Salai — AI-Assisted Video Editing CLI Engine

July 1, 2026

Role / Scope

  • Role: Creator & Lead Developer
  • Scope: CLI Tool Architecture, Computer Vision Pipeline, Natural Language Parsing Engine

Tech Stack

  • Language & Execution: Python, CLI Architecture
  • Computer Vision & NLP: YOLOv8, NLP Audio Transcription
  • Data & Interchange: SQLite, Apple XML Edit Decision Lists (EDLs)
  • AI Processing: Local LLM Integration, Prompt Parsing

Key Architectural Contributions

  • Frame-Accurate Ingestion Engine: Developed a high-throughput video processing core that inspects raw media files, logs positional metadata into SQLite, and constructs standardized Apple XML EDLs for NLE suites.
  • Computer Vision Integration: Integrated YOLOv8 models to classify subject positions, framing, and visual attributes directly across frame sequences.
  • Natural Language Timeline Translation: Wired local LLMs to interpret natural language creative direction prompts, automatically converting human text instructions into multi-track video timeline cuts.

Impact

  • Streamlined post-production workflows by replacing tedious manual video tagging and initial assembly cuts with an automated, AI-driven CLI pipeline.

Code Samples

Selected excerpts from this project's source code. Tap a title to expand the snippet inline — syntax highlighting adapts to light and dark mode, and each snippet links to the original on GitHub.

Frame-exact sentence segmentationPython
# =============================================================================
# 01  FRAME-EXACT SENTENCE SEGMENTATION (Whisper word timings -> video segments)
# =============================================================================
#
# MODULE:        Salai > nlp (Natural Language / Segmentation layer)
# ARCHITECTURE:  Multi-stage ingestion pipeline (metadata -> audio -> vision ->
#                nlp -> relational/vector DB). This snippet is the NLP
#                segmentation stage inside a modular, config-driven CLI app.
#                State management is deliberately minimal: heavy ML resources
#                (spaCy pipelines) are cached in module-level singletons, while
#                all durable state lives in PostgreSQL (pgvector).
# PURPOSE:       Convert word-level Whisper transcription timing into
#                frame-exact, contiguous, non-overlapping video segments 
#                one speech segment per spoken sentence, with every inter-
#                sentence gap (plus head and tail) emitted as a tagged silence
#                segment so ALL footage is indexed, including b-roll.
# DATA FLOW:     Whisper words: [{text, start, end}, ...]  (seconds, float)
#                    -> joined into one text + per-word char-offset map
#                    -> spaCy blank "sentencizer" splits into sentences
#                    -> sentence char spans mapped back to word indices
#                    -> word second-timings converted to integer frames
#                    -> monotonicity guard repairs Whisper timing glitches
#                    -> configurable tail-padding absorbs word releases
#                    -> silence segments interleaved to fill every gap
#                INVARIANT: segments tile [0, total_frames) exactly once:
#                segments[i].end_frame == segments[i+1].start_frame, with
#                half-open [start_frame, end_frame) intervals throughout, so
#                every frame belongs to exactly one segment and a keyframe
#                can never be attributed to two segments.
#
# WHY THIS SAMPLE: demonstrates (1) span-mapping between two index spaces
# (character offsets vs. word timings vs. frame indices), (2) defensive
# handling of non-monotonic output from an external ML model, (3) a strict
# tiling invariant enforced by construction rather than by after-the-fact
# checks, and (4) the frozen-dataclass domain-model style.
#
# Extracted from: modules/nlp.py (Salai semantic video EDL generator)
# =============================================================================

from dataclasses import dataclass

# --- External dependency -------------------------------------------------
# spaCy is used ONLY for punctuation-based sentence splitting. A blank
# pipeline with the rule-based "sentencizer" pipe needs no model download,
# which keeps this stage deterministic and offline-friendly.
import spacy

# --- Lightweight stubs ----------------------------------------------------
# In the real project these come from modules.errors (a shared error/UX
# module). `progress` emits a single '.' tick per call when the app is not
# running in verbose mode  a low-noise progress indicator for long ingests.
import functools


def progress(func):
    """STUB of modules.errors.progress: ticks '.' per call when not verbose."""
    @functools.wraps(func)
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        cfg = kwargs.get('cfg')
        if cfg is not None and not cfg.get('verbose', False):
            print(".", end="", flush=True)
        return func(*args, **kwargs)
    return wrapper


# System tags use angle brackets so they can never collide with a spoken word.
SILENCE_TAG = "<silence>"


@dataclass(frozen=True)
class VideoSegment:
    """One contiguous slice of a video. Speech segments carry text; silence
    segments have text=None and are tagged with SILENCE_TAG downstream.
    Frames are half-open: [start_frame, end_frame), and consecutive segments
    share boundaries — this is the contract the whole DB/pipeline relies on."""
    start_frame: int
    end_frame: int
    text: str | None
    is_silence: bool = False


# Module-level singleton: the sentencizer is identical for every call, so it
# is built once per process rather than per segment.
_sentencizer = None


def _get_sentencizer():
    """Lightweight punctuation-based sentence splitter (no model download needed)."""
    global _sentencizer
    if _sentencizer is None:
        _sentencizer = spacy.blank("en")
        _sentencizer.add_pipe("sentencizer")
    return _sentencizer


@progress
def build_sentence_segments(words: list[dict], total_frames: int, fps: float,
                            cfg: dict = None) -> list[VideoSegment]:
    """
    Builds frame-exact, contiguous, non-overlapping segments from timed Whisper words.

