Introduction

An AI video editor you can actually take apart. On Nov 2, the Mago team open-sourced Mago Studio, the local-first desktop edition of its AI video editor. The repo was created at 16:03 UTC, and the v0.19.0 installers for Windows, macOS and Linux landed a minute later. It's a video tool with a real timeline. Renders run on your own GPU through ComfyUI, with MiniMax H3 as the main model, or in Mago Cloud if you sign in.

The app code is AGPL-3.0. You can run it locally for free with no account. Cloud models are paid. Primary source: https://github.com/MagoStudio/MagoStudio

What shipped

  • App: Mago Studio v0.19.0 (Electron + Next.js), available as .exe (signed), .dmg (arm64) and .deb
  • License: AGPL-3.0-only for the app. The models it downloads keep their own licenses, and the wizard asks you to accept the non-permissive ones first.
  • Mago Director: goes from script to cast, shot list and storyboards, then renders consistent scenes where each shot picks up from the one before it
  • Mago Transform: restyles footage frame-accurately. You can target specific frame ranges, edit part of a clip with masks, relight a shot or replace characters.
  • Editor: shots, layers and AI renders on one timeline, plus versioning and review tools
  • Built to be modified: the codebase is written so a coding agent can extend it, for example to wire in a new video model the day it drops

The local stack it installs

On Windows, choose I don't have ComfyUI installed and the wizard handles everything. It checks your GPU, downloads a pinned portable ComfyUI with its node packs and models, and verifies every file. The minimum is an NVIDIA GPU with 8 GB VRAM and about 63 GB of free disk. The Minimal model group (about 54 GB) contains:

  • MiniMax H3 Ref2VA (Comfy-Org pruned INT8 conv-rot build), plus its NVFP4 Qwen3-VL 32B text encoder and the video and audio VAEs
  • A 4-step turbo LoRA for fast drafts and an 8-step PAI acceleration LoRA for higher-quality renders
  • H3 VFX LoRAs for VFX edit, head swap, character swap and style transfer
  • Qwen3-VL 4B for captioning shots

Optional groups add a local LLM for script writing (Qwen3.8-27B GGUF, Q3 or Q5 depending on VRAM) and Qwen Image or Flux image models for reference images. Wan 2.2 Animate, Wan VACE and the LTX 2.3 spatial upscaler need a few node packs that you install by hand.

Bring your own ComfyUI

On macOS and Linux, or if you already have a ComfyUI install, point the app at your own server. You'll need ComfyUI v0.34.0 or later, because the H3 VFX modes use the core MiniMaxH3AddGuide node. You'll also need three node packs:

  • ComfyUI-KJNodes
  • ComfyUI-VideoHelperSuite
  • ComfyUI-MiniMax-H3-PDD-Acc

The default endpoint is http://127.0.0.1:8188. Running Set up local rendering → I already have ComfyUI lists every missing node and model file, along with its folder and download link. The authors do recommend the bundled portable build, since mismatched node versions are the usual cause of trouble.

Run it from source

git clone https://github.com/MagoStudio/MagoStudio.git
cd MagoStudio
npm ci            # Node 24.15, npm 11
npm run dev       # Electron + Next dev server
npm run make:desktop   # build an unsigned installer for your OS

Good to know

  • You don't need a GPU to open the app or to render in Mago Cloud. Local rendering is optional.
  • A Mago Cloud render uploads only what that one shot needs: its source video, reference images and masks. The rest of the project stays on your disk.
  • The MiniMax H3 weights fall under the MiniMax H3 Community License, not AGPL.
  • The macOS and Linux builds are unsigned, so expect an OS warning the first time you launch.

Links

Conclusion

Most AI video tools give you a prompt box. Mago Studio gives you a production desk: script, cast, shots, masks, versions and a timeline, all wired to an H3 stack running on your own card. Being open source means it also gets to grow in whichever direction you need. 🎬✨

Try this on Gen → https://artrealmai.com/gen?utm_source=magazine&utm_campaign=gen&utm_content=mago-studio-open-source-local-ai-video-editor-minimax-h3

—Aurelia ♡