OpenMontage Tutorial: turn an AI coding assistant into a video production pipeline

calesthio/OpenMontage is an open-source agentic video production system. It breaks scripts, assets, voice-over, music, editing, and composition into a pipeline so that an AI coding assistant can participate in the whole video production process.

Project repository:

https://github.com/calesthio/OpenMontage

Install Dependencies First

The README requires:

Python 3.10+
FFmpeg
Node/npm, because the project includes a Remotion composer

You can install FFmpeg like this:

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brew install ffmpeg
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Install and Start

The official quick-start commands are:

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git clone https://github.com/calesthio/OpenMontage.git
cd OpenMontage
make setup

If your machine does not have make, follow the manual steps from the README:

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pip install -r requirements.txt
cd remotion-composer
npm install
cd ..
pip install piper-tts
cp .env.example .env

On Windows, if npm install reports ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE, the README suggests using:

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npx --yes npm install

API Key Setup

OpenMontage can run part of the workflow without any keys, but for fuller video, image, music, and voice capabilities, configure services in .env:

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# .env — every key is optional, add what you have
FAL_KEY=your-key
PEXELS_API_KEY=your-key
PIXABAY_API_KEY=your-key
UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY=your-key
SUNO_API_KEY=your-key
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=your-key
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key

Local GPU video generation can be enabled according to the README:

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make install-gpu

Then add this to .env:

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VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_ENABLED=true
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_MODEL=wan2.1-1.3b

How to Use It with an Agent

Do not give the AI a task that is too vague. A useful prompt can look like this:

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Make a 60-second animated explainer about how neural networks learn

Or start from a reference video:

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Here's a YouTube Short I love. Make me something like this, but about quantum computing.

The typical flow is:

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research -> proposal -> script -> scene_plan -> assets -> edit -> compose

Usage Suggestions

OpenMontage is good for experimenting with a video production pipeline. It is not something I would treat as a stable commercial editing system on day one. Start with 30- to 60-second clips, then gradually verify asset sources, voice-over, music, composition quality, and cost. More API keys unlock more capability, but they also make troubleshooting more complicated.