TalkEdit/plan.md

TalkEdit — Launch Plan

Niche: "Descript for long-form content"

TalkEdit's defensible position: works on hour+ files without degrading, fully offline, one-time payment. No competitor owns this — Descript chokes on long content, CapCut limits mobile uploads, and both require accounts.

Current status (May 2026): All core editing features are built and stable. Polish pass completed. 107 automated tests (95 frontend + 12 Rust). Ready for beta testing.

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Phase 1: Polish ✅ COMPLETED

Reliability & error handling ✅

• Backend health check — polls /health every 30s, shows reconnecting banner
• Export failure reporting — surfaces FFmpeg stderr with copy-to-clipboard
• React ErrorBoundary catches render crashes, shows fallback with reload
• Global JS error logging — window.onerror + onunhandledrejection logged to Rust backend

UX polish ✅

• Tooltips on every button/control across all panels
• Loading spinners for waveform, waveform retry button
• Export progress bar (visual, not just text)
• Help panel with full feature documentation
• Keyboard cheatsheet overlay with close button and preset indicator
• First-run welcome overlay with 3-step guide
• ? keyboard shortcut opens cheatsheet (accessible from Help panel)
• Empty states: MarkersPanel, AIPanel, WaveformTimeline
• Error states: AIPanel with retry, WaveformTimeline with retry
• Auto-save crash recovery every 60s, restore prompt on next launch
• Confirmation dialogs for zone/marker deletion
• Disabled state for all buttons during export/transcription
• Export button disabled when no video loaded

Consistency ✅

• Mute zone color unified (blue everywhere)
• Disabled opacity unified (40% everywhere)
• Zone list items border radius unified (rounded-lg)
• Toolbar button groups separated with visual dividers
• Labels simplified: "Sound Gain", "Speed Adjust", "Trim Silence", "Chapter Marks", "Edit Zones", "Add Clips", "Bkg. Music", "AI Tools"
• Model selector moved to AIPanel reprocess tab
• Orphaned VolumePanel.tsx removed

Trial & licensing ✅

• Trial duration: 7 days
• Trial bar on welcome screen with days remaining
• Sentinel file prevents deleting trial.json to reset trial
• XOR integrity check prevents editing trial.json timestamp
• canEdit defaults to false (locked until status check confirms)
• Email confirmation step before license activation (deters key sharing)
• verify_license command (verify without caching)
• Expired banner explains what still works (export, loading)

Robustness ✅

• React ErrorBoundary
• Store-level input validation (reject NaN, clamp bounds, enforce min zone duration)
• Runtime assertions in critical paths (TranscriptEditor, WaveformTimeline, ExportDialog)
• Auto-save crash recovery
• CI pipeline (GitHub Actions: Rust + Frontend + Python)
• Bad project state recovery (auto-prunes invalid zones on load, Dev Panel reset button)
• 95 frontend tests (editorStore, licenseStore, aiStore, assert)
• 12 Rust tests (licensing, models)
• Canvas zone handles enlarged (r=6), hit area increased
• Search match contrast improved
• Split panes keyboard-accessible (arrow keys, tabIndex, ARIA)

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Phase 2: Beta Launch (🚧 next — 2–4 weeks)

Goal: Get working builds into real podcasters' hands. Validate the core promise (long-form, offline) before investing in edge-case features.

Must-have for beta

• Smart chunking for transcription — files >2hr. Without this the niche promise is unproven. Breaks transcription into overlapping chunks, reassembles with correct timestamps.
• Hardware detection & model selection — detect CUDA/ROCm/MPS at startup; expose model backend choice in Settings so beta users can configure their system.
• GitHub v1.0.0 release — tag, binary builds (AppImage + .deb), release notes.

Sales & distribution

• Stripe integration — payment processing for one-time purchases (Pro $39, Business $79). License key generation + email delivery on payment success.
• Landing page + download site — simple site with: feature overview, pricing tiers, download links (AppImage/.deb), license activation flow. No auth system needed — Stripe handles payments, license keys unlock the app.

Beta program

• Free licenses to 20 podcasters — in exchange for feedback + permission to quote. Target: r/podcasting regulars, small-to-medium shows (30min–2hr episodes).
• Bug/feedback pipeline — GitHub Issues template for beta testers. Weekly triage.
• Messaging for beta landing page:
  1. "The offline video editor that doesn't slow down on long files"
  2. "No subscription. One price, owned forever."
  3. "AI-powered editing — bring your own API key (Ollama, OpenAI, Claude)"

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Phase 3: Post-Beta Enhancements (user-driven priority)

Goal: Build what beta testers actually ask for. Deferred items below are ordered by likely demand, not engineering convenience.

Bundled local LLM

• Integrate llama.cpp Rust bindings
• Auto-download Qwen3 on first AI use (4B: 2.5GB / 1.7B: 1GB)
• Hardware detection at runtime, model selection in Settings

Long-form content

• Project stitching — load multiple .aive projects, combine into one export

Export

• Batch export — multiple projects/cuts in sequence

AI features

• Smart Shorts finder — scan transcript for 10–90s segments
• AI auto-chapters — topic detection from transcript
• AI show notes — title, description, key moments
• AI dead-air finder — content-based silence detection

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Phase 4: Public Launch

Goal: Convert beta momentum + testimonials into a public release.

Messaging pillars (updated)

1. "The offline video editor that doesn't slow down on long files"
2. "No subscription. One price, owned forever."
3. "Zero-setup AI" — bundled Qwen3, no API keys (activate when Phase 3 ships)
4. "Your podcast → 10 TikToks in one click" — Smart Shorts finder (activate when Phase 3 ships)

Channels

• r/podcasting, r/VideoEditing, r/selfhosted — anchored by beta tester testimonials
• Product Hunt, Hacker News "Show HN"
• YouTube demo (3-5 min walkthrough) — feature the beta tester stories
• Pricing goes live publicly

Pricing

• 7-day free trial (no CC, no account)
• Pro: $39 one-time
• Business: $79 one-time (priority support, volume licensing)

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Non-goals (explicitly deferred)

• Cloud sync / collaboration
• Voice cloning / TTS
• Full multi-track NLE timeline
• Mobile app
• Subscription model
• Image/video generation models