    Strictly one sentence per speech segment. Gaps between sentences, the video head,
    and the tail become silence segments tagged SILENCE_TAG downstream. Segments tile
    [0, total_frames) exactly once: seg[i].end_frame == seg[i+1].start_frame.

    Args:
        words:        Whisper word dicts — [{"text": str, "start": float_secs, "end": float_secs}]
        total_frames: Total frame count of the source video.
        fps:          Frame rate used to convert word second-timings into frames.
        cfg:          App config dict (only 'verbose' and
                      segmentation.speech_tail_padding_frames are read here).
    """
    if total_frames <= 0:
        return []

    if not words:
        # No speech at all: the entire video is one silence (b-roll) segment.
        return [VideoSegment(start_frame=0, end_frame=total_frames,
                             text=None, is_silence=True)]

    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    # STEP 1: Join words into one string and record each word's char span,
    # so sentence char spans (produced by spaCy) can be mapped back onto
    # word indices (which are the only things carrying timing data).
    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    full_text= " ".join(w["text"] for w in words)
    word_offsets= []
    cursor= 0
    for w in words:
        word_offsets.append((cursor, cursor + len(w["text"])))
        cursor = len(w["text"]) + 1  # +1 for the space separator

    doc= _get_sentencizer()(full_text)

    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    # STEP 2: For each sentence, find its first/last word indices by
    # intersecting char spans, then convert the words' second-timings to
    # integer frames, clamped to the video's frame range.
    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    speech_spans= []  # list of (start_frame, end_frame, sentence_text)
    for sent in doc.sents:
        first_word= last_word= None
        for idx, (w_start, w_end) in enumerate(word_offsets):
            if first_word is None and w_start >= sent.start_char and w_start < sent.end_char:
                first_word= idx
            if w_end > sent.start_char and w_end <= sent.end_char:
                last_word= idx
        if first_word is None:
            continue
        if last_word is None:
            last_word= first_word

        start_frame= max(0, min(int(round(words[first_word]["start"] * fps)), total_frames - 1))
        end_frame= max(start_frame + 1, min(int(round(words[last_word]["end"] * fps)), total_frames))

        # Guard against Whisper emitting non-monotonic word timings:
        # if a sentence's start lands INSIDE the previous sentence's span,
        # push it to the previous span's end so spans never overlap.
        if speech_spans and start_frame < speech_spans[-1][1]:
            start_frame= speech_spans[-1][1]
            end_frame= max(start_frame + 1, end_frame)
        speech_spans.append((start_frame, end_frame, sent.text.strip()))

    if not speech_spans:
        return [VideoSegment(start_frame=0, end_frame=total_frames,
                             text=None, is_silence=True)]

    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    # STEP 3: Pad each speech segment's tail into the following gap so word
    # releases (plosives, breaths) aren't clipped into the silence segment.
    # The pad is CAPPED at the next sentence's start, so boundaries stay
    # monotonic and overall coverage stays gapless.
    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    tail_pad= int(cfg.get('segmentation', {}).get('speech_tail_padding_frames', 0)) if cfg else 0
    if tail_pad > 0:
        speech_spans = [
            (start,
             min(end + tail_pad,
                 speech_spans[i + 1][0] if i + 1 < len(speech_spans) else total_frames),
             text)
            for i, (start, end, text) in enumerate(speech_spans)
        ]

    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    # STEP 4: Interleave silence segments so every frame belongs to exactly
    # one segment. A single cursor walks the timeline; any gap between the
    # cursor and the next speech span becomes a silence segment (this covers
    # the head gap, inter-sentence gaps, and — after the loop — the tail).
    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    segments= []
    cursor_frame= 0
    for start_frame, end_frame, text in speech_spans:
        if start_frame > cursor_frame:
            segments.append(VideoSegment(start_frame=cursor_frame,
                                         end_frame=start_frame,
                                         text=None, is_silence=True))
        segments.append(VideoSegment(start_frame=start_frame,
                                     end_frame=end_frame, text=text))
        cursor_frame = end_frame
    if cursor_frame < total_frames:
        segments.append(VideoSegment(start_fram=cursor_frame,
                                     end_fram=total_frames,
                                     tex=None, is_silenc=True))

