Turn Videos into Short Clips with Tella

Long-form videos are great for teaching. They're terrible for social distribution — unless you extract the best 90-second moments and post them as teasers.

Tella MCP lets you do that through conversation with Claude: retrieve a video, analyze the transcript, trim by millisecond-precise timestamps, and organize clips into playlists.

Prerequisites: Tella MCP installed in Claude Code. See Part 1: Getting Started with Tella MCP.

This is Part 3 of the Tella MCP series. Part 2 covered transcript → blog post automation.

TL;DR — Create a Clip in 3 Prompts

1. Can you retrieve my latest video from Tella and get all the details?
2. Using the transcript, find interesting 90–120 second clips that work as teasers. They need to make sense without the full video context.
3. Let's use Clip 1. Create a duplicate of the video and trim it according to the timestamp using the Tella MCP.

No code. Three conversational exchanges → one shareable promo clip.

Why Transcript Timestamps Matter

When Tella returns a transcript via MCP, each sentence includes millisecond-precise start and end times. Claude can read the full transcript and identify self-contained segments — e.g. "303s to 452s covers the complete lazy workflow."

That precision is what makes automated trimming work. You're not guessing in a timeline editor.

Step 1: Retrieve Your Video

Can you retrieve my latest video from Tella and get all the details?

Or target a specific video:

Find my Tella video about automation workflows and get all the details

Claude returns title, duration, chapters, embed URLs, and the full timestamped transcript.

Step 2: Find Clip Opportunities

I need to promote this video. Using the transcript, find interesting 90–120 second
clips that I can use as teasers. The clips need to be trimmed according to the
transcript so they make sense without needing the context of the full video.

Claude analyzes the transcript and suggests clips with:

• Start/end timestamps
• Why the segment works standalone
• Suggested title

Customize for your platform:

• Find 3 clips under 60 seconds for Instagram Reels
• Find moments with specific numbers or before/after results, 45–90 seconds each

Step 3: Create the Trimmed Clip

Let's use Clip 1. Create a duplicate of the video and trim it according to
the timestamp using the Tella MCP.

Claude calls duplicate_video with startTime and endTime. You'll get a new Tella link to the trimmed promo clip immediately.

Choose Allow Once or Always Allow when Claude requests MCP permissions.

Organize Clips with Playlists

After creating clips, ask Claude to manage playlists:

Can you review the playlists and see if there are any suitable playlists for
my promo clips? If not, recommend one that I should set up.

If no playlist fits, Claude can create one (e.g. "Promo Clips - Social Media") and add your clip automatically.

Platform-Specific Tips

Pro tips:

• Be specific about duration — "90–120 seconds" beats "short clips"
• Require self-contained segments that don't need prior context
• Batch process: Create clips 1, 3, and 5 using the Tella MCP
• Iterate: Make clip 2 shorter and cut the intro

Current Limitations

As of now, turning a clip into a YouTube Short still requires manual steps:

• Change aspect ratio from 16:9 to 9:16
• Apply Studio Voice settings if you use them

Tella's export endpoint (start export → get download URL) opens the door to full YouTube upload automation — that's the next workflow in this series.

Key Takeaways

• Tella MCP + Claude turns long videos into promo clips via conversation
• Transcript timestamps enable millisecond-precise trimming
• Use playlists to organize clips by platform or topic
• Process 2–5 clips at a time for best results
• YouTube scheduling automation is the logical next step

Related Articles

• Part 1: Getting Started with Tella MCP
• Part 2: Turn Video Transcripts into Blog Posts
• Tella Video API automation guide