ETCH / THE WHOLE PIPELINEmacOS + Windows desktop studio
Creativity is scattered. Etch is aligned.
The brief is in an email, the references in a Drive, the approval in a text thread. Seven stages in one project, shaped around each client - the line Informal Content Agency ran to make the work that grew 5 million+ followers.
Where the seven came from
The process is older than the software.
The brief arrives in an email, the references pile up in a Drive, the approval lands in a text thread - and the making is spread across ten subscriptions that share nothing. Nobody grew an audience of five million that way. This studio grew one by running a single line, in order, until the line was the thing that worked.
Etch is not seven tools assembled and then explained. It is that production line, with each stage given a room instead of a folder. That is why there are seven and not nine, and why they are tabs rather than plugins - remove one and the process has a hole in it. The alignment is the product.
The pipeline
Seven stages. That is a post, start to live.
The brief, the board, the render, the review - same room. Not seven tools that integrate: seven stages of one job, in one project, holding the same objects the whole way. The editor who opens Planner is looking at the post the face briefed in Chat.
Explore
Pull the look for the series. References live here, not in a hidden folder.
Into ChatA pinned reference becomes the brief's first picture.
Chat
Hook, offer, product, who it is for - with the Brain already in the room.
Into WhiteboardThe direction is saved as a Look, not retyped.
Whiteboard
Pick the cover, the three slides, the thumbnail. On one wall, together.
Into ShotlistThe selects go back to Chat as the next brief.
Shotlist
If you are filming Friday, the list is already the Look.
Into LooksOnce a shot is captured it becomes a Planner draft, dated for the feed.
Looks
Make the frames. The brief compiles into something you can run.
Into AssetsEvery render lands in this project's Assets as it finishes.
Assets
Cull, then send Review to the brand. The library belongs to the job.
Into PlannerThe client marks the work in a share link - no new login.
Planner
Compose it, see it in the feed, schedule it. Posted.
Back to the BrainThe caption sits next to the frame you picked out of Assets.
Brain
The Brain sits outside the row, because it is not a step. It is what every stage starts from: the client's voice, rules, and what already got approved. That is how the workspace shapes itself around the client - and how a teammate joining in week three opens the same Brain instead of getting a voice-note recap.
Why it holds with other people in it
It starts with one person. It holds the whole team.
Most of this runs on one person first: seven stages, one project, and a process you stop rebuilding every time you start a series. Nothing here needs a second seat.
Then the job grows a face, an editor, a shooter, and whoever is managing the brand deal - and without a shared room the work scatters again, a piece per app with a voice note for a handoff. One project holds all seven stages, so a new editor opens the row instead of asking where things are.
The client travels with the project through the Brain, and review happens at the end of the same line - they mark the work in Assets, without an account.
Before you download it
What it runs on, and what it costs.
- Platform
- macOS 11 and later on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, and Windows 10 1809 and later on x64. macOS is the signed, notarised build; the Windows installer is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen warns on first run. Linux is planned.
- Your work
- Local-first: every project is plain files on your machine, and Etch keeps working offline once you are signed in. Sync is not optional - Etch needs an account and a workspace, and your work syncs through our server. Where the data goes.
- Cost
- $0 to install and work in, with your own key for chat. Making frames runs on Etch’s managed AI, so that part needs a paid plan - from $20 a month, and that is a team price, not a seat price: up to 5 seats. Compare the plans.
- AI usage
- You see how much of the managed allowance is left and when it resets - not per-call prices. Your own key stays outside the allowance entirely. How usage works.
- Data and terms
- Trust, privacy and subprocessors are published and current.
Etch / download
Your process has too many tabs. Close them.
Download Etch for macOS or Windows and open the row - seven stages, one project, shaped around each client. Updates install themselves once it is running.
Download Etch