After analysis, the Selects Agent opens in the chat panel and helps you build a draft. You can describe the edit you want, or paste a script and let the agent match your footage to it. Both approaches use the same chat, just with a different starting point.
What the Selects Agent can do
The Selects Agent handles more than draft creation. Here is what you can ask it to do from the chat panel:
Draft creation: Describe a story angle, tone, or target length and the agent builds a new draft. It can also help you think through different editorial approaches.
Transcript and content search: Search your transcript by topic, quote, or speaker. Summarize chapters or find specific moments without scrubbing.
Markers: Ask the agent to place, list, or delete markers on the timeline.
Clip and track coloring: Color-code clips by topic or set audio track colors by speaker name.
Draft export and review: Export your draft text in plain text, SRT, VTT, or Markdown. Ask the agent to verify the draft matches your intent.
Scene search: Find A-roll moments visually or semantically.
Overlays: Install, modify, or remove captions, lower thirds, and name plates on clip ranges.
Tip: Not sure where to start or how to give instructions? Click [What can you do?] in the chat panel and the agent will walk you through what it can do, including frameworks and templates for giving it direction.
How the agent works
The Selects Agent reads your transcript and scans your footage before responding, so you do not need to explain your project. It asks follow-up questions when it needs more context, like pacing preferences or story direction. Before taking any significant action, it confirms with you first. For example, it will ask "Shall I go ahead and create this draft?" before building anything.
Choose how to edit your footage
When analysis finishes for the first time, Selects shows the "How should we edit this?" modal. This modal appears once per project, right after the first analysis completes.
The modal shows your project details: category, number of tracks, speakers detected, and total duration. Select your approach and click [Continue] to open the Selects Agent in chat.
[Suggest an edit]: the agent reads your footage and proposes edit angles based on your content
[I have a script]: paste a script and the agent matches your footage to it
[I'll do it myself]: skip AI generation and build your draft manually. See Start from Scratch: Creating a Draft Manually.
Suggest an edit
Step 1. Let the agent read your project
After you click [Continue], the Selects Agent opens in the chat panel and immediately reads your project, including the transcript and any existing drafts. It summarizes what it finds: total duration, content chapters, and existing cuts.
Step 2. Pick an edit angle and build your draft
The agent proposes a few edit angles based on your content and asks which one you want to cut. Select a numbered option, or choose [Something else] and type your own direction in the chat input.
The agent builds your draft based on your selection. Your draft appears in the timeline when it's ready. You can keep chatting to give the agent more instructions and refine the draft further.
Edit with a script
Step 1. Open chat with your script
After you select [I have a script] and click [Continue], the Selects Agent opens in chat with the message "Edit according to a script" already sent.
Paste your script into the chat input. If your script is long, it automatically becomes a file attachment chip in the chat. You will see a preview of the first line and the total character count.
Note: Script-based editing supports text paste only. File upload is not available yet.
Step 2. Build your draft
The agent reads your script and matches your footage to it. Your draft appears in the timeline when it's ready.
While the agent is working
When the agent is generating a response or creating a draft, timeline editing is temporarily locked.
A [Processing] overlay appears in the bottom right corner of the timeline.
A stop icon appears next to the chat input.
To cancel at any time, click the stop icon.
Start a new AI draft
After your first draft, the "How should we edit this?" modal does not appear again. To start a new AI draft, click the chat button in the toolbar, or click [+ New draft] at the top of the timeline and then click [Open chat].
The chat panel opens with "Your assistant editor, here and ready." and two options:
[What can you do?]: asks the agent to explain what it can help with
[Suggest an edit]: starts the same flow as above
You can also type directly into the chat input at any time to give the agent a specific direction.
Chat options
Click [...] at the bottom left of the chat panel to access two options.
[Restart chat] starts a new chat session. Selects asks you to confirm with "Start over? This chat won't be saved." Click [Start new chat] to confirm or [Cancel] to go back.
Caution: Restarting chat clears your conversation history and cannot be undone.
[Past prompts] shows the prompts you have used in this project so you can reference or reuse them.
Credits
Chatting with the Selects Agent is included in your plan. When the agent creates or applies a draft, Selects credits are used. The exact amount depends on the duration of your source footage and the draft generated. See Selects Plans and Pricing to learn how credits work.
Want to control Selects from an external AI tool like Claude? See Connect Selects to your AI agent with the Selects MCP.