    return segments


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# EXAMPLE (conceptual):
#   words= [{"text": "Hello", "start": 2.0, "end": 2.4},
#            {"text": "world.", "start": 2.4, "end": 2.9},
#            {"text": "Cut",    "start": 5.0, "end": 5.2},
#            {"text": "here.",  "start": 5.2, "end": 5.6}]
#   build_sentence_segments(words, total_frame=180, fp=30)
#   ->
#   [VideoSegment(0,   60,  None,        True),   # head silence  [0f, 60f)
#    VideoSegment(60,  87,  "Hello world."),      # sentence 1    [60f, 87f)
#    VideoSegment(87,  150, None,        True),   # gap silence   [87f, 150f)
#    VideoSegment(150, 168, "Cut here."),         # sentence 2    [150f, 168f)
#    VideoSegment(168, 180, None,        True)]   # tail silence  [168f, 180f)
#   Every one of the 180 frames appears in exactly one segment.
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dynamic SQL segment searchPython
# =============================================================================
# 02  DYNAMIC SQL SEGMENT SEARCH (composable, injection-safe filter builder)
# =============================================================================
#
# MODULE:        Salai > db (PostgreSQL/pgvector data-access layer)
# ARCHITECTURE:  Modular CLI app with a dedicated data-access module. Shared
#                state: ONE lazily-established psycopg2 connection per process,
#                wrapped by a `get_cursor` context manager that auto-commits on
#                success and rolls back on error (stubbed below). All durable
#                state (videos, segments, entity links) lives in PostgreSQL.
# PURPOSE:       Translate an arbitrary combination of CLI search filters
#                (duration in frames/seconds, entity inclusion/exclusion,
#                transcript substring, camera, entity type, video id, entity
#                confidence) into ONE safe SQL statement.
# DATA FLOW:     Parsed CLI filter values
#                    -> accumulated into where_clauses[] / having_clauses[] /
#                       params[] (every value stays a %s bind parameter)
#                    -> composed into a single parameterized SELECT ... GROUP
#                       BY ... HAVING ... over video_segments/entities
#                    -> executed via a context-managed cursor (auto-commit /
#                       rollback-on-error)
#                    -> rows printed as a human-readable timeline summary
#
# WHY THIS SAMPLE: the interesting bit is the multi-valued-entity semantics.
# A segment can link to MANY entities via the segment_entities join table, and
# the CLI offers AND semantics ("segment must contain ALL of -e") and NOT
# semantics ("must contain NONE of -ne"). Both reduce to a single aggregate
# per group using COUNT(DISTINCT ...) FILTER (WHERE ...):
#   AND  -> count of matched distinct entities == number of requested entities
#   NOT  -> count of matched distinct entities == 0
# This avoids the classic "one EXISTS subquery per filter value" pattern and
# keeps the query planner on one pass. All user input travels exclusively
# through %s parameters  the f-string only splices static clause templates
# that this function itself generated, never user data.
#
# Extracted from: modules/db.py (Salai semantic video EDL generator)
# =============================================================================

import contextlib

# --- Lightweight stubs ----------------------------------------------------
# In the real project both of these come from modules.db / modules.errors.
# get_cursor() yields a psycopg2 cursor (RealDictCursor: rows as dicts),
# committing on clean exit and rolling back on exception.


@contextlib.contextmanager
def get_cursor(cfg: dict = None):
    """STUB of modules.db.get_cursor: yields a dict-row cursor with commit/rollback.

    Real implementation:
        conn = get_connection(cfg=cfg)   # lazily-established process-global conn
        cur = conn.cursor()              # cursor_factory=RealDictCursor
        try:     yield cur; conn.commit()
        except:  conn.rollback(); raise
        finally: cur.close()
    """
    raise NotImplementedError("Stub — wire to a psycopg2 connection")
    yield  # pragma: no cover


def handle_critical_error(module_tag: str, error_msg: str,
                          exit_pipeline: bool = False, cfg: dict = None,
                          caller: str = None):
    """STUB of modules.errors.handle_critical_error: prints a diagnostic and exits."""
    print(f"[CRITICAL:{module_tag}] {error_msg}")
    if exit_pipeline:
        raise SystemExit(1)


MODULE_NAME = "DB"


def search_segments(min_frames: int = None, max_frames: int = None,
                    min_secs: float = None, max_secs: float = None,
                    entities: list = None, not_entities: list = None,
                    text: str = None, camera: str = None, entity_types: list = None,
                    video_id: int = None, min_confidence: float = None,
                    cfg: dict = None) -> None:
    """Searches segments by duration range, entity inclusion/exclusion, transcript text,
    camera metadata, entity type, source video, and entity confidence; prints matches.

    -e entities use AND semantics (segment must contain ALL);
    -ne use NOT semantics (must contain NONE).

    Every supplied filter appends one clause + its bind value(s); filters
    compose freely because every clause is independent and parameterized.
    """
    where_clauses = ["1=1"]     # neutral base so " AND ".join(...) always works
    having_clauses = []
    params = []

    # --- Scalar filters: one WHERE clause + one/two bind params each ------
    if min_frames is not None:
        where_clauses.append("(s.end_frame - s.start_frame) >= %s")
        params.append(min_frames)
    if max_frames is not None:
        where_clauses.append("(s.end_frame - s.start_frame) <= %s")
        params.append(max_frames)
    if min_secs is not None:
        # Durations are stored in frames; seconds are derived at query time.
        where_clauses.append("(s.end_frame - s.start_frame)::float / s.frame_rate >= %s")
        params.append(min_secs)
    if max_secs is not None:
        where_clauses.append("(s.end_frame - s.start_frame)::float / s.frame_rate <= %s")
        params.append(max_secs)
    if video_id is not None:
        where_clauses.append("s.video_id = %s")
        params.append(video_id)
    if text:
        where_clauses.append("s.transcript ILIKE %s")
        params.append(f"%{text}%")
    if camera:
        where_clauses.append("(v.camera_make ILIKE %s OR v.camera_model ILIKE %s)")
        params.extend([f"%{camera}%", f"%{camera}%"])
    if min_confidence is not None:
        # Semi-join: segment qualifies if ANY of its entity links clears the bar.
        where_clauses.append("""EXISTS (
            SELECT 1 FROM segment_entities se2
            WHERE se2.segment_id = s.id AND se2.confidence_score >= %s
        )""")
        params.append(min_confidence)

    # --- Multi-valued entity semantics via a single grouped aggregate -----
    #
    # Because segment_entities is a join table, "contains ALL of these" cannot
    # be expressed as WHERE conditions on joined rows (a row matches one name,
    # so AND over names on the same row is impossible). Instead, group by
    # segment and count how many DISTINCT requested names were matched:
    if entities:
        having_clauses.append(
            "COUNT(DISTINCT LOWER(e.name)) FILTER (WHERE LOWER(e.name) = ANY(%s)) = %s")
        params.extend([entities, len(entities)])   # all N must be present -> count == N
    if not_entities:
        having_clauses.append(
            "COUNT(DISTINCT LOWER(e.name)) FILTER (WHERE LOWER(e.name) = ANY(%s)) = 0")
        params.append(not_entities)                # none may be present -> count == 0
    if entity_types:
        having_clauses.append(
            "COUNT(DISTINCT e.entity_type) FILTER (WHERE UPPER(e.entity_type) = ANY(%s)) > 0")
        params.append(entity_types)

