The Assistant is the chat panel in your timeline. Describe the edit you want and it builds a draft, then keep chatting to refine it.
How you word that first message shapes what you get back. For phrasing that works, see How to write prompts for AI editing in Selects.
Note: Chatting with the Assistant uses Selects credits.
Start the edit
When you open a new project, the chat is empty and ready. Type what you want done. If chat needs to analyze your footage first, it asks you to confirm the credits before anything runs. You can also start from the Home screen: describe your video in the chat box there, and Selects creates the project and sends your message as the first one.
To build your draft by hand instead, see Start from scratch: creating a draft manually.
Build a draft in chat
To build a draft in chat, tell the agent what you want. Your draft appears in the timeline when it is ready, and you can keep chatting to refine it.
For help wording a request, see How to write prompts for AI editing in Selects.
Once you have a draft, you can also review it by leaving notes on it as you watch and sending them to chat in one batch. See Review a draft with comments.
What you can ask for
What you can ask for covers six kinds of work. You do not pick between them, you just describe what you want and Selects uses the right one.
Assemble and cut: put your sources on a draft, then shape them into a finished edit. Ask for a storyline, a target length, or a highlight pass.
Pacing and speech flow: silences, pauses, dead air, filler words, repeated words, and jump cuts. Ask qualitatively with gentle, normal, tight, or jump cut, or give exact timings and it follows those instead.
Cut to a script: give it your script and it matches each line to what was actually recorded, on the take you meant, in script order.
Picture-led edits: find and assemble by what is on screen, including subjects, actions, expressions, locations, and shot order. Useful for montages, shot lists, and B-roll.
Clean up blurry or shaky shots: checks your footage for the shaky and out of focus stretches, then clears them off a draft. Scanning is not part of analysis, so if it has not run yet, chat runs it first. See Find shaky and blurry shots.
Organize your footage: sorts your sources into Main and B-roll folders, or any layout you name. It creates the folders it needs and moves your files into them, and never deletes your files.
Note: On multicam footage, a blur cleanup switches to a clean angle showing the same person rather than cutting the moment out. It only removes footage when there is one camera, or when no other angle is clean there.
Tip: You can attach a screenshot of a folder layout from another editor or from Finder and ask Selects to match it. It reads the folder names and file placement from the image, and tells you anything it could not match.
Attach a script or an image
You can attach a script or an image to any message. Click [+] in the chat input and choose [Attach a file], or drag the file straight onto the composer.
Scripts: .txt, .md, .docx, .pdf, and .srt.
Images: PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP, up to 4 per message.
You can attach up to 10 files to one message. Script files must be under 10 MB, and scripts must be under 45,000 characters, not counting timestamps. You can also paste a script straight into the input. Long pastes turn into an attachment chip showing the first line and the character count.
If a file is empty, an unsupported type, or unreadable, Selects tells you which so you can fix it. Scanned or image-only documents cannot be read as scripts.
Point the agent at a specific draft or folder
To point the agent at something specific, type @ in the chat input and pick it from the list. You can mention a video or audio file, a draft, a synced timeline, or a folder. It saves describing which draft you mean when a project has several.
You can also mention clips straight from your timeline:
Select one or more clips on a draft or a synced timeline.
Right-click the selection and choose [Mention in chat].
Chat opens with each clip added to your message as an @ mention. Finish your request and send it.
While the agent is working
While the agent is working, Selects shows you its progress. The send button turns into a stop button, so click that to cancel.
Your draft stays editable while chat works. A synced timeline locks only while chat is making changes to it, and you can edit it again once chat finishes.
Send more messages while it works
You can send more messages while the agent works. Type your next message and press Enter. It waits under [Waiting to send] above the chat input, and sends on its own when the current reply finishes.
You can still change a waiting message before it sends:
Click the pencil icon to move the message back into the chat input and edit it.
Click the X to remove it.
Use the up and down arrows to change the order they send in.
Click [Steer] to add the message to the reply in progress. This cannot be undone.
