retime-nle — Remotion Timeline Exporter for Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro & OpenTimelineIO

Export a Remotion video timeline to a professional NLE in one step: Final Cut Pro (FCPXML .fcpxml), Adobe Premiere Pro (XML .xml), or OpenTimelineIO (OTIO .otio, DaVinci Resolve compatible).

Declare your timeline once as a Clip[] array, render it with Remotion, and export the same data everywhere. No fork of Remotion Studio. No background server. No AST parsing.

Contents

• Features
• Install
• Quickstart
• Export formats
• Core idea
• Usage
  • CLI
  • Programmatic export
  • Remotion render component
  • Player export buttons
• Repository layout
• Documentation
• Credits
• Author
• License

Features

• Three NLE formats from one timeline: FCPXML 1.10, Premiere xmeml v4, OTIO Timeline.1 JSON.
• Single source of truth: the same Clip[] drives the Remotion render and every export, so edits and XML can never drift apart.
• Zero-dependency core: the retime-nle entry and CLI run on plain Node 18+ — no React needed.
• Remotion-ready React entry (retime-nle/react): ReTimeTrack wraps clips in Remotion Sequences; ReTimeExportButtons drops into @remotion/player custom controls for in-browser downloads.
• Validated input: frame-accurate integer checks with clear errors before anything is written.

Install

npm install retime-nle

Requirements: Node.js 18+. React 18+, remotion 4+, and @remotion/player 4+ are peer dependencies only for the retime-nle/react entry (see installation).

Quickstart

CLI — export the bundled sample manifest to all three formats:

npx -p retime-nle retime-nle --manifest ./example/timeline.json --format fcpxml --out ./example/out.fcpxml
npx -p retime-nle retime-nle --manifest ./example/timeline.json --format premiere --out ./example/out.xml
npx -p retime-nle retime-nle --manifest ./example/timeline.json --format otio --out ./example/out.otio

Code — export from any Node script:

import { exportTimeline } from "retime-nle";
import type { Clip } from "retime-nle";

const clips: Clip[] = [
  { src: "static/intro.mp4", from: 0, durationInFrames: 90, name: "Intro" },
  { src: "static/main.mp4", from: 90, durationInFrames: 150, name: "Main", startFrom: 12 },
];

const xml = exportTimeline(clips, 30, "fcpxml", "demo-timeline");

Export formats

| Format | Flag | Extension | Opens in | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Final Cut Pro XML | fcpxml | .fcpxml | Final Cut Pro | | Premiere Pro XML | premiere | .xml | Premiere Pro | | OpenTimelineIO | otio | .otio | DaVinci Resolve, OTIO tools |

Times are serialized as frame-exact frames/fps rationals (FCPXML), frame counts (Premiere), and RationalTime values (OTIO). Clips are sorted by from before serializing. Details: api-reference.

Core idea

Clip[]  --->  ReTimeTrack (Remotion render)
        --->  exportTimeline() (FCPXML / Premiere / OTIO)
        --->  CLI manifest JSON (same shape)

If render and export disagree, two different arrays were passed. Keep one clips.ts module (see example/clips.ts) and import it everywhere.

Usage

New here? Start with Using retime-nle in your Remotion project — install, clips.ts, composition wiring, export, NLE handoff.

CLI

retime-nle --manifest ./timeline.json --format fcpxml|premiere|otio [--fps 30] [--out ./out.timeline] [--id my-comp]
retime-nle --help

The retime command is shipped as a convenience alias. Full flag reference: cli-reference. Manifest schema: manifest-format.

Programmatic export

import { exportTimeline, extensionFor, mimeFor, validateTimeline } from "retime-nle";

Signatures and error cases: api-reference.

Remotion render component

import { ReTimeTrack } from "retime-nle/react";
import { clips } from "./clips";

export const MyComp: React.FC = () => <ReTimeTrack clips={clips} />;

Each clip becomes a Remotion Sequence with matching from/durationInFrames. Pass renderClip to customize per-clip rendering.

Player export buttons

import { ReTimeExportButtons } from "retime-nle/react";

<Player
  controls
  renderCustomControls={() => (
    <ReTimeExportButtons clips={clips} fps={30} compositionId="demo" />
  )}
  {...playerProps}
/>

Pure client-side Blob download — no server round-trip. Full example: example/player-usage.tsx. Setup guide: player-integration, tutorial.

Repository layout

retime-nle/
  README.md
  LICENSE
  package.json
  tsconfig.json
  src/
    types.ts       # Clip, TimelineManifest, ExportFormat
    codecs.ts      # toFcpxml, toPremiereXml, toOtio
    export.ts      # exportTimeline, validateTimeline, extensionFor, mimeFor
    cli.ts         # bin: retime-nle (alias: retime)
    index.ts       # public core entry (retime-nle)
    react.ts       # public React entry (retime-nle/react)
    Timeline.tsx   # ReTimeTrack (Remotion Sequence wrapper)
    controls.tsx   # ReTimeExportButtons (Player custom controls)
  example/
    timeline.json      # sample manifest
    clips.ts           # shared Clip[] source of truth
    player-usage.tsx   # Player + renderCustomControls example
  docs/
    installation.md
    remotion-project-guide.md
    quickstart.md
    manifest-format.md
    cli-reference.md
    player-integration.md
    api-reference.md
    troubleshooting.md
    publishing.md
    publishing.md
    tutorials/
      01-first-export.md
      02-player-buttons.md
      03-premiere-workflow.md

Documentation

• Installation — npm, peers per entry point, build scripts
• Using retime-nle in your Remotion project — consumer end-to-end guide
• Quickstart — first export in minutes
• Manifest format — Clip / TimelineManifest schema and validation rules
• CLI reference — flags, defaults, exit cases
• Player integration — renderCustomControls wiring
• API reference — core + React entries, codecs
• Troubleshooting — common errors
• Publishing — release checklist for maintainers
• Tutorials: first export · player buttons · Premiere/Resolve handoff

Credits

• Sunyin Elisbrown — author and maintainer (@Elisbrown).
• Remotion — the React video framework this package integrates with (Sequence, Player, renderCustomControls).
• OpenTimelineIO — the open interchange format behind the .otio export.

Author

Sunyin Elisbrown — [email protected] — github.com/Elisbrown. Issues: github.com/Elisbrown/retime-nle/issues.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.