Changelog — ClipEngine AI

v1.6.0Release

April 25, 2026

Added

Two ways to search keywords. A small pill toggle above the keyword research search bar lets you pick between Web and This clip. Web is the new default — it expands your query like a search engine, so when you type a place name or a subject, you get related places and subjects, not whatever happens to be in the clip you have open. This clip is opt-in for when you want results pulled toward what's actually in your current footage. Your choice persists across sessions.

Changed

Keyword research no longer over-anchors to the clip you have open. Previously, every search anchored to your clip's title and description, which meant searching for a place name or subject often came back with results about your footage instead of about what you actually typed. Web mode (now default) returns broad, query-led results. Clip mode is there when you want the anchored behaviour.
Clip mode now reads your Notes. When you're in This-clip mode, the search uses your clip's description and the notes you wrote on the Generate tab — your own words about what to focus on — and weights your notes higher. Title is no longer used.

Fixed

Results no longer carry over between clips. Searching the same word on two different clips used to silently return the first clip's results for the second clip. Each clip now gets fresh results.

Removed

The rotating search hints in the keyword research box. The input now just says *Search for keywords* — once you know what the field does, the cycling examples were just visual noise.

v1.5.0Release

April 25, 2026

Changed

Keyword research is now anchored to your specific clip. Once you've generated a title and description, the research panel reads what's actually in your footage and returns keywords relevant to *that clip*, not generic topical expansion. Searching "monsoon" on a wind-farm clip gives you *dark sky, storm clouds, dramatic weather, hilltop wind, overcast turbines* — not generic monsoon stuff like *umbrella* or *raindrops on glass*. Pre-generation searches still work as a broad search engine when there's no clip yet.
Results sort by relevance, not by length. Your search words appear at positions 1–3, then chips containing those words, then everything else. Most relevant first.
The exact words you typed are guaranteed to appear as chips. If you search "maharashtra wind turbine", you'll always see *maharashtra*, *wind*, and *turbine* as the first three chips — even if the AI would have skipped them as "obvious".
Concrete over abstract. Results now favour what you can actually shoot — subjects, parts, materials, actions, scenes, locations — instead of category-level concepts like *ecological*, *technological advancement*, *alternative energy*. What stock buyers actually type into search bars.
Each search returns 40–50 broad, varied keywords instead of the previous ~25, with at least 18 single-word terms guaranteed. Single words like *monsoon, tractor, hallway, propeller, hoarfrost* now consistently show up alongside the longer phrases.
Suggestions skip what's already on your chip list (except your literal query words, which always appear, dimmed if added).

Added

"Load more" button with a sensible cap. Click below the results to pull another batch of fresh keywords for the same query — none repeat what was already shown. After 4 Load Mores on the same query, the button switches to "No more results" and disables, so a single search can't drain your generation credits forever.
Result count at the top. Above the chips you'll now see something like *45 results for "tokyo skyline" · 3 added* — at a glance you know how big the list is and how many you've already pulled into your main keywords.
Animated loading skeleton. While a search is running, eight chip-shaped placeholders pulse together where the real chips will land — you can see the layout filling in instead of staring at "Searching…" text.
Cycling search hints. If the search box is empty, it gently rotates through example queries — *Try: tokyo skyline, Try: golden hour, Try: monsoon, Try: drone forest* — so it's always clear you can search for anything.

Fixed

A trailing space in your search no longer creates a duplicate cache entry. *"tokyo skyline "* and *"tokyo skyline"* are now treated as the same search.

v1.4.1Release

April 24, 2026

Fixed

Save & Next no longer captures frames from the previous clip. Before this fix, if you clicked Generate immediately after Save & Next and the new video hadn't finished loading, you'd sometimes see a brief "video still loading" message — and if you clicked Generate a second time, the extension could capture the old clip's frames instead of the new one's. The extension now waits correctly for the new clip's video to be truly ready before capturing, so the frames always match the clip you're on.
Stuck on the click-to-play thumbnail? If BlackBox leaves the clip on its click-to-play thumbnail after Save & Next (instead of auto-mounting the video player), the extension now clicks that thumbnail for you behind the scenes while it's waiting — so Generate self-recovers without you having to click the video area yourself.
Clearer message when the new clip's video is still loading — the banner now tells you exactly what to do: "BlackBox is still loading the new clip — click the video on BlackBox, then Generate again."

v1.4.0Release

April 23, 2026

Added

Your right-click menus now colour-code each destination. When you right-click a keyword or an intelligence chip, every option in the menu shows up in the same colour the word will become — gold for Favourites, teal for Suffix, pink for Keywords, red for Blacklist. Makes it much faster to see where you're sending each word.
Better visibility when something retries in the background. If the panel has to recover from a hiccup — saving your in-progress work, flushing usage counters, double-checking a clip switch — you'll now see a small note at the top of the panel. Nothing to do; just one less thing happening silently.

Changed

Consistent bar visual across every strip panel. Metadata, Keyword Audit, Technical Audit, and Clip Insights now use the same row style: a label on the left, a progress bar in the middle, and the value on the right. Quality scores, character limits, how your keywords are distributed across sources, and word frequency are all readable at the same glance.
The Keyword Audit "Found In" column now shows real keyword chips instead of plain text, matching the colour-identity used everywhere else in the panel.
Word Frequency warns you about stuffing. If the same word appears four times across your title, description, and keywords the count pill turns amber; five or more turns red — so over-stuffed words can't hide at the bottom of the list.

