davinci-resolve-cli

davinci-resolve-cli (dvr) — Skill

dvr is a CLI for DaVinci Resolve 18+. It bridges into a running Resolve via DaVinciResolveScript and exposes a structured, JSON-by-default command surface optimized for AI agents. Always pass --format json when invoking from a non-TTY context so the output is parseable.

Preflight

Before any action, verify the bridge is healthy:

dvr doctor --format json

Expected: bridgeStatus == "ok". If not, surface the issues[] array to the user and stop — Resolve must be launched manually.

Command Map

Domain	Commands
Environment	dvr doctor
Project	project list / open / new / close / save / export / import / current
Media	media import / list / tag
Render	render presets / submit / status / list / wait / cancel
Timeline	timeline list / current / open / new / clips / marker add/delete/list

All commands accept --format json|yaml|table (default: JSON for non-TTY). All mutating timeline commands accept --dry-run.

Error Contract

Errors are emitted to stderr as JSON {"errorCode": "...", "message": "...", "hint": "..."}. Exit code 0 = success, 1 = user error, 2 = Resolve not reachable, 3 = Resolve API failure.

Common errorCode values: resolve_not_running, version_unsupported, api_unavailable, validation_error, not_found, api_call_failed.

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Example Tasks

1. Render the current timeline as 1080p H.264

# Preflight
dvr doctor --format json | jq -e '.bridgeStatus == "ok"' >/dev/null

# Pick a preset and submit (async — returns immediately)
PRESET=$(dvr render presets --format json | jq -r '.[] | select(test("H\\.264"; "i"))' | head -1)
SUBMIT=$(dvr render submit \
  --preset "$PRESET" \
  --timeline cur \
  --output ~/Renders/out.mp4 \
  --start \
  --format json)
JOB=$(echo "$SUBMIT" | jq -r .jobId)

# Block until done; progress is on stderr (safe to ignore from agents)
dvr render wait "$JOB" --format json