nano-ffmpeg

Keyboard-driven terminal UI wrapping ffmpeg

TLDR

Launch the interactive TUI in the current directory

$ nano-ffmpeg

Open the file picker at a specific directory

$ nano-ffmpeg -d [path/to/videos]

Skip the picker and jump straight to operations with a preloaded file

$ nano-ffmpeg -d [path/to/video.mp4]

Force a specific UI theme for the session

$ nano-ffmpeg -t [dark|light]

Show the version

$ nano-ffmpeg --version

SYNOPSIS

nano-ffmpeg [-t theme] [-d path] [--version] [--help]

nano-ffmpeg is a terminal user interface that wraps ffmpeg behind a keyboard-driven dashboard. Instead of memorizing flags, the user browses files, picks an operation from a menu, tweaks parameters via presets, and watches a live progress bar while ffmpeg encodes in the background.The TUI exposes twelve common operations: format conversion, audio extraction, resizing, trimming, compression, concatenation, subtitle handling, GIF creation, thumbnail extraction, watermarking, audio adjustments, and video filters such as stabilization, deinterlacing, and rotation. Every settings screen previews the exact ffmpeg invocation that will be executed, so users can learn the underlying flags as they work.Hardware-accelerated encoders are detected automatically: VideoToolbox on macOS, NVENC on systems with NVIDIA GPUs, and VAAPI on Linux. Real-time stats during encoding include elapsed time, ETA, speed, FPS, bitrate, frames written, and output size.

PARAMETERS

-d path, --dir path

If path is a directory, open the file picker rooted there. If path is a file, bypass the picker and load it directly into the operations menu.

-t theme, --theme theme

Override the UI theme for the current session. Accepts dark or light.

--version

Print the version and exit.

-h, --help

Print usage information.

CAVEATS

Requires ffmpeg and ffprobe to be installed and discoverable in PATH; nano-ffmpeg only orchestrates them. A terminal of at least 80x24 cells is required. Hardware encoder availability depends on platform, drivers, and ffmpeg build options.

HISTORY

nano-ffmpeg is an open-source project written in Go by dgr8akki, distributed via Homebrew, Scoop, go install, and prebuilt binaries on GitHub. It was created to lower the barrier to entry for ffmpeg by exposing a guided, discoverable workflow without sacrificing access to the underlying command.