Clipthesis – free, local app to tag and search video across your drives

I'm a hobbyist video creator with a dumb problem: years of footage spread across multiple external drives with names like "C01456". Every time I sit down to edit, I waste too much time hunting for clips I know I shot but can't find.

I tried the usual recommendations (NeoFinder, Lightroom, various DAM tools) but nothing fit how I actually work with video. The online alternatives seemed to charge an arm and a leg, which is hard to justify when you're not running a production studio.

So I built a thing for a free Mac app that indexes all your drives into one searchable video library even when those drives aren't plugged in. What it actually does

- Index any drive or folder — point it at your external drives and it catalogs every clip with thumbnails, metadata, duration, resolution, etc. - Tag + search — tag clips however you want (b-roll, drone, interview, whatever), then combine tags to find exactly what you need - Duplicate detection — content hashing finds the same clip across multiple drives and groups them under one reference. Tag once, applies everywhere. - Smart import — plug in an SD card and it instantly shows new vs. already-indexed files. One click to import only new stuff. - Working drive — mark your fast SSD as your editing drive, then one-click copy clips from archive drives when you're ready to cut - Offline browsing — search, browse thumbnails, and tag clips from disconnected drives. It remembers everything. - DaVinci Resolve integration — send clips straight to Resolve's media pool with tags as keywords

I built it for myself and I'm putting it out there to see if it helps anyone else. You will probably hit bugs. Actively working on it and genuinely want feedback, what works, what's broken, what's missing.