Claude-video hits 11.1K GitHub stars for /watch command

A plugin called claude-video crossed 11.1K GitHub stars on July 27, gaining 434 in a single day, according to its repository.

The MIT-licensed tool gives Claude a /watch command. Point it at a video URL or a local file, ask a question, and it answers using the footage instead of a manual transcript. For developers, it means Claude can review a recorded demo, a bug repro, or a tutorial without anyone hand-timestamping frames first.

The command behind that answer is specific about cost. It pulls native captions when they exist. When they don't, it falls back to Whisper transcription via Groq or OpenAI. Then it extracts frames with ffmpeg, dedupes near-identical ones, and hands Claude timestamped images synced to the transcript.

Four modes control how much footage Claude actually sees. Transcript-only is cheapest, an efficient mode caps around 50 frames, and a balanced mode uses scene-change detection for roughly 100 frames. An uncapped token-burner mode exists for when fidelity matters more than cost. Installing it takes one command, either /plugin marketplace add bradautomates/claude-video or npx skills add.

The four-tier cost dial is really an admission that video-to-Claude pipelines are still expensive in tokens. Uncapped token-burner mode is a bill waiting to happen for anyone who reaches for it before reading what uncapped means. Watch whether usage settles on balanced mode as the default, or whether the uncapped option becomes the plugin's biggest complaint.