Building Video Processing Apps with Streamlit: From CLI to GUI
Jason Hand walks through solving a real-world content creation challenge: systematically producing YouTube Shorts without burning out. Starting with a Python CLI tool built over a year ago that used FFmpeg for video processing, Jason demonstrates converting the application into a web-based GUI using Streamlit, an open-source Python framework. The live demo shows uploading video files from StreamYard recordings along with VTT transcript files, selecting clip timestamps, and generating preview clips with burned-in captions - all through a point-and-click interface. Unlike fully automated tools that generate unusable clips, this approach gives editorial control while maintaining speed through preview functionality. Jason explains why he chose Streamlit over alternatives like Gradio (better for chatbots/LLMs) and highlights features like progress bars, built-in components, and free community hosting with deployment options through Snowflake. The episode concludes with forward-looking thoughts about using AI agents like Claude Code to potentially automate transcript analysis and clip generation, taking the workflow to the next level while maintaining quality control.
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Key Takeaways
- Streamlit provides an easy way to convert Python CLI applications into web-based GUIs without extensive web development knowledge
- FFmpeg is the underlying engine that enables powerful video processing capabilities including cropping, caption burning, and format conversion
- Creating YouTube Shorts systematically requires balancing automation with editorial control - full automation often produces unusable results
- Preview functionality allows reviewing short clips before committing to full renders, saving significant time in the content creation workflow
- While Streamlit is marketed for data science and AI/ML, it works well for general Python applications that need a GUI layer
- Gradio and Streamlit serve different purposes - Gradio excels at chatbot and LLM interfaces, while Streamlit offers more flexibility for general applications
- AI agents like Claude Code can potentially automate the entire video shorts workflow from transcript analysis to clip generation
Resources
FFmpeg
Complete cross-platform solution for recording, converting and streaming audio and video