desktop

CLI (headless)

# Show commands
cargo run -p cli -- --help

🧩 Architecture

• apps/desktop (egui + wgpu)
  • Timeline, assets, GPU preview, audio engine, export
  • ComfyUI integration (local only): optional embedded WebView and auto‑import
• apps/comfywebview
  • Minimal native WebView window for ComfyUI
• crates/*
  • timeline — graph, tracks, commands
  • project — SQLite DB, migrations, asset/proxy/job tables
  • media-io — probe/export helpers, waveforms, encoders
  • renderer — WGPU renderer and WGSL shaders
  • exporters — FCPXML/FCP7/EDL/JSON
  • plugin-host — WASM/Python stubs
  • native-decoder — VideoToolbox (macOS) + optional GStreamer backend
  • cli — import/export/convert/analyze/new/encoders

apps/
  desktop/          # egui UI, preview, decode, export
  comfywebview/     # lightweight native WebView for ComfyUI

crates/
  timeline/         # timeline data structures and commands
  project/          # SQLite DB + migrations
  media-io/         # probe, waveforms, proxy helpers
  renderer/         # WGPU renderer & shaders (WGSL)
  exporters/        # FCPXML/FCP7/EDL/JSON exporters
  plugin-host/      # plugin runtime stubs (WASM/Python)
  native-decoder/   # VideoToolbox & GStreamer backend
  cli/              # headless commands

formats/            # JSON specs (screenplay/storyboard)

🖥 Desktop App

Build & run

cargo run --bin desktop

Optional features

• Embedded WebView (macOS only): cargo run --bin desktop --features embed-webview
  • Requires a local ComfyUI installation running (default http://127.0.0.1:8188)
  • In the app, set the ComfyUI Repo Path (folder containing main.py) to enable local integrations

Basic flow

• Import media in Assets panel (drag drop or “Import path” + Add)
• Timeline: click to seek, drag to move/trim, snapping to seconds/edges
• Export: choose preset; FCPXML/FCP7/EDL/JSON also available
• ComfyUI (local): set Repo Path, enable auto‑import to ingest outputs
  • Note: only local ComfyUI is supported at this time; no remote/cloud connection

🎬 Footage Analysis (Twelve Labs Pegasus)

Optional, opt‑in AI footage understanding for video production. Given a clip (a direct media URL or an uploaded Twelve Labs asset) and a prompt, the Twelve Labs Pegasus model returns a textual analysis — useful for auto‑describing footage, summarising a take, or generating a shot list. Nothing here runs unless you call it explicitly with an API key, so it does not affect any existing behaviour.

use desktop::footage_analysis::{FootageAnalyzer, PegasusConfig, VideoSource};

let analyzer = FootageAnalyzer::new(PegasusConfig::new(std::env::var("TWELVELABS_API_KEY")?))?;
let result = analyzer.analyze(
    VideoSource::url("https://example.com/clip.mp4"),
    "Summarise the action and list every distinct shot.",
)?;
println!("{}", result.text);

The integration test exercises a real Pegasus call and is skipped unless a key is present:

TWELVELABS_API_KEY=tlk_... cargo test -p desktop --test footage_analysis_tests -- --nocapture

You can grab a free API key at https://twelvelabs.io — there's a generous free tier.

🛠 CLI

Examples

# Analyze media and print JSON
cargo run -p cli -- analyze ./media/clip.mp4 --waveforms

# List hardware encoders
cargo run -p cli -- encoders

# Convert to FCPXML/EDL/JSON (demo sequence)
cargo run -p cli -- convert in.edl out.fcpxml --output-format fcpxml

See all commands

cargo run -p cli -- --help

🎞 Proxy Encoding

Cross‑platform GStreamer pipeline with hardware profiles:

• macOS: VideoToolbox ProRes (vtdec(_hw) + vtenc_prores)
• NVIDIA: NVENC (nvh264enc, nvvidconv)
• Intel: VAAPI (vah264enc, vapostproc)
• Fallback: DNxHR (software)

macOS GStreamer (Homebrew) env (used by the app)

export GST_PLUGIN_PATH=/opt/homebrew/lib/gstreamer-1.0
export GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH=/opt/homebrew/lib/gstreamer-1.0
export GST_PLUGIN_SCANNER=/opt/homebrew/libexec/gstreamer-1.0/gst-plugin-scanner
export GST_REGISTRY_REUSE_PLUGIN_SCANNER=no

🧪 Decoder & GStreamer Notes

• Prefer VideoToolbox on macOS; use GStreamer elsewhere (or as a macOS option)
• To force VT over libav in GStreamer, set:

export GST_PLUGIN_FEATURE_RANK="vtdec_h264:PRIMARY+1,vtdec_hevc:PRIMARY+1"

• One-time diagnostics:

export GST_DECODER_DIAG=1

🗺 Roadmap (Upcoming)

• Timeline polish and UX improvements
• Automatic LORA creator
• Advanced color management and LUTs
• Rich effects and transitions
• Multi‑window workspace
• Collaborative editing
• Plugin marketplace

🤝 Contributing

• Ensure rustfmt/clippy are green
• Keep changes focused; update docs as needed
• File issues with repro steps and logs

_{Built with Rust, egui, wgpu, GStreamer, and lots of 🧪.}

📄 License

• Core: MPL-2.0 (Mozilla Public License 2.0)
• Pro Features: Separate commercial license for advanced codecs and pro features

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests for new functionality
5. Submit a pull request

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"FFmpeg not found":

• Install FFmpeg and ensure it's in your PATH
• On macOS: brew install ffmpeg
• On Windows: Download from https://ffmpeg.org/

"No hardware encoders detected":

• This is normal on some systems
• Software encoders will be used (slower but functional)
• Ensure GPU drivers are up to date

Performance Issues:

• Close other GPU-intensive applications
• Reduce preview resolution in timeline
• Enable proxy generation for large files

📞 Support

For questions, bug reports, or feature requests, please open an issue on the project repository.

• Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/JfsKWDBXHT

Star History

Built with ❤️ in Rust | GPU-Accelerated | Cross-Platform | Open Source