    # The f-string below only splices clause TEMPLATES produced above 
    # all user-supplied values flow exclusively through the params tuple.
    query = f"""
        SELECT
            s.id AS seg_id,
            COALESCE(s.video_id, 9999) AS video_id,
            s.start_frame,
            s.end_frame,
            s.frame_rate,
            COALESCE(string_agg(e.name, ', '), '') AS entity_list
        FROM video_segments s
        LEFT JOIN videos v ON s.video_id = v.id
        LEFT JOIN segment_entities se ON s.id = se.segment_id
        LEFT JOIN entities e ON se.entity_id = e.id
        WHERE {" AND ".join(where_clauses)}
        GROUP BY s.id, s.video_id, s.start_frame, s.end_frame, s.frame_rate
        {f"HAVING {' AND '.join(having_clauses)}" if having_clauses else ""}
        ORDER BY s.video_id, s.start_frame;
    """

    with get_cursor(cfg=cfg) as cur:
        cur.execute(query, tuple(params))
        segments = cur.fetchall()

    # --- Render an aligned, human-readable result table --------------------
    print("\n" + "=" * 116)
    print("                SALAI SEGMENT SEARCH RESULTS")
    print("=" * 116)
    if segments:
        for s in segments:
            entities_out = s['entity_list'] if s['entity_list'] else "<no_entities>"
            # Convert back to seconds purely for display; frames remain canonical.
            start_secs = s['start_frame'] / s['frame_rate'] if s['frame_rate'] else 0.0
            end_secs = s['end_frame'] / s['frame_rate'] if s['frame_rate'] else 0.0
            print(f"Seg ID {s['seg_id']:3d} | Video ID {s['video_id']:3d} | "
                  f"{s['start_frame']:6d}f - {s['end_frame']:6d}f "
                  f"({start_secs:6.2f}s - {end_secs:6.2f}s) | [{entities_out}]")
        print("-" * 116)
        print(f"{len(segments)} matching segment(s). Play one with: salai play <Seg ID>")
    else:
        print("  (No segments match the specified criteria)")
    print("=" * 116 + "\n")
CMX3600 EDL generationPython
# =============================================================================
# 03  CMX 3600 EDL GENERATION (with self-validating round-trip output)
# =============================================================================
#
# MODULE:        Salai > outputter (timeline export layer)
# ARCHITECTURE:  Final stage of the run pipeline: matched DB clips are
#                timeline-validated upstream, then rendered to an interchange
#                format for NLEs (DaVinci Resolve, Premiere). Stateless
#                module  all inputs arrive as plain dicts, output is a file.
# PURPOSE:       Emit a standards-compliant CMX 3600 EDL: per-event source
#                IN/OUT timecodes (at each clip's NATIVE frame rate) plus
#                record IN/OUT timecodes accumulated on a single record
#                timeline at the sequence rate (the highest clip rate).
# DATA FLOW:     timeline clips: [{file_path, start_frame, end_frame, fps}]
#                    -> seq_rate = max(clip fps) chosen as the record rate
#                    -> per clip: source timecodes from its native frames,
#                       record timecodes from a running cursor scaled into
#                       seq_rate space
#                    -> assembled into CMX 3600 text lines
#                    -> ROUND-TRIP VALIDATION: the generated string is
#                       re-parsed with pycmx BEFORE hitting disk; a parse
#                       failure aborts the write instead of shipping a broken
#                       cut list to an editor
#
# WHY THIS SAMPLE: (1) correct handling of mixed-frame-rate sources — frames
# are canonical and each clip's seconds are derived from ITS rate, while the
# record side is scaled into sequence-rate space with round() (never += of
# floats, which would accumulate drift); (2) a domain-format timecode encoder
# written from first principles; (3) "validate your own output against the
# spec you claim to conform to"  the file is parsed back with an independent
# library (pycmx) before being persisted.
#
# Extracted from: modules/outputter.py (Salai semantic video EDL generator)
# =============================================================================

import io

# --- External dependency --------------------------------------------------
# pycmx is an independent CMX 3600 parser. Here it is used not to READ
# timelines but to VERIFY ours: parse failures mean our generator is broken.
import pycmx

# --- Lightweight stub ------------------------------------------------------
import functools


def progress(func):
    """STUB of modules.errors.progress: ticks '.' per call when not verbose."""
    @functools.wraps(func)
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        cfg = kwargs.get('cfg')
        if cfg is not None and not cfg.get('verbose', False):
            print(".", end="", flush=True)
        return func(*args, **kwargs)
    return wrapper


def _frames_to_timecode(frames: int, rate: float) -> str:
    """Non-drop HH:MM:SS:FF timecode for a frame number at the given rate.

    Integer division/modulo all the way down — no floating-point seconds
    intermediate, so no rounding drift at long durations.
    """
    rate_int = max(1, int(round(rate)))
    frames = max(0, int(frames))
    ff = frames % rate_int
    total_seconds = frames // rate_int
    ss = total_seconds % 60
    mm = (total_seconds // 60) % 60
    hh = total_seconds // 3600
    return f"{hh:02d}:{mm:02d}:{ss:02d}:{ff:02d}"


@progress
def write_edl(timeline, output_path, cfg=None):
    """Renders timeline clips to a CMX 3600 EDL and validates before writing.

