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Install Formats Studio

What your Mac needs, installing the app, signing in, where projects live, and staying up to date.

What you need

RequirementDetails
MacApple silicon (M1 or later)
Disk spaceAbout 1 GB for the app, plus about 944 MB if you download Local AI
AccountA free Formats account; you sign in with Google
AgentCodex is built in. Claude Code 2.1.259 or later and GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.81 or later are found automatically when installed

Install the app

  1. Download Formats Studio for Mac from formats.app and open the disk image.
  2. Drag Formats Studio into Applications, then open it from there.
  3. If you open it from the disk image or from Downloads, the app offers Move to Applications first. Accept it: updates can only install into a copy in Applications.

Sign in and choose where projects live

  1. Sign in with Google. Your account holds your plan and credits; your projects stay on your Mac.
  2. Formats creates your workspace in Movies › Formats Studio. To keep projects elsewhere, choose another folder when asked, or later from the workspace control on the Projects page.
  3. Everything the app writes lives in that folder as plain files: projects, thumbnails, waveforms, transcripts, generated media and exports. Your source footage stays where it is and is linked, not copied.

Local AI, if you want it

After sign-in the app offers Local AI, an optional download of about 944 MB that understands your footage on your Mac, so you can search it by what it shows. Choose Download Local AI or Set up later; editing works either way. See Local AI and speech.

Connect your agent

  • Codex is built into the app and signs in with your ChatGPT account.
  • Claude Code is found on your Mac and keeps the sign-in it already has.
  • GitHub Copilot is found on your Mac and asks you to sign in once.
  • Pick the agent and model from the picker in the chat composer. Your agent runs on its own plan; Formats never sees those credentials.

Next: Work with your agent.

Updates

  • Formats Studio checks for updates on its own and downloads them in the background while you work.
  • A notification says when an update is ready; it installs the next time you restart the app.
  • To check now, choose Check for Updates… from the app menu.

Uninstall

Quit Formats Studio and drag it from Applications to the Trash. Your workspace folder and its projects stay on disk until you delete them yourself.