Cutforge is young: the first stable release shipped in June 2026. Before you build a product on any young SDK, check more than its landing page. This page lists the facts, and how to verify each one yourself.
What leaves the user’s browser
This is the complete list of network requests the SDK makes:
| Request | When | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
POST https://license.cutforge.dev/v1/validate | With a hosted license key, at most once every 7 days (the result is cached) | The key and the SDK version. Nothing about the user or their media. |
| None | With an offline key (CF1.…) | Offline keys are verified locally against an ECDSA signature. No request at all. |
| URLs you pass in | When you use preset.media or assetProvider | The browser fetches your media from your own servers. |
There is no analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting, and no font or script loaded from a CDN. Imported files are read locally and kept in the browser’s own storage (OPFS and IndexedDB). The export is handed to your code as a Blob; where it goes next is your decision.
Verify it yourself: open the live editor with your browser’s developer tools on the Network tab. Everything it loads comes from its own domain, with no third-party scripts. Import a clip, edit it and export it: the only requests you will see are the editor’s own code files, and nothing about your media is sent anywhere. The demo runs without a key, so there is no license request either.
Who maintains it
Cutforge is built and maintained by one engineer, Maxence Leguéry, in France. Sales, invoices and VAT go through Lemon Squeezy as merchant of record. The licensor’s legal identity is in the license. Support is by email, straight to the person who writes the code: cutforge@maxenceleguery.net.
A one-person vendor is a real risk to weigh. Here is how the license handles it:
- Every version released while you are subscribed is yours to use forever, even if you stop renewing.
- Hosted keys are re-checked with the license server at most once every 7 days. If the server could not be reached for longer than that, the editor would fall back to the watermarked demo.
- Offline keys are verified inside the browser and never contact the server, so an app shipped with one does not depend on Cutforge’s infrastructure at all. They come with Enterprise; ask if you need one.
- Enterprise also includes private access to the source code.
Releases and support policy
| Version | Released |
|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | 21 June 2026 |
| 1.1.0, 1.1.1 | 9 September 2026 |
| 1.1.2 | 29 September 2026 |
| 1.2.0 | 30 September 2026 |
Maintained lines receive bug-fix and security releases on npm:
| Line | npm tag | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1.2 | latest | Active: features, bug fixes, security fixes |
| 1.1 | release-1.1 | Maintained: security fixes |
| 1.0 | release-1.0 | Maintained: security fixes |
Release dates are public on the npm package page. Upgrades are documented: 1.2, for example, prefixes every editor CSS class with cf- so your page’s styles cannot leak into the editor, which matters if you use customCss.
How it is tested
- 83 unit test files covering the timeline, decoding, color (LUT parsing, curves), audio mixing, export, licensing and the embedding API.
- An end-to-end export check: a real browser imports a generated clip, exports it, and
ffprobeinspects the file for resolution, duration, audio, bitrate and the demo watermark. - A real-browser profiling harness that measures CPU, memory, frame rate and export time per scenario, and checks exports frame by frame against a numbered test video. A 1080p, 900-frame export comes out 900 of 900 frames exact.
The package
- Public on npm as
@cutforge/editor: 16 files, 1.7 MB unpacked, with the WASM engine inlined, so there is nothing extra to host. - TypeScript definitions included. React 18.3 or newer as a peer dependency, even for non-React hosts.
- Works in Chromium 105+ (Chrome, Edge, Arc, Brave), Firefox 105+ and Safari 17+. It needs WebCodecs and WebGPU or WebGL2.
License
Commercial and source-available, not open source. Licensed per developer: €99 a year for one, €399 for up to five, custom for enterprise. There are no limits on domains, end users or renders. Includes a 14-day refund on the first charge. The full terms are in the license, terms and refund policy.
Known limits
- No captions or subtitle import yet.
- No transition library beyond fades and crossfades.
- Web only, with no native iOS or Android SDK.
- One editor per page.
- Codecs are whatever the browser’s WebCodecs supports: H.264, VP8, VP9, AV1, AAC and Opus work; ProRes and DNxHD will not import. Firefox and Safari have partial encoder support, so previews there use the full-resolution source instead of proxies.
To see how this compares with Rendley, IMG.LY, Remotion and the open-source options, read the comparison.