filmcraft/docs/roadmap.md

Roadmap detail

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-10 · Change: major (new file: milestones moved from ROADMAP.md, Current focus rewritten from the 2026-10-10 re-measure, beta milestones added) · Target: Adobe Premiere Pro 2026 (26.5.2)

Forward-looking plan: milestones with status, the current focus and what's next, with estimates in Opus 5.5 agent-hours (calibration in target-app-parity.md). The one-page summary is ROADMAP.md; the ranked work list is gaps.md. There is no cargo xtask scorecard or cargo xtask parity yet (G7).

Current focus

In order. Each item links to its gap entry, which says what "done" means.

1. Stop launch crashes and add pull-request CI (G4): cargo xtask ci on macOS, Windows and Linux for every PR; old-macOS and Intel-GPU start-up. 40–80 h.
2. Open .prproj (G2): the beta blocker. 60–120 h.
3. 10-bit / 4:2:2 camera media in software (G3). 30–50 h.
4. Fidelity harness against Premiere (G1) and cargo xtask parity (G7): turns estimates into measurements. 50–90 h.
5. Real-world media corpus and workflow tests (G6). 40–70 h.
6. Hardware acceleration, continued (#30, G5): zero-copy upload, Lumetri curves / wheels / HSL and keys on the GPU, VideoToolbox Main 10, Quick Sync / AMF encoders. 120–200 h.
7. UI fidelity issues (G8): Program monitor transform handles, Effect Controls, docking. 120–200 h.

Alpha gate

Premiere's core daily workflows, checked end to end on the main platform (macOS, Apple silicon), including saving the work as .fcproj and reopening it (atomic saves, schema migrations, auto-save and crash recovery; migration tests). Strict reading: a "partial" that stops the workflow would make FilmCraft pre-alpha.

Workflow	Works end to end?	Evidence	Hours to pass
Ingest and organize media (import camera / phone / screen files, bins, metadata, proxies)	partial, not blocking	H.264 / HEVC / ProRes / DNx / MXF / AVCHD / MKV import with bit-exact decoders, Media Browser, bins, proxies, Link Media. Gaps: H.264 10-bit / 4:2:2 (Sony XAVC S-I, Canon XF-AVC) opens nowhere and HEVC 4:2:2 only through VideoToolbox (#626, G3); E-AC-3 (#647), AVI (#598), camera RAW	0 (G3 is a beta item, 30–50 h)
Assemble and trim a sequence (insert / overwrite, ripple / roll / slip / slide, razor, J/K/L, multicam)	yes	Edit algebra with undo tests, Trim Monitor, Premiere keyboard preset, multicam with audio sync; UX issues (#683, #648, #668) slow it down but don't stop it	0
Colour correct and grade (Lumetri, LUTs, scopes, colour management)	yes	Lumetri complete with CPU / WGSL parity tests, all Lumetri Scopes, LUT import, HDR export signalling checked with ffprobe	0
Mix audio (levels, automation, Essential Sound, loudness)	yes on macOS	Mixer graph, automation, 53 effects, BS.1770 loudness matching ffmpeg; device reports are Windows / Linux (#605, #617)	0
Titles and captions	yes	Text engine, graphic clips, templates, SRT / VTT / SCC / MCC / STL / TTML import-export, burn-in; Arabic titles broken (#395)	0
Deliver (export H.264 / HEVC / ProRes / DNxHR / MXF with presets, queue)	yes	Own H.264 + AAC encoder, ProRes, DNxHR, MXF, hardware HEVC on macOS, ffprobe-checked exports; bitrate target miss (#371)	0

Passes: every core workflow runs end to end on macOS and the project saves and reopens, so FilmCraft stays alpha; the one partial (10-bit / 4:2:2 camera codecs) blocks some cameras' originals, not the workflow, and is on the beta list. Interchange with Premiere's own .prproj is a beta requirement, not an alpha one (sequences come over as FCP7 XML, AAF or OTIO).

Beta milestones

Beta = ready for real work ≥ ~75% and .prproj opens reliably (target-app-parity.md).