    Clip dicts: {file_path, start_frame, end_frame, fps, ...  }
    Frame numbers are canonical (the pipeline stores frames, not seconds).
    """
    output_path = output_path + ".edl"
    verbose = cfg.get('verbose', False) if cfg else False
    if verbose:
        print(f"[OUT] Compiling timeline with {len(timeline)} clips...")

    edl_lines = ["TITLE: Timeline Export\nFCM: NON-DROP FRAME\n"]

    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    # The record-side timeline runs at ONE rate: the highest clip rate in the
    # timeline (a pragmatic sequence-rate choice  matching the lowest rate
    # would undersample high-rate clips' frame precision into the record TC).
    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    seq_rate = max((float(clip.get('fps') or 30.0) for clip in timeline), default=30.0)
    record_cursor = 0  # running record-side position, in seq_rate frames

    for i, clip in enumerate(timeline, start=1):
        event_num = f"{i:03d}"
        source_id = str(clip.get('source_id', 'AX'))[:8].upper()

        rate = float(clip.get('fps') or 30.0)
        start_frame = int(clip.get('start_frame') or 0)
        end_frame = int(clip.get('end_frame') or start_frame + 1)
        duration_frames = end_frame - start_frame

        # Scale this clip's duration from its native rate into sequence-rate
        # frames. round() per clip keeps cumulative drift below half a frame
        # even for long timelines (vs. accumulating float seconds).
        record_frames = max(1, int(round(duration_frames * seq_rate / rate)))

        # Source TCs: the clip's own native frames at its own rate.
        src_in = _frames_to_timecode(start_frame, rate)
        src_out = _frames_to_timecode(end_frame, rate)
        # Record TCs: where the clip lands on the assembled timeline.
        rec_in = _frames_to_timecode(record_cursor, seq_rate)
        rec_out = _frames_to_timecode(record_cursor + record_frames, seq_rate)
        record_cursor += record_frames

        # Classic CMX 3600 event line:
        #   EVENT  REEL     TRACK TYPE   SRC_IN     SRC_OUT    REC_IN     REC_OUT
        line = f"{event_num}  {source_id:<8} V     C        {src_in} {src_out} {rec_in} {rec_out}\n"
        edl_lines.append(line)

        # Comment lines so NLEs/humans can link events back to source media.
        file_path = clip.get('file_path') or clip.get('path')
        if file_path:
            edl_lines.append(f"* FROM FILE: {file_path}\n")
        elif 'clip_name' in clip:
            edl_lines.append(f"* FROM CLIP NAME: {clip['clip_name']}\n")

    edl_string = "".join(edl_lines)

    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    # ROUND-TRIP SELF-VALIDATION: re-parse our own output with an independent
    # CMX 3600 implementation. If pycmx can't read it, Resolve/Premiere
    # definitely can't — fail loudly here instead of silently shipping a
    # corrupt cut list to the editor.
    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    try:
        pycmx.parse_cmx3600(io.StringIO(edl_string))
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"[OUT] Validation Error: Generated EDL failed CMX 3600 standard. {e}")
        raise ValueError(f"EDL validation failed: {e}")

    try:
        with open(output_path, 'w') as f:
            f.write(edl_string)
        print(f"[OUT] EDL File successfully generated at: {output_path}")
    except IOError as e:
        print(f"[OUT] File Error: Failed to write EDL to {output_path}. {e}")
        raise


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# EXAMPLE OUTPUT for one 24fps clip, frames 240-480, on a 30fps record timeline:
#
#   TITLE: Timeline Export
#   FCM: NON-DROP FRAME
#   001  AX       V     C        00:00:10:00 00:00:20:00 00:00:00:00 00:00:10:00
#   * FROM FILE: /media/footage/beach-001.mov
#
# (240 native frames @24fps == 10.0s == 300 record frames @30fps.)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FCP XML validationPython
# =============================================================================
# 04  FCP XML VALIDATION (structural DTD checks + timeline math invariants)
# =============================================================================
#
# MODULE:        Salai > outputter (timeline export layer)
# ARCHITECTURE:  Guards at the boundary between the app's frame-based domain
#                model and Apple's FCP 7 XML (xmeml v5) interchange format.
#                Stateless validators: take an ElementTree, return bool or
#                escalate via the shared error handler.
# PURPOSE:       Two-tier defense before an XML timeline ever reaches an NLE:
#                  Tier 1 (validate_xml_object)  well-formedness + presence of
#                     every structural element DaVinci Resolve requires,
#                     asserted via XPath over the parsed document.
#                  Tier 2 (validate_timeline_logic)  FRAME MATH invariants
#                     that are legal XML but would make NLEs silently drop or
#                     mis-place clips (duration  out-in, timeline span 
#                     duration, subclip OUT beyond the source file's length).
# DATA FLOW:     ElementTree built by write_xml(...)
#                    -> serialized to bytes and re-parsed with lxml
#                       (proves well-formedness independently of ElementTree)
#                    -> XPath assertions for required Resolve structures
#                    -> per-clipitem integer math checks against the file
#                       registry's declared durations
#                    -> any failure: human-readable report + pipeline abort
#
# WHY THIS SAMPLE: this is "paranoid output" engineering. The motivating
# failure mode (noted in the docstring) is real-world: Resolve accepts the
# file, then SILENTLY ignores clips whose frame math is out of bounds  a
# corrupt deliverable that only surfaces in the edit suite. Tier 2 catches it
# at generation time. Also demonstrates clean handling of the ElementTree vs
# Element input-type ambiguity, and building per-file lookups from the
# document itself rather than trusting caller state.
#
# Extracted from: modules/outputter.py (Salai semantic video EDL generator)
# =============================================================================