Fixed

The right-click menu could open slightly off-centre when the panel was zoomed or the font size was set to anything other than Medium. It now positions correctly at every font size.
When you switched clips mid-generation, a right-click action or an auto-restore could occasionally write to the previous clip's state. Both paths now double-check you're on the current clip before making any change.

v1.3.0Release

April 22, 2026

Added

Close the side panel without losing your work. If you minimise the panel mid-clip and come back to it later, your keyword chips, recovery tray, generated title and description, intelligence panels (including any groups you refreshed), inline edits, category picks, and classification toggle are all restored automatically. A small "Restored from your last session" note confirms it. Once you click "Fill BlackBox Fields" the slate is wiped — at that point your clip is committed.
Settings save as you change them. Flip a toggle, pick a theme, add a suffix keyword, and it's saved instantly — you no longer need to click the Save button. The Save button is still there if you want to confirm everything at once.
Recent keyword searches stick around. The last 10 searches you ran in the Keyword Research panel now survive closing the extension, so you can come back to them next session.

Fixed

The floating "ClipEngine AI" button on BlackBox no longer flashes "Click Extension Icon" when the panel actually opened. The hint now only appears if the click truly didn't open the panel — no more confusing blink on every successful click.

v1.2.0Release

April 21, 2026

Changed

Every feature is now free for every signed-in user. Intelligence, keyword research, Full Analysis mode, clip history, and favourites are no longer Pro-only. Free and Pro plans now differ only in how many generations you get each month.
Upgrade prompts and "Pro" badges have been removed from the panels that used to gate features, since nothing is gated any more.

Fixed

The Generate button could get stuck showing "No generations remaining" right after signing in, even when you had plenty of credits. It now refreshes correctly as soon as your account loads.

v1.1.0Release

April 19, 2026

Added

An eleven-step guided tour that walks first-time users through the panel — where to find generate, how to review, how to fill — so you can get to your first finished clip without reading a manual.
Full Analysis mode — an optional deeper reading of your clip that adds commercial potential scoring, a more thorough technical audit, richer metadata inference, and clip insights. Off by default so everyday generations stay fast.
A Crimson theme, joining Default, Warm, Vibrant, Blue, and Teal for a total of six panel looks.
A session timer and a per-clip timer in the panel header so you can see at a glance how long you've been working today and on the current clip.
Per-clip description opening memory — the panel remembers whether you prefer descriptions that open with the subject or the location, and restores your choice when you come back to an old clip.
A much-expanded admin dashboard with usage insights, announcement posting, time-boxed Pro grants, a force-signout tool, and a complete audit log of every admin action.
A private generation log that records every generation you run, so your own history is never lost.
A cleanup step on the description that catches sentences ending on hanging words like "with" or "and" and rewrites them so every description reads naturally.

Changed

The Default theme has been retuned to match the BlackBox editor's own palette, so the side panel feels like a natural extension of the workspace rather than a foreign overlay.
The removed-item recovery tray has been split into three — one for titles, one for descriptions, one for keywords — so restoring something you deleted is much easier to find.
Various logos and UI colours were re-palette-d to match the BlackBox blue so the handshake with BlackBox's own interface feels seamless.

Fixed

New sign-ups no longer arrive with a pre-filled list of default suffix keywords — you start with a clean slate and add your own.
Many small colour and contrast issues across the non-default themes have been corrected.

v1.0.0Release

March 29, 2026

Added

A Chrome side panel that opens right inside BlackBox, so you never have to leave the upload page to generate or review your metadata.
Automatic clip detection — the panel recognises the clip you're editing on BlackBox without any copy-pasting of filenames or thumbnails.
Three-frame auto-capture from the video itself, which means the AI actually sees your footage before writing metadata rather than guessing from the filename.
A full metadata package in one shot — title, description, up to forty-nine keywords, primary and secondary categories, and commercial-versus-editorial classification.
One-click fill of every BlackBox field — the panel pushes title, description, keywords, categories, and classification straight into BlackBox's own form so you never copy-paste between tabs again.
A thirty-six-point technical audit that scores exposure, sharpness, noise, watermarks, faces, letterboxing, and more, so you can catch issues before submitting.
An Intelligence panel with multiple suggested-keyword groups — trending, seasonal, high-volume, AI suggestions and more — to top up your keyword list.
Keyword research inside the panel with pinned queries and a recent-searches list. Research never costs a generation.
A Clip Insights score from zero to one hundred with a pre-submit checklist telling you if the clip is ready to upload.
A keyword suffix system that automatically appends your signature tags (like "stock footage" or "royalty free") to every clip.
Five initial themes and five zoom levels so the panel feels right whatever your screen and setup.
Email and password sign-in with a session that stays logged in across BlackBox tabs.

Before 1.0

Long before the Chrome Web Store release, ClipEngine AI started life as a browser-based workspace where contributors uploaded screenshots and notes to get metadata back. Most of what you see in the extension today — the keyword chip system, the Intelligence and Research panels, Clip Insights, the technical audit, clip history, themes and zoom levels, and the suffix system — was first