Note: Waiting messages and [Steer] are not available yet when you chat on your own Claude subscription. Wait for the reply to finish before you send your next message.
If a request fails
If a request fails, the error message above the chat input shows [Retry]. Click it to send your last message again without retyping it. Attached files are not sent again, so attach them again if the request needs them. An out-of-credits message shows its own next step instead of [Retry].
Manage your chats
You can keep several chats going per project, so you never have to clear one to start another.
[New chat], at the top of the chat list, starts an extra chat alongside the ones you already have.
The back arrow at the top of the panel opens your chat list for this project. Pick any chat to carry on where you left off.
Save how you work as a skill
Anything you find yourself repeating to chat can be saved as a skill: how you switch between cameras, how long you like your cuts, how you name drafts and organize your files. Ask chat to save it, and later projects pick it up without you explaining again.
Chat replies with a link to what it saved, so you can read it back. To change a skill, tell chat what to adjust.
Note: This is early. Skills are saved, applied, and changed through chat, and there is no separate screen for browsing or managing them yet.
Choose a model
To choose a model, click the model name at the bottom right of the chat input. The menu groups models by who pays for the conversation.
[Use Selects credits]: chat on the model built into Selects and pay with your Selects credits.
Connected plan: connect the Claude or ChatGPT subscription you already pay for, and chat in Selects on that plan instead of spending Selects credits. Connect it first, see Which AI setup should you use in Selects?
[Remaining credits] sits in the same menu. Hover it to see your current balance without leaving the chat.
Tip: [Connect MCP] sits at the top of this menu. It lets you drive Selects from your own AI agent instead of this chat. See Connect Selects to your AI agent with the Selects MCP.
Credits
Chatting with the Assistant uses Selects credits when you pick a model under [Use Selects credits].
There is no fixed price per message. How many credits a conversation uses depends on how long it runs and how much footage the agent has to read, so a quick question costs far less than a full draft built from hours of footage.
Analyzing your footage always uses credits, whichever model you chat on. See How AI analysis works in Selects and Selects app: plans and pricing.
If you are not sure which way suits you, see Which AI setup should you use in Selects?
Bring your own subscription (BYOS)
If you already pay for Claude or ChatGPT, you can connect that subscription and chat in Selects without spending Selects credits on the conversation. Selects runs the model against your own plan instead.
This is usually the cheaper way to chat, because a flat monthly Claude or ChatGPT plan costs less per message than the paid API access behind the Selects models.
Connecting takes about a minute and only has to be done once. For the setup steps, see Which AI setup should you use in Selects?
Once you are connected, picking a model from [Use Selects credits] switches that conversation back to Selects credits. It does not sign you out, so you can move between the two whenever you like.
FAQs
Does chatting with the Assistant use credits?
Yes. Chatting with the Assistant uses Selects credits when you pick a model under [Use Selects credits]. If you bring your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription, chatting does not use Selects credits, because your own plan covers the conversation instead. Analyzing your footage uses credits either way.
How many credits does one chat use?
There is no set number of credits per chat or per message. What a conversation uses depends on how long it runs and how much footage the agent has to read to answer you, so asking for a full draft from a day of footage uses far more than a small trim. Hover [Remaining credits] in the model menu to watch your balance while you work.
Do I need to bring my own AI subscription, such as Claude or ChatGPT, to use chat in Selects?
No. Bringing your own AI subscription, such as Claude or ChatGPT, is optional. Selects includes its own models under [Use Selects credits], so you can chat and build drafts without paying for anything else.
Why does it say my Claude subscription hit a rate limit?
The message "Claude rate-limited this request" means you have hit the usage limit on your own Claude plan, not a Selects limit. Wait for your Claude limit to reset, switch to a lighter Claude model, or pick a model under [Use Selects credits] to keep working.
What if my Claude connection expires?
When your Claude sign-in expires, the error message above the chat input shows [Reconnect Claude]. Click it to connect Claude again, then send your message again.