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
from lxml import etree  # independent parser: well-formedness proof + XPath

# --- Lightweight stub ------------------------------------------------------


def handle_critical_error(module_tag: str, error_msg: str,
                          exit_pipeline: bool = False, cfg: dict = None,
                          caller: str = None):
    """STUB of modules.errors.handle_critical_error: prints a diagnostic and exits."""
    print(f"[CRITICAL:{module_tag}] {error_msg}")
    if exit_pipeline:
        raise SystemExit(1)


MODULE_NAME = "OUTPUTTER"


def validate_xml_object(xmeml_element, cfg=None):
    """
    Validates that the XML is well-formed and ensures all critical
    structural tags required by DaVinci Resolve are present.

    Accepts either an ElementTree or a bare Element (callers disagree on
    which they hold), normalizing to a root Element up front.
    """
    cfg = cfg or {}
    verbose = cfg.get('verbose', False)

    # Handle both ElementTree and Element objects seamlessly.
    if isinstance(xmeml_element, ET.ElementTree):
        xmeml_element = xmeml_element.getroot()

    try:
        # 1. Re-parse with lxml: if ElementTree produced malformed bytes in
        #    some edge case, this independent parse is where we'd find out.
        xml_string = ET.tostring(xmeml_element, encoding="utf-8")
        lxml_doc = etree.fromstring(xml_string)

        # 2. Assert the structures Resolve needs, using XPath. The labeled
        #    dict keeps failure messages human-meaningful instead of raw XPath.
        required_paths = {
            "Sequence Node": "sequence",
            "Sequence Name": "sequence/name",
            "Sequence Duration": "sequence/duration",
            "Sequence Rate (NTSC)": "sequence/rate/ntsc",
            "Video Track Format": "sequence/media/video/format",
            "Video Sample Characteristics": "sequence/media/video/format/samplecharacteristics",
            "Sample Dimensions": "sequence/media/video/format/samplecharacteristics/width",
            "Video Track": "sequence/media/video/track",
            "Clipitem Reference": "sequence/media/video/track/clipitem",
            "Clipitem Rate": "sequence/media/video/track/clipitem/rate/ntsc",
            "File Node Declaration": "sequence/file",
            "File Rate (NTSC)": "sequence/file/rate/ntsc",
        }

        missing_structures = []
        for label, xpath in required_paths.items():
            if len(lxml_doc.xpath(f"//{xpath}")) == 0:
                missing_structures.append(f"Missing {label} (path: //{xpath})")

        if missing_structures:
            print("RESOLVE STRUCTURAL VALIDATION FAILED!")
            errors = "\n".join(f"  - {err}" for err in missing_structures)
            handle_critical_error(
                "edl_builder",
                f"Required DaVinci Resolve structures are missing:\n{errors}",
                exit_pipeline=True, cfg=cfg, caller=MODULE_NAME)
            return False

        if verbose:
            print("XML passed well-formedness and Resolve structural verification.")

    except Exception as e:
        handle_critical_error("edl_builder",
                              f"Failed to execute FCP XML structural validation: {e}",
                              exit_pipeline=True, cfg=cfg, caller=MODULE_NAME)
        return False

    return True


def validate_timeline_logic(xmeml_element, verbose=False, cfg=None):
    """
    Performs logical sanity checks on clipitem properties to find out-of-bound
    errors that cause NLEs like DaVinci Resolve to silently ignore timeline
    placements.

    Three invariants are checked per video clipitem:
      1. SUBCLIP MATH:    duration == out - in
      2. TIMELINE MATH:   duration == end - start
      3. SOURCE BOUNDS:   out <= source file's declared total duration
    """
    cfg = cfg or {}

    if isinstance(xmeml_element, ET.ElementTree):
        xmeml_element = xmeml_element.getroot()

    logical_errors = []

    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    # Source files are declared ONCE at sequence scope (clipitems reference
    # them by id). Rebuild the id -> duration lookup from the document
    # itself, so validation derives from the artifact, not from caller state.
    # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    file_durations = {}
    for file_node in xmeml_element.findall("sequence/file"):
        duration_node = file_node.find("duration")
        if duration_node is not None and duration_node.text is not None:
            file_durations[file_node.get("id")] = int(duration_node.text)

    # Math checks apply to video track clipitems only; audio clipitems carry
    # no duration node in this schema.
    for idx, clipitem in enumerate(xmeml_element.findall(".//video/track/clipitem")):
        clip_name = clipitem.find("name").text or f"Clip {idx}"

        try:
            clip_duration = int(clipitem.find("duration").text)
            clip_start = int(clipitem.find("start").text)
            clip_end = int(clipitem.find("end").text)
            clip_in = int(clipitem.find("in").text)
            clip_out = int(clipitem.find("out").text)

            file_node = clipitem.find("file")
            file_duration = (file_durations.get(file_node.get("id"))
                             if file_node is not None else None)

            # 1. Subclip frame math: duration node must equal out - in.
            calculated_duration = clip_out - clip_in
            if calculated_duration != clip_duration:
                logical_errors.append(
                    f"Clip '{clip_name}' (Index: {idx}): Subclip duration mismatch. "
                    f"duration node value = {clip_duration}, but 'out' ({clip_out}) "
                    f"- 'in' ({clip_in}) = {calculated_duration}.")

