OpenMontage: turn your Claude Code into a video studio, Quentin IA Marketing

A product ad, an explainer for your sales page, a launch teaser: until now, that took an editor or an agency. With OpenMontage, you describe the video in Claude Code, and a team of agents researches, writes, voices, illustrates and edits it. You approve the big steps.

OpenMontage is an open source project (AGPL-3.0 license, more than 70,000 stars on GitHub). This guide takes you from install to your first video, starting without spending a cent.

Claude AI Lab

The Claude AI Lab is my Skool community where I share my Claude systems and the more advanced modules. Access is $67/month.

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✅What you need

Claude Code. Check with claude --version (guide tested on version 2.1.304).

Python 3.10 or later. Check with python3 --version.

Node.js 18 or later. Check with node --version.

FFmpeg. Check with ffmpeg -version. On a Mac: brew install ffmpeg.

git. Check with git --version.

70,000+

stars on GitHub

for a video with no key at all

approvals waiting for you

What it does, and what it doesn't

OpenMontage is not editing software with a timeline. You don't cut footage by hand: you write one sentence, and the agent runs a full production chain.

🔎

Research

The agent researches your topic on the web to ground the script in facts.

✍️

Script and voice

It writes the text, then has it read by a voice-over, free (Piper, offline) or paid.

🖼️

Visuals and media

AI images, free libraries (NASA, Wikimedia, Pexels), royalty-free music.

🎬

Edit

It assembles everything, adds word-by-word subtitles and renders an MP4.

Formats covered: animated explainers, product ads, teasers, trailers, archive montages.

Install OpenMontage

🔗 github.com/calesthio/OpenMontage

⚙️In your terminal, in the folder of your choice

Get the code. git clone https://github.com/calesthio/OpenMontage.git then cd OpenMontage.

Run the install. make setup. The last line you should see: Done! Open this project in your AI coding assistant and start creating.

What make setup does

It creates an isolated Python environment (.venv) inside the folder, installs the Remotion editing engine and the free Piper voice, caches HyperFrames, and creates a .env file with every key empty.

No make command on your machine? The project README gives the equivalent sequence of commands for macOS, Linux and Windows, in the Quick Start section.

First free test

💻 inside the OpenMontage folder

▶️Step one: the demos, with no key at all

Render the demos. make demo renders the three demo videos, make demo-list lists them. They land in projects/demos/renders/.

See what they show. world-in-numbers (45 s, charts and key figures), code-to-screen (50 s, animated diagrams), focusflow-pitch (40 s, startup pitch).

💬Step two: your first real request

Open the project in Claude Code. Type claude inside the OpenMontage folder.

Paste the request below. Cost: $0. Announced time: 5 to 10 minutes.

Make a 45-second animated explainer about why the sky is blue. Use only free tools, no paid APIs.

The sentence that keeps the test free

"Use only free tools" steers the agent toward the Piper voice, free libraries and Remotion. Also state the voice-over language in your request.

Track and approve

📋 Backlot, local

👀You see everything, you approve everything

Open the Backlot board. It tracks every production live and never leaves your machine. To reopen it: source .venv/bin/activate then python -m backlot open.

Answer the approvals in the chat. The agent stops for your sign-off on the proposal (angle, tools, cost), the script, the scene plan, the generated media, then before publishing.

Budget guardrails

By default, the agent asks for your approval on any action above $0.50 and stops at $10 in total. Both limits are adjustable.

Free or paid

💳 .env file

🧾The code is free, you only pay the providers you plug in

No key: $0. Piper voice, free archives, Remotion edit.

Free libraries: $0. Free Pexels, Pixabay or Unsplash keys in .env.

AI images: about $0.15 to $1.50 per video. A FAL_KEY unlocks FLUX images.

Everything on: about $1 to $3. AI video, ElevenLabs voice, Suno music.

Google key for images

If your Google AI Studio key has no access to the Imagen model, ask the agent to use gemini-2.5-flash-image: it is the model the tool plans for that case.

These amounts are the estimates published by the project. Add your Claude Code subscription, which runs the agent.

Three prompts to copy

📝 one per budget level

1️⃣Free, animated data: $0, 8 to 12 min, no key

For a key-figures video, adapt it to your market.

Create a 60-second data-driven video about coffee consumption around the world. Include bar charts comparing countries and a pie chart of coffee types.

2️⃣Product teaser with AI images: about $0.60, 12 to 18 min, FAL_KEY

For a launch, swap the bottle for your product.

Make a product launch teaser for a fictional smart water bottle called AquaPulse. 45 seconds, modern and minimal, with AI-generated product shots.

3️⃣Cinematic trailer: about $2.50, 25 to 40 min, AI video, voice and music

To test the top level, with every key plugged in.

Create a cinematic 30-second trailer for a sci-fi concept: humanity receives a warning from 1,000 years in the future. Use motion video clips, a cinematic soundtrack, and dramatic title cards.

Before you post on Instagram

The raw render is a base. Check the subtitle size on a phone, keep text and subtitles inside the safe zone of the screen, and fix the pacing if the images run like a slideshow.

Stay in control

🔒 your machine, your keys

🧹What gets installed, and how to remove it all

Everything lives in the OpenMontage folder. The Python environment, the editing engine and the .env file are created there.

To uninstall, delete the folder. Only the HyperFrames npx cache remains and, if you use uv, the Python version it downloaded.

For your first test, put no key in .env. A key is used to call the matching provider, so your requests go to them.

What it changes for your business

A launch ad or an explainer used to need an editor or an agency. OpenMontage brings its cost down to $0 with no key, a few dollars of API at most, plus your approvals.

🛍️

Product ad

A 15 to 45 second teaser for every new release, without an agency brief.

📊

Data explainer

An animated-charts video for your sales page or your pitch.

🚀

Recurring content

A series of videos in the same format, relaunched with one sentence.

Key takeaway

You describe, your Claude Code produces, you approve. Start with the no-key path, then plug in a single key once the format works for you.