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I got Claude Cowork to edit my cooking reel

January 21, 2025

I love cooking. I've been shooting Reels to document it all. I decided to use Claude Cowork to see how well it would do. Since I've done a bunch of reels already, I know what good looks like. To go the extra mile, I did the actual video myself (using Instagram's Edits app) and posted before Claude was done.

The process

I shoot all my videos on my iPhone. I started by setting up a folder for Claude Cowork to work in. I knew Claude needed specific instructions, so my first step was to write a set of clear instructions in a markdown file.

I started by giving Claude these instructions:

  1. Each video inside a raw folder
  2. The folder will contain raw footage
  3. Some general notes around what we should do for each platform (we can discuss and finalise). These instructions will be saved in a markdown file in the main folder
  4. When I ask you to do a task, you read the instructions, find the relevant folder and then start working on the task.

Instead of writing these in a markdown file, I got Claude to ask me questions before finalising instructions. This helps extract more context from me and make the instructions as clear as possible.

This allowed Claude to get even clearer on instructions for the task:

  • How to name files
  • The extent of editing (stitch videos, add effects, background audio etc). Stitching videos takes me the most time so I asked it to focus on that and limit scope
  • Output formats
  • Made it clear that it should WATCH the videos (by sampling frames). Otherwise, it assumed that I'd provide specific notes on the stitching.

After a few turns, we were able to get to a really good set of instructions. In short, I would provide all raw footage in a sub-folder. Claude would analyse all the videos and give me a proposal or story line. I'd confirm and then it would go away to complete the task.

V1

The first version had a bunch of issues. It had no audio because Claude thought I wanted to remove it. It used the wrong video to start with. I gave it feedback on both of these points.

View V1

V2

After looking at V1, I wasn't hoping for much. But, again, it just went away and did its thing. It followed my feedback, resampled frames, identified corrections and fixed them.

The output is very close to the final video I posted (see below). I'd say it's done between 80-90% of the work. The remaining bits are: replacing 2-3 specific clips for a better flow, adding a voice over & captions, writing a description and adding background music.

I'm blown away.

View V2

Final result

View final

Key takeaways

  • Use a folder structure: it reduces the scope of what Claude is working on
  • Spend time on instructions: just like coding, "planning" pays off
  • Balance specificity with freedom: instead of "I want a 45 second reel", say "Aim for 30-90 seconds, 45 is the sweet spot"
  • Limit scope: I asked it to focus on stitching videos alone because this was the most time consuming task for me