            # 2. Timeline placement math: duration must equal end - start.
            calculated_span = clip_end - clip_start
            if calculated_span != clip_duration:
                logical_errors.append(
                    f"Clip '{clip_name}' (Index: {idx}): Timeline span mismatch. "
                    f"duration node value = {clip_duration}, but 'end' ({clip_end}) "
                    f"- 'start' ({clip_start}) = {calculated_span}.")

            # 3. Out-of-bounds guard: the subclip OUT frame must not exceed the
            #    master file's length. This is THE silent-failure case:
            #    Resolve rejects the clip at import with no useful message.
            if file_duration is not None and clip_out > file_duration:
                logical_errors.append(
                    f"OUT-OF-BOUNDS ERROR in '{clip_name}' (Index: {idx}): "
                    f"The subclip 'out' frame ({clip_out}) exceeds the underlying "
                    f"file's total duration ({file_duration} frames). This will "
                    f"cause DaVinci Resolve to reject the clip import!")

        except (ValueError, TypeError, AttributeError) as e:
            logical_errors.append(
                f"Failed to parse mathematical constraints for clip {clip_name}: {e}")

    if logical_errors:
        print("\nLOGICAL INTEGRITY CHECKS FAILED!")
        for error in logical_errors:
            print(f"  - {error}")
        handle_critical_error("edl_builder",
                              "FCP XML generation contains out-of-bound structural math errors.",
                              exit_pipeline=True, cfg=cfg, caller=MODULE_NAME)
        return False

    if verbose:
        print("All FCP XML logic and framing boundaries are correct.")
    return True
CLIP custom reference matchingPython
# =============================================================================
# 05  CLIP CUSTOM-REFERENCE MATCHING (few-shot visual entity recognition)
# =============================================================================
#
# MODULE:        Salai > vision (visual analysis layer)
# ARCHITECTURE:  One stage of the ingestion pipeline. Heavy ML resources are
#                managed with module-level lazy singletons: the CLIP model +
#                processor are loaded once per process, and learned reference
#                vectors (stored in PostgreSQL as pgvector columns) are fetched
#                once and cached as a {label: [unit-norm tensors]} dict.
# PURPOSE:       Recognize USER-TAUGHT subjects (faces, products, logos,
#                locations) inside footage keyframes  things off-the-shelf
#                detectors (YOLO/COCO) can never know. A separate `learn`
#                command registers CLIP image embeddings for labeled reference
#                photos; this function matches footage keyframes against them
#                via cosine similarity (a local K-NN-style lookup).
# DATA FLOW:     segment keyframe paths (jpg files from ffmpeg-style sampling)
#                    -> cheap DB probe FIRST (skip loading GBs of model weights
#                       if the user never taught any references)
#                    -> warm up CLIP model/processor singleton (once/process)
#                    -> load reference cache from DB (once/process)
#                    -> per frame: embed image -> L2-normalize -> dot product
#                       against every cached reference vector (both sides are
#                       unit-norm, so dot == cosine similarity)
#                    -> threshold per label against config value
#                    -> sorted list of matched custom tags
#
# WHY THIS SAMPLE: (1) cost-aware ordering  the O(1) database existence
# check runs BEFORE the O(GBs) model warm-up; (2) embeddings are normalized
# ONCE at both write time (learn pipeline) and cache-load time, so the inner
# matching loop is a bare dot product; (3) _project_image_features is a
# pragmatic adapter for HuggingFace transformers API drift (get_image_features
# returns a bare tensor in v4 but a BaseModelOutputWithPooling in v5)  the
# kind of dependency-churn handling real ML codebases need; (4) short-circuit:
# one hit per label is enough for tagging, so the inner loop breaks early.
#
# Extracted from: modules/vision.py (Salai semantic video EDL generator)
# =============================================================================

from PIL import Image
import torch
from transformers import AutoProcessor, CLIPModel

# --- Lightweight stubs ------------------------------------------------------
# In the real project these come from modules.db (PostgreSQL data access).


class _DbStub:
    """STUB of modules.db: reference vectors persist as pgvector columns."""

    @staticmethod
    def has_custom_references(cfg: dict = None) -> bool:
        """True if the custom_entity_references table holds any rows.

        Real implementation: SELECT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM custom_entity_references LIMIT 1)
        """
        raise NotImplementedError("Stub — wire to PostgreSQL")

    @staticmethod
    def get_custom_references(cfg: dict = None) -> list:
        """Rows of {'name': tag_str, 'visual_vector': pgvector value}.

        Real implementation joins custom_entity_references to entities.
        pgvector values arrive as either '[0.1,0.2,...]' strings or sequences,
        depending on the driver — _reference_vector_to_tensor handles both.
        """
        raise NotImplementedError("Stub — wire to PostgreSQL")


db = _DbStub()


def handle_critical_error(module_tag: str, error_msg: str,
                          exit_pipeline: bool = False, cfg: dict = None,
                          caller: str = None):
    """STUB of modules.errors.handle_critical_error: prints a diagnostic and exits."""
    print(f"[CRITICAL:{module_tag}] {error_msg}")
    if exit_pipeline:
        raise SystemExit(1)


import functools


def progress(func):
    """STUB of modules.errors.progress: ticks '.' per call when not verbose."""
    @functools.wraps(func)
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        cfg = kwargs.get('cfg')
        if cfg is not None and not cfg.get('verbose', False):
            print(".", end="", flush=True)
        return func(*args, **kwargs)
    return wrapper


MODULE_NAME = "VISION"

