Tips for working with AI

These habits help whether you use the built-in AI editor or an outside assistant such as Claude Code or Codex. Both use the same Zornov tools, so the same advice applies.

Describe the result, not the clicks

Say what the finished video should be like and who it's for. The AI picks the tools and the steps.

• "A 30 second vertical cut for Reels, faces kept in frame, upbeat music under the voice" gives it a target to aim at.
• "Cut the pauses and add captions" is a complete request on its own.
• Mention length, shape (vertical, square, widescreen), mood and where it will be shown.

If you have a script, a brief or a shot list, give it that, and say whether the words and timings must stay as they are.

Point at what you mean

In the AI editor, use Select an area for the AI or Annotate for the AI in the viewer's toolbar to mark the part of the picture you're talking about. "Make this brighter" then means exactly that box at that moment.

With an outside assistant, name the moment and the clip: "the title at 0:12", "the second shot of the beach".

Let it look and listen

An AI that only edits is guessing. Ask it to look at the result after it changes something. It can describe each shot in words (see), take a picture of a moment (frame) or of many moments at once (contact_sheet), and hear the mix (listen).

If something looks wrong to you, say what you see: "the logo covers her face at 0:08" is more useful than "fix the logo".

Check and review before you export

Before exporting, ask for a check and a review:

• check finds faults a professional wouldn't ship: gaps, titles off the edge or over faces, clipping, loudness problems, black frames.
• review watches the film as a viewer would, for what makes it dull even when nothing is technically wrong.

Passing both means no fault was found, not that it looks good. Watch it yourself too.

Steer early

You don't have to wait for a request to finish. In the AI editor, type a correction and click Correct now while it works, or Pause it and think. With Ask first on, you approve each change before it lands. For bigger jobs, approve the plan's checkpoints as it reaches them, so it doesn't build on a step you'd change.

Undo the AI's work

Your Undo and the AI's work are kept apart, so you can both edit at once without undoing each other.

• AI editor: click Undo this request under a finished request to take back everything it did for that request. What you changed since stays.
• Outside assistant: ask it to undo. Its undo takes back only its own last change, never what you did by hand.
• Your own edits: ⌘ Z on Mac, Ctrl Z on Windows and Linux.

Save versions before big changes

Before you ask for something sweeping (a re-cut, a new grade, a different ending), save a named version. Use the Versions tab of the Review panel, or ask the assistant to save one. You can compare versions and restore an earlier one if you prefer it.

Use the project's notes and memory

• The AI keeps a notebook in the project with the brief, the plan and what's left to do. When you come back to a project later, ask it to read its notes first.
• Tell it what you like and dislike ("never use a cross-dissolve", "keep titles in the lower third"). It remembers preferences for this project, or for every project if you say so.
• In the AI editor, lessons it saves after jobs and corrections are listed in Settings > AI > What the AI has learned. Edit or delete any that are wrong.

Keep requests to one job

One clear job per request is easier to follow, approve and undo than five jobs at once. Start a new conversation tab in the AI editor (+) for an unrelated task.

Related pages

• The AI editor
• What AI assistants can do in Zornov
• What stays on your computer