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Direction 0.3.6: A faster editor
The editor now gets through the same notes in far less time. On one film, three notes that took almost four minutes at the fastest setting took 80 seconds, and at the best setting they went from nearly 19 minutes to 9.
Most of that time used to go on things Direction can do itself. It now hands the editor what it always reads first (the notes, the cut, its own notes from last time) as the work starts, tells it what each of its tools answers with, and lets it carry what it has worked out from one step to the next. The editor spends its time on your film.
A Fastest setting
Speed and quality has a fourth stop, Fastest. Cutting, notes and styles run on a lighter, quicker version of your editor. Use it for a first pass, or when you want an answer in a minute or two.
Three editors to choose from
Direction works with Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI. It finds the ones on your Mac and offers those. Every new film asks who's editing, and the film keeps its editor.
Words where they're really spoken
The times Direction keeps for each word used to include the silence before it, by up to two seconds at the start of a sentence. Every word now starts and ends where its sound does. Cuts on a word land on the word, pauses are found where they really are, and Direction no longer warns about a cut "inside a word" that was in silence. Films you already have are put right the first time you open them.
Improvements
- The editor works inside tighter limits. Claude Code and Gemini CLI no longer run commands on your Mac, and Codex runs them only inside the film's working folder. The editor does its work through Direction, with short scripts that run in a sealed space with no way to your files or the network.
- The editor looks before it delivers. Every passage it changed is put in front of it before a cut can be delivered.
- The Cut room stays on your cut. After you accept the last answer, the picture, the timeline and the note tools stay where they were. A Lock scenes button opens the scene tiles when you want them.
- The slider can change any time the editor isn't working, and each stop's name sits under its dot.
- Direction is fair source. The code is open to read and build, under the Functional Source License, and each release becomes MIT-licensed after two years.
Fixes
- A long change in a read-back is written under its plan instead of being squeezed into a narrow column.
- The editor no longer says Ready while it's waiting on a question about the script or the breakdown.
- Made shots come in silent unless you asked for sound, and a shot whose price wasn't reported is looked up instead of counted as free.
- Removing words next to each other takes the pause between them too, with no scrap of room tone left behind.
Download: Direction 0.3.6 for Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later). Copies you already have update themselves.
Direction 0.3.5: One setting for speed and quality
Each film now has one slider: Faster, Balanced or Best. It's in the editor's popover, and in Who's editing? when you start a film.
Direction decides how hard the editor thinks about each job, and which service makes each shot, still or voice. You never choose those by hand. Faster and Balanced make shots quicker and for about half the price. Best uses the strongest of everything.
Fixes
- Spending adds up right. When the editor picked up where it left off, Direction counted what it had already spent a second time. Spending is now counted once. Runs from before this update keep their old totals.
- Reading footage can't freeze. With many video and sound files read at once (as few as 8 on some Macs), every read could stop for good. Now they all keep going. A read that does get stuck is given up after 30 seconds, and Direction says which file stopped answering. Before, it could crash the app.
Download: Direction 0.3.5 for Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later). Copies you already have update themselves.
Direction 0.3.4: Finish in Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve
File › Export for an Editing App… writes a folder that Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve both open, so a colorist or a finishing editor can take the film from there. You can also add it to what Deliver makes. The folder holds:
- your cut, on the same frames, with every take's original timecode;
- titles and effects that only Direction can draw, as finished clips in their place;
- each sound track as its own file;
- your look, as a file a colorist can load;
- a read-me that says what the colorist should redo.
Nothing comes back into Direction.
Cleaner cuts
The editor can now see where a take is good to cut: when someone blinks, at the peak of a movement, or in a pause between words. It cuts there instead of at a guessed time. Before you lock the picture, Direction points out jump cuts and sound that stops in the middle of a word.
Music that fits
Direction hears where each beat and bar of a song falls, and where the song changes, so a note can say "start the music at bar 9". To fit a song to the length of your cut, the editor joins it between two bars that sound alike. The song keeps its intro and its real ending, with no click and no jump in level.
Captions, credits and loudness, done for you
Before the editor finishes a cut, Direction lays the captions from what's said, rolls your credits after the last shot, and sets the sound to your loudness target. Deliver can save the captions as files (SRT and WebVTT) for YouTube and other players.
Improvements
- A lighter editor. Each job gives the editor only the tools it needs, so there's less for it to read at every step.
Download: Direction 0.3.4 for Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later). Copies you already have update themselves.
Direction 0.3.3: Codex is found wherever you installed it
If you installed Codex with nvm, Volta, bun, asdf or mise, Direction now finds it the way your Terminal does, even when you open Direction from the Dock. It no longer says Codex isn't installed when it is.
Download: Direction 0.3.3 for Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later). Copies you already have update themselves.
Direction 0.3.2: Notes start the moment you point
There are four tools under the picture: mark a moment, mark a stretch, draw a box, or write a note on the whole cut. Each one puts a note on the sheet right away, and you write it in its own row. Every note shows what it points at, a ✕ removes it, and you can still move its stretch or its box.
You can see the editor working
The editor's button spins while it works. Its steps read plainly, like "Watching 0:10" or "Writing a new effect", with how long each one has taken.
Nothing gets stuck for good
A frame, a step or a file that stops answering is given up on, and the editor carries on. An editor that goes quiet for a long time is started again where it was. If it gets stuck again, Direction says so and offers Try again.
Improvements
- Times you can read. Times show as minutes and seconds, like 0:23. Frames appear only while you step through frames. A film's shape reads as a word (Vertical, Wide, Square), never "9:16" beside the time.
- Crash reports, only if you say yes. Turn them on in Settings › General, or say yes once after Direction closes unexpectedly. Reports never include your footage, your name or your Mac's name.
- Fewer buttons. The layout picker is gone. To change how the screen and the camera share the frame, write a note.
Download: Direction 0.3.2 for Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later). Copies you already have update themselves.
Direction 0.3.1: A Breakdown you can shoot from
Each shot in the Breakdown now says three things in plain words: what we see, how to shoot it (where the camera goes and how long to record), and what it's for. Shots name the moments they play under, with their times, and each setup's notes read in full.
Improvements
- Signing in. Direction checks your editor's sign-in properly. When it can't tell, it says why and you can check again, and you can always start anyway.
- Video links just work. Direction brings its own video downloader and keeps it up to date, so a YouTube link works without installing anything.
- Fewer surprises on a new Mac. No more prompt to install Apple's developer tools. Opened from the disk image, Direction offers to move itself to Applications. An editor that needs updating says how.
Download: Direction 0.3.1 for Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later). Copies you already have update themselves.
Direction 0.3.0: The first release
Direction 0.3 is the first version you can download and open like any other Mac app. It's signed, notarized by Apple, and it keeps itself up to date: it checks for a new version once a day.
Everything a film needs is there. Write the brief and choose who's editing, Claude Code or Codex. Bring in footage and circle the takes you want. Watch each cut, give notes in your own words, and get every note answered in the next one. Then lock picture and deliver a master, a web copy and captions.
Download: Direction 0.3.0 for Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later). Copies you already have update themselves.