# Global caches: loaded once per process, shared across all ingest calls.
_clip_model = None
_clip_processor = None
_reference_cache = None  # {label: [embedding_tensor, ...]} loaded from the DB


def _initialize_clip_resources(cfg: dict):
    """Loads the CLIP model and processor once per process."""
    global _clip_model, _clip_processor
    if _clip_model is not None:
        return

    model_name = cfg.get('models', {}).get('clip_backbone', 'openai/clip-vit-base-patch32')

    if cfg.get('verbose', False):
        print(f"[{MODULE_NAME}] Loading CLIP pipeline ({model_name})...")
    _clip_processor = AutoProcessor.from_pretrained(model_name)
    _clip_model = CLIPModel.from_pretrained(model_name)
    _clip_model.eval()  # inference-only: disable dropout etc.


def _project_image_features(outputs):
    """Handles transformers API drift: get_image_features returns a bare tensor
    (v4) or a BaseModelOutputWithPooling holding the projected embedding (v5).

    The PROJECTED embedding (image_embeds) is preferred over pooler_output —
    only the projection head output lives in the shared image/text space that
    makes CLIP similarity meaningful.
    """
    if isinstance(outputs, torch.Tensor):
        return outputs
    if getattr(outputs, 'image_embeds', None) is not None:
        return outputs.image_embeds
    return outputs.pooler_output


def _reference_vector_to_tensor(vec):
    """Normalizes a pgvector value (string or sequence) into a unit-norm
    embedding tensor.

    pgvector round-trips as the string form '[0.013,-0.442,...]' through some
    psycopg2 paths and as a native sequence through others; accept both.
    Normalizing HERE means the match loop never divides again.
    """
    if isinstance(vec, str):
        vec = [float(x) for x in vec.strip("[]").split(",") if x.strip()]
    tensor = torch.as_tensor(vec, dtype=torch.float32)
    return tensor / tensor.norm(p=2)


def _load_reference_cache(cfg: dict):
    """Loads learned reference vectors from the DB once per process, grouped
    by entity label (one label can have MANY example images — better coverage
    of a subject's appearance than a single centroid)."""
    global _reference_cache
    if _reference_cache is not None:
        return

    _reference_cache = {}
    for row in db.get_custom_references(cfg=cfg):
        if row["visual_vector"] is None:
            continue
        feat = _reference_vector_to_tensor(row["visual_vector"])
        _reference_cache.setdefault(row["name"], []).append(feat)

    tags = list(_reference_cache.keys())
    if cfg.get('verbose', False) and tags:
        print(f"[{MODULE_NAME}] Cached {len(tags)} learned reference tag(s): {tags}")


@progress
def match_custom_references(frames: list[str], cfg: dict = None) -> list[str]:
    """Runs local K-NN-style matching against custom reference images using
    CLIP embeddings; returns the sorted set of matched custom tags."""
    if not frames:
        return []

    try:
        # COST-AWARE ORDERING: probe the DB (milliseconds) BEFORE warming up
        # the CLIP pipeline (seconds + GBs of RAM). If the user never ran
        # `learn`, this whole stage is a no-op.
        if not db.has_custom_references(cfg=cfg):
            if cfg.get('verbose', False):
                print(f"[{MODULE_NAME}] No custom references in DB. Skipping custom matching.")
                print(f"         (Optional: Run 'salai learn' to index custom faces, items, or assets.)")
            return []

        _initialize_clip_resources(cfg or {})
        _load_reference_cache(cfg or {})

        visual_threshold = cfg['entity_learning']['visual_confidence_threshold']

        if not _reference_cache:
            return []

        if cfg.get('verbose', False):
            print(f"[{MODULE_NAME}] Matching {len(frames)} frames against references "
                  f"(threshold: {visual_threshold})")

        detected_tags = set()

        for frame_path in frames:
            img = Image.open(frame_path).convert("RGB")
            inputs = _clip_processor(images=img, return_tensors="pt")

            with torch.no_grad():
                frame_feat = _project_image_features(_clip_model.get_image_features(**inputs))
                frame_feat = frame_feat / frame_feat.norm(p=2, dim=-1, keepdim=True)

            # Both vectors are unit-norm, so dot product == cosine similarity.
            # One hit per reference label is sufficient for tagging  break early.
            for label, ref_feats in _reference_cache.items():
                for ref_feat in ref_feats:
                    cosine_similarity = torch.dot(frame_feat[0], ref_feat).item()
                    if cosine_similarity >= visual_threshold:
                        detected_tags.add(label)
                        break

        matches = sorted(list(detected_tags))
        if matches and cfg.get('verbose', False):
            print(f"[{MODULE_NAME}] CLIP matching complete. Custom references: {matches}")
        return matches

    except Exception as e:
        handle_critical_error("vision",
                              f"Failed executing custom CLIP reference matching engine: {e}",
                              exit_pipeline=True, cfg=cfg, caller=MODULE_NAME)
        return []


def generate_image_embedding(img_path, cfg: dict = None):
    """Generates a normalized CLIP embedding vector for a reference image.

    Used by the `learn` command; the returned unit vector is what gets stored
    as a pgvector column by register_custom_references. Normalizing at write
    time mirrors _reference_vector_to_tensor, so any vector loaded back is
    already in match-ready form.
    """
    _initialize_clip_resources(cfg or {})
    img = Image.open(img_path).convert("RGB")
    inputs = _clip_processor(images=img, return_tensors="pt")
    with torch.no_grad():
        feats = _project_image_features(_clip_model.get_image_features(**inputs))
        feats = feats / feats.norm(p=2, dim=-1, keepdim=True)
    return feats[0].tolist()