What is the story behind the name?
Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
41–50 of 89 posts
Re: Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
#42Impressive UI. I assume you must be doing some kind of RAG + audio/video transcription on all the media. What's RAG architecture did you go with?
Firefox is not supported ... But why?
Totally fair question. I've actually been a longtime Gecko/Firefox user myself, so this one stings a bit.
The short answer: Firefox doesn't support the File System Access API (https://caniuse.com/?search=File+System+Access+API).
We made a deliberate decision to go client-first. Video editing happens entirely in your browser without us uploading your entire footage on our end. No bandwidth costs for you, no storing your raw video on our servers. The File System Access API is what makes that possible, and unfortunately Firefox just doesn't have it yet.
It's not a forever thing though. For cloud-based projects where files live on our end anyway, Firefox support is very much on the roadmap. But for the local-first editing flow, our hands are a bit tied until Mozilla ships it.
Hope that makes sense, and fingers crossed Firefox adds support soon!
Re: Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
#43For your example videos that you made with Cardboard: can you also put up the raw material that went into those videos? Just looking at the output doesn't tell me anything. :thanks:!
Sure! Will share the raw material for all the videos.
For some of the examples we shared though, we've created sample projects right within the product itself. They contain the raw assets and the exact prompts used to create the videos. You can try them out directly at https://demo.usecardboard.com and see the whole process!
Re: Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
#44$60...eh
Totally fair reaction! Here's our honest thinking behind it.
We deliberately avoided credits/usage-based pricing because as founders using this in our own creative workflow, we hate the cognitive load that comes with it.
If I don't like a voiceover/variation, I should have the freedom to regenerate it until I'm happy without thinking about whether it's "worth" a credit.
That said, we could be wrong! Genuinely curious what you think would feel fair?
Re: Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
#45What is the story behind the name?
haha, good question.
My co-founder and I met in high school, and we wanted the name to carry a sense of craft. Cardboard was always that material in school projects that was firm enough to hold structure but malleable enough to build almost anything out of. That balance of structure and flexibility felt like a good metaphor for what we're building.
Also we just thought it was a cool name and bought a bunch of domains... https://cardboard.mov is one of my favorites :)
Re: Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
#46As a professional video editor (short-form and feature films) I've always thought realtime collaboration on a timeline makes no sense. Editors' decisions can be mutually destructive / conceptually incompatible.
Fair point. What we mean by collaboration is closer to how Figma works. From our user interviews, video creation almost always involves multiple people but in different ways: screenwriters, marketers, designers, directors reviewing the edit and sharing feedback.
The value might not be co-editing the timeline, it's making the feedback / iteration loops faster.
Re: Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
#47Helpful for those who care less about the craft and more about a quick outcome. Werner Herzog said that he watches his footage a few times, takes extensive notes then edits based on his notes. That's how he crafts such extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime stories. But for those who are working on commercial or home movies, why not use AI to build a narrative? It can be like throwing dice and the outcome could be OK. May…
I totally resonate with you. Craft takes time, and that's completely valid. We're not focused on filmmakers right now, though we'd love to have them eventually.
That's also why we built a full editor alongside the agentic experience. Use AI where it helps, like finding the right shot or removing silences, and do the rest manually. And if you'd rather finish in your editor of choice, we support XML export for Premiere, DaVinci, etc.
And agreed, there's really no substitute for the kind of intentionality Herzog brings to his work :)
Re: Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
#48[deleted]
Re: Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
#49Here's an agent skill that lets you do similar things: https://skills.sh/remotion-dev/skills/remotion-best-practice... https://www.remotion.dev/docs/ai/claude-code
We've played around with this and honestly have a lot of respect for what the Remotion team has built. Fun fact, I tinkered with it back in 2021 when they made those GitHub Wrapped videos, it was one of those projects that made me think differently about video on the web :)
Cardboard is a bit different though, aimed at non-developers who want to edit raw footage through natural language without writing any code. Motion graphics is on the roadmap and Remotion would hopefully be a natural fit when we get there.
Cool to see the space evolving from so many directions! :)
Re: Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
#50Really impressive work guys! It seems like YC has funded a few companies attacking this but I think you all might have the best approach so far. Behind the scenes is the agent just editing using text/annotated timelines? I feel like the move is probably text for roughcut/narrative, then a vlm for digesting the initial roughcut, then adding broll and fixing timing issues. Feel free to steal my FCP xml generator. https…
happy that you liked our approach! also, i think it's a better idea to just give agent these tools and let it figure out its course of actions than giving it a specific workflow to work on - it seems like the world keeps reminding us the bitter lesson [ http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html ] more frequently these days will definitely check the XML exports, ty :)
Theoretically I agree, but practically without guidance agents aren't really able to edit video ATM. Without hand holding Claude will just call ffmpeg and look at a few frames.