#	Milestone	Status	Est.
B1	PR CI on three OSs + launch-crash fixes	⬜	40–80
B2	.prproj import (sequences, clips, transitions, markers, bins, common effect parameters)	⬜	60–120
B3	Camera media: H.264 High 10 / 4:2:2, HEVC 4:2:2, E-AC-3, AVI, multi-track audio confirmed	🟡 (multi-stream audio #361)	50–90
B4	Fidelity harness + cargo xtask parity + media corpus + workflow tests	⬜	90–160
B5	Hardware: zero-copy, more GPU effects, Windows vendor encoders, VideoToolbox Main 10	🟡	60–100
B6	UI fidelity top issues and Windows / Linux runtime	🟡	90–160
B7	AAF / OMF validated in Avid and Pro Tools; XML import speed	⬜	20–40

Milestones (history and remaining)

Status: ✅ done · 🟡 in progress · ⬜ not started. Estimates are remaining agent-hours.

#	Milestone	Status	Done	Remaining	Est.
M0	Skeleton + visual shell	✅	Workspace, 20 crates, dock/workspaces, Premiere 26 look, native menus, control channel, MCP, xtask gates (layers, wasm)	—	—
M1	Media I/O	✅	MP4/MOV demux+mux, WAV, stills, MJPEG, symphonia audio (MP3/FLAC/ALAC/Vorbis), GOP seek + frame cache, import	Media Browser polish	2
M2	H.264 decoder	✅	Own decoder, bit-exact on 37+ streams, 500–600 fps 1080p	—	—
M3	Editing core	🟡	Edit algebra (insert/overwrite/razor/lift/extract/ripple/roll/slip/slide/rate-stretch/nest/paste), tools, markers, trim mode + Trim Monitor + dynamic J/K/L trimming, Keyboard Shortcuts editor with FilmCraft/Premiere/FCP/Avid presets; Edit/Clip/File menu commands (Label colours and Select Label Group, Paste/Remove Attributes, Select All Matching, Remove Unused, Consolidate Duplicates, Sequence From Clip, Bin From Selection, Offline File, Close Project, Make/Edit Subclip, Modify Audio Channels/Timecode, Frame Hold Options/Add Frame Hold/Insert Frame Hold Segment, Time Interpolation with frame blending, Fit/Fill frame, Breakout to Mono, Extract Audio, Replace With Clip; M3.11: Scene Edit Detection (pure-Rust cut detection, background job), Normalize Mix Track, Simplify Sequence, Transcribe Sequence, Find/Find Next and search bins, Automate to Sequence, Edit Original, Edit Offline, Source Settings, Update Metadata (XMP), Generate Audio Waveform, Project Settings General/Scratch Disks, Get Media File Properties, Save as Template, Selection as FilmCraft Project, Avid Log Exchange export, Flash Cue markers, Dynamic Audio Waveforms, Reveal Log Files, System Compatibility Report); M3.12 keyboard parity: Premiere's default keyboard (~115 keyboard-only commands: edit-point navigation on targeted/any track, select clip at playhead/next/previous, extend edit to playhead, nudge/slip/slide selection, target and source-patch toggles, clip volume ±1 dB/many, frame maximize/full screen/panel cycling, monitor zoom, track heights, Project and Text panel keyboard navigation, text size/leading/alignment, Export Frame, poster frames; see docs/keyboard.md); multicam (Create Multi-Camera Source Sequence, Multi-Camera view with live switching on 1–9, angle switching, Enable/Flatten, Edit Cameras) and sync (Synchronize, Merge Clips; In/Out/timecode/marker/audio — GCC-PHAT, sample-accurate)	Multicam paging >16 angles and grid thumbnails, optical flow (renders as frame blending), 39 Premiere default shortcuts skipped with reasons in docs/keyboard.md (Productions, AI/cloud tools, work area bar, Production/Search panels)	6–10
M4	Playback	🟡	Audio-clock master, prefetch with cancellation, J/K/L, correct dropped-frame stats, playback resolution, render bar + content-hashed render previews, App Nap opt-out; 1080p H.264 and 3 stacked 1080p streams play with 0 dropped frames	4K under load, 8K, frame-threaded AV1 decode, reduced-resolution decode for multicam grids	6–10
M5	Effects, keyframes, GPU	🟡	All 93 Premiere 26 video effects and 84 transitions (CPU), blend modes and 33 common effects on the GPU (#32, GPU2, GPU4, GPU5), keyframes + value/velocity graphs, wgpu compositor, effect + opacity masks (ellipse/polygon/pen, feather, expansion, modes; CPU/WGSL parity), mask tracking (Lucas–Kanade + RANSAC), adjustment layers, effect presets (built-in + user, JSON import/export)	More effects on the GPU (34 ids done incl. Lumetri basic / creative / vignette; GPU export landed #421), GPU masks in the live path, exact Warp Stabilizer (3-D) and Morph Cut	40–70
M6	Export	✅	Own H.264 encoder (High/Main/Baseline, B-frames, VBR/CBR/2-pass) → MP4 or QuickTime + own AAC; ProRes, DNxHR, MJPEG, PNG/TIFF/BMP sequences (Premiere-style numbering), GIF, WAV, AIFF; background jobs; M6.5: Export mode parity (frame size / rate / scaling / pixel aspect, profile / level, CBR / VBR 1- and 2-pass, keyframe distance, audio codec / rate / channels / bitrate / sample size, multiplexer, burn-in or sidecar captions, image / name / timecode overlays, video limiter, loudness normalization with true-peak limiter, metadata, ranges, estimated size, summary), 24 built-in presets + user presets with favourites and import/export (Preset Manager), export queue (reorder, cancel, retry, several sequences / ranges), Quick Export; export.* commands and filmcraft-cli export --preset	Interlaced encoding, 5.1 audio, smart render, publishing destinations	6–8
M7	Audio	🟡	Mixer graph (tracks → submixes → Mix, pre/post-fader inserts and sends, latency-compensated, sample-accurate, ~6× realtime for 24 tracks × 3 effects on one core), Audio Track Mixer + Audio Clip Mixer panels, track automation (Off/Read/Latch/Touch/Write, recorded live while playing, thinned to keyframes, timeline lanes with pen editing), solo/solo-safe, channel mapping basics, peak + BS.1770 loudness meters (match ffmpeg), DSP crate with 16 clip/track effects, Audio Gain (set/adjust/normalize), Constant Power / Constant Gain / Exponential Fade, Essential Sound (types, Loudness auto-match, Repair incl. DeEss/DeReverb, Clarity, Creative, Ducking keyframes, presets; full Dialogue chain 22× realtime)	Music duration remix, ML speech enhancement, 5.1 panner and multichannel buses, voice-over record, effect editor windows (EQ curve), remaining effects (multiband, convolution reverb), clip-mixer automation recording	6–9
M8	Colour	🟡	Lumetri: basic, creative + looks, RGB & hue curves, wheels, HSL secondary, vignette, section bypass; Input LUT / Look LUT (.cube 1D/3D/shaper, .3dl; tetrahedral CPU + WGSL; project LUT library; built-in camera conversions); Colour Match (Oklab tonal-range statistics, skin protection, solved in Lumetri wheels); colour management: Rec. 709 / Rec. 2100 PQ / HLG working spaces + wide gamut, Interpret Footage colour space (S-Log3, V-Log, Canon Log 2/3, LogC3/4, Apple Log, D-Log from published specs), metadata auto-detect, BT.2390 tone mapping, gamut mapping, HDR export signalling (VUI/colr/mdcv/clli/SEI, ffprobe-verified); Lumetri Scopes: Vectorscope YUV (75/100 % targets, skin-tone line) and HLS, Histogram, Parade (RGB/YUV/RGB-White), Waveform (RGB/Luma/YC/YC no Chroma), presets, Rec. 601/709/2100, 8-bit/float/HDR (cd/m²) scales, multi-scope grid, scopes.read	HDR-aware Lumetri maths, macOS EDR monitors, mastering metadata → tone-map peak, D-Log M (no published formula), HSL Secondary refine	3–5
M9	More codecs	🟡	ProRes decode+encode, AAC decode+encode, HEVC Main/Main 10 decoder (bit-exact on 41 fixtures, ~225 fps 1080p), VP9 decoder (profiles 0–3, 8/10/12-bit, bit-exact on 50+ fixtures; WebM/MKV V_VP9 and MP4 vp09 import with key-frame-checked seeking), Matroska/WebM import (H.264/HEVC/VP9/ProRes/MJPEG + AAC/Opus/FLAC/MP3/Vorbis/PCM), Opus decoder (SILK/CELT/hybrid, 5.1/7.1 multistream; all RFC 8251 vectors range-exact; WebM/MKV/MP4), DNxHD/DNxHR decoder (all SMPTE ST 2019-1 CIDs, 8/10/12-bit, 4:2:2/4:4:4, interlaced, alpha; within IDCT precision of ffmpeg on 22 fixtures) + DNxHR LB/SQ/HQ/HQX/444 encoder and MOV AVdh export, AV1 decoder (Main profile, 8/10-bit, all intra/inter tools, loop filters, superres, film grain, intra BC, spatial layers; bit-exact vs libdav1d on 19 SVT fixtures + 22 libaom vectors; MP4 av01 / WebM V_AV1 import), MXF import (OP1a/OP-Atom; AVC with POC-ordered B pictures bit-exact, DNxHD/DNxHR, ProRes, PCM/AES3; MPEG-2 reported unsupported; index-table seeking, material package timecode), Ogg Opus/Vorbis (granule seeking, pre-skip, end trimming), image sequences, Broadcast WAV timecode	VP9 frame threading, AV1 threading/SIMD (~4 fps 1080p today), AV1 High/Professional profiles, H.264 High 10 / 4:2:2 and HEVC 4:2:2 in software (G3), E-AC-3, AVI (MPEG-2 decoder and hardware decode have landed)	30–50
M10	Graphics & captions	🟡	Caption tracks (Subtitle/CEA-608/708/Teletext formats, track style), SRT/WebVTT/SCC import+export (frame-exact, property-tested), caption editing (add/split/merge/trim/move, sync-locked insert/extract), Text panel Captions tab, burn-in in Program monitor and export; text engine (crates/text: bundled + system fonts, harfrust shaping, bidi, line breaking, paragraph layout, glyph cache; 3-line 1080p title ≈ 0.15 ms warm); graphic clips with text + shape layers (fill, 2 strokes, background, shadow, keyframable transform), Type tool with on-monitor editing, shape/pen tools, Properties/Essential Graphics editor, align/distribute; graphics templates (own .fcgt format, 8 original built-ins, Browse tab with engine-rendered thumbnails, export / install / apply / editable properties; never reads .mogrt), rolls/crawls with ease and pre/postroll, responsive pins and intro/outro, per-character styles, Upgrade Caption to Graphic, source graphics, Replace Fonts; MCC (608+708), EBU STL, TTML/IMSC1, DFXP (frame-exact, property-tested)	608/708 embedding in video streams, speech-to-text	12–18
M11	Interchange & project management	✅	.fcproj schema versions + migrations, atomic saves, Save a Copy/Revert, auto-save ring + crash-recovery journal (Preferences ▸ Auto Save, recovery prompt), FCP7 XML, FCPXML, EDL, OTIO; offline media (own slate) + Link Media (fingerprint-checked relink, folder remap, search, Align Timecode, Make Offline); proxies (ProRes Proxy/LT, H.264 ¼/½ background jobs, attach/detach/reconnect, monitor toggle, export full-res) + ingest (copy/transcode/proxies); Project Manager (collect, consolidate + transcode with handles, size estimate)	Rename media to clip names, image-sequence conversion, Media Browser-driven relink, smart (cross-drive) path tracking	1–2
M12–M16	Multicam, web (WASM), platform, long tail	🟡	Multicam: audio sync (GCC-PHAT, sub-sample), Merge Clips, multi-camera source sequences, Multi-Camera view with live switching (1–9); L0–L4 crates compile to wasm32	Web app shell (file access, WebCodecs, audio), scene detection, auto reframe, ~800 remaining commands and dialogs, performance hardening	35–55
HW	Hardware acceleration (#30)	🟡	Blend modes and 34 effect ids on the GPU incl. Lumetri basic / creative / vignette (#32, GPU2–GPU7); GPU export rendering (#421); decode: VideoToolbox (#33, #41), Media Foundation / D3D11 H.264 / HEVC / VP9 / AV1 (HW2, HW3), VA-API H.264 / HEVC (#358), NVDEC H.264 / HEVC (#549); encode: VideoToolbox H.264 / HEVC, NVENC H.264 (Windows, Linux) and HEVC incl. Main 10 HDR (#328, #360)	Zero-copy, remaining GPU effects, VideoToolbox Main 10, Quick Sync / AMF, VA-API VP9 / AV1 and encode	120–200
L10N	Localization	🟡	Spanish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese whole interface; Portuguese (Brazil), Ukrainian menus	Hindi, Arabic (RTL), French, Indonesian, German, Korean, Vietnamese, Italian, Russian; native review	150–230

After beta

Plugin hosting (VST3 / AU, then OpenFX; owner decision, G11), AI features with openly licensed models (G12), delivery formats (G13), localization (G14), the web app shell (G20).

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
2026-10-10	minor	Alpha gate table added (craftrules core-workflow gate): six core workflows, all pass on macOS; stage stays alpha
2026-10-10	major	Created: milestone table moved from ROADMAP.md (M5 and M9 remaining work updated), HW and L10N rows, beta milestones B1–B7, Current focus from the re-measure