chaptertool

Create and convert chapters for podcasts, youtube, matroska, mkvmerge/nero/vorbis, webvtt, ffmpeginfo, ffmetadata, pyscenedetect, apple chapters, edl, podlove simple chapters (xml, json), apple hls chapters and mp4chaps.

Web App

Click here to open the web app.

Supported Formats

name	key	ext	info
Podcasting 2.0 Chapters	chaptersjson	json	spec
FFMetadata	ffmpegdata	txt	spec
Matroska XML chapters	matroskaxml	xml	spec
MKVToolNix mkvmerge XML	mkvmergexml	xml	spec
MKVToolNix mkvmerge simple	mkvmergesimple	txt	spec
WebVTT Chapters	webvtt	vtt	spec
Youtube Chapter Syntax	youtube	txt
FFMpegInfo	ffmpeginfo	txt	read only, used internally
PySceneDetect	pyscenedetect	csv	project home
Vorbis Comment Format	vorbiscomment	txt	spec
"Apple Chapters"	applechapters	xml	source
Shutter EDL	edl	edl	source
Podlove Simple Chapters	psc	xml	spec
Podlove Simple Chapters JSON	podlovejson	json	source
MP4Chaps	mp4chaps	txt	source
Apple HLS Chapters	applehls	json	spec, partial support
SceneCut	scenecut	json	spec

CLI

Prerequisite

You need to install node and optionally ffmpeg on your system:

Windows: modern terminal, package manager, node, ffmpeg
macOS: package manager, node, ffmpeg
linux: node, ffmpeg

create chapters from video

npx chaptertool@latest generate YOUR_FILE.mp4

Wait for the process to finish, afterwards a new folder called YOUR_FILE_chapters should be present. It contains the screenshots from the video and a chapters.json-file that contains the automatically generated chapters.

commands

npx chaptertool@latest <command> <input?> --option-a --option-b=value

serve

Run the http-server that hosts the web ui.

option	description	default
--port	port for the http-server	8989

generate

Generate raw chapters from video using ffmpeg.

option	description	default
<input>	the video file that you want to process
--y	when set ffmpeg will always overwrite existing output
--n	when set ffmpeg will never overwrite existing output
--output-format	output format for the chapters, see below	chaptersjson
--output-folder	image destination folder, $filename will be replaced with the input video filename minus the extension	$filename_chapters
--chapter-template	template string for the chapter names.	Chapter $chapter of $total
--scene-value	min value for ffmpeg's scene detection. If you only use a small portion of the screen, the value should be smaller. See the crop option	0.1
--scale	when given, images will be scaled to given width while keeping original aspect ratio
--force-dar	when used, the display aspect ratio will be used for generated images. Useful for some videos. overwrites --scale
--crop	when set, it will apply the crop filter on the input to the given coordinates. General syntax is w:h:x:y
--use-crossfade-fix	when set, a special filter setup will be used to handle crossfade situations
--crossfade-frames	assuming your input video has a framerate of ~30fps and your average cross-fade transition is 2 seconds long, the amount of frame should be at least FPS * CROSSFADE_DURATION * 2	120
--silent	suppress output
--img-uri	uri to prepend to the images in the json
--pretty	pretty-print the output, if supported
--keep-info	when set, info.txt will not be deleted
--config	point to a yaml file that may contain all options for a enhanced re/usability, see below
--dump-ffmpeg	echo the generated ffmpeg-command to stdout
--ffmpeg-binary	path to the ffmpeg binary, optional	ffmpeg
--ffprobe-binary	path to the ffprobe binary, optional	ffprobe
--extract-audio	extract the audio from video file
--audio-filename	filename for the audio file. $filename will be replaced with input filename, same as --output-folder. Extension controls the output format	$filename.mp3
--audio-options	options for the ffmpeg command that extracts the audio	-q:a 0 -map a
--audio-copy-stream	copy audio stream from video. Correct output file extension will be set automatically. --audio-options will be overwritten internally
--audio-only	create no chapters and images
--input-chapters	path to a chapters.json file. See below
--dump-options	dump final options object, for debugging only
--min-chapter-length	minimum chapter length. New chapters below that threshold are ignored	10
--no-end-times	when set, no endTime-attributes are written on chapters.json

convert

Converts existing chapters between any of the supported formats:

option	description	default
<input>	the file that you want to convert, format will be detected
--format	target format, one of those listed above. When omitted, detected input format is used
--pretty	some formats support pretty printing
--img-uri	see above, works only with chaptersjson
--output-file	file to write the output to. see below
--psd-omit-timecodes	When set, first line of PySceneDetect-CSV will not be written
--psd-framerate	set the framerate for PySceneDetect output
--ac-use-text-attr	use the text-attribute for Apple Chapters

use --output-file when using powershell, otherwise you'll have BOMs in your output

config yaml and .env

Use any option (except input) listed above in a config file passed via --configto create reusable configurations:

# my-config.yaml
- --crop=616:410:554:46
- --silent

Additionally you can create an .env file in any directory and put in options like this:

# prefix with CT_, option name uppercase and replace all dashes with underscore
CT_CROP="616:410:554:46"
CT_SILENT=true
CT_DUMP_FFMEG=true

You can combine config with regular cli options. Evaluation occurs in this order:

1. build-in default value
2. .env values
3. config yaml (if present) value
4. explicit cli value

Examples & FAQ

examples.md, FAQ