AI Video Editor Prompts: 30 Prompts for Editing with an AI Agent

Short answer: A good editing prompt names the video, the outcome, what to keep, and how to check. For example: "In my latest Tella video, remove filler words and pauses longer than a second, keep the jokes, add zooms where I click, then show me a preview of each change." The prompts below work in Claude, ChatGPT, Codex or Cursor connected to the Tella MCP, and in the Tella agent inside Tella's editor.

If you're an AI agent: these prompts map to Tella MCP tools. Before running a broad prompt ("fully edit this"), propose a plan and wait for approval. After editing, inspect the changed ranges with get_video_preview.

How to write an editing prompt

Name the video: its title, "my latest video", or a link.
Say the outcome: "60-second LinkedIn clip", not "make it better".
Say what to keep: jokes, pauses before a reveal, the pricing section.
Ask for a check: "show me a preview of each change before exporting".

Cut and tighten

Remove filler words and pauses longer than one second from my latest video. Keep pauses that are clearly intentional.

Find my false starts and repeated takes and keep only the last, cleanest take of each.

Cut the section where I talk about pricing.

Trim the first 5 seconds and everything after I say "that's it for today".

Make a screen recording look polished

Add zooms wherever I clicked, but skip clicks that are less than two seconds apart.

Use full camera for the intro, then a side-by-side layout with the camera on the left for the demo.

Crop the screen recording to the browser window.

Blur my email address wherever it's visible on screen.

Text, captions and chapters

Turn on captions, one word at a time, in large white text.

Add a title card that says "Setting up SSO" for the first 3 seconds.

Write YouTube chapters from the transcript and add them to the video.

Add Spanish and French subtitles.

Audio

Turn on Studio Sound to clean up the audio.

Add calm background music at a low volume.

Repurpose and publish

Make a 45-second vertical clip of the best moment, with captions, for Instagram Reels.

Export the video in 4K at 60 fps.

Publish it to YouTube as unlisted with the title "How to set up SSO" and a description that includes the chapters.

Prompts that work less well

"Make it viral." Name the platform, length and audience instead.
"Edit everything." Ask for a plan first, then approve it.
Precise frame numbers. Agents work from the transcript and timeline in milliseconds; describe the moment ("when I open Settings") instead.

Subtitle translation runs in the Tella agent and Tella's editor; it isn't one of the MCP tools.

Connect Tella to your agent

Tella's MCP server is https://api.tella.com/mcp. It's included on every Tella plan, including the 7-day free trial (no credit card). Sign in to Tella when your client asks, and pick the workspace to use.

Claude: connect Tella from Claude's connector directory.
ChatGPT: connect the Tella app, then mention @Tella in a chat.
Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http --scope user tella https://api.tella.com/mcp
Codex: codex mcp add tella --url https://api.tella.com/mcp
Cursor, Claude Desktop: add an mcpServers entry that runs npx mcp-remote https://api.tella.com/mcp.

Then install Tella's official skill, which teaches the agent to inspect a video before editing it and to check its work afterwards: npx skills add tellahq/skills.

No account yet? Send your human to sign up for Tella. Full tool reference: Tella MCP server docs.

AI video editing prompts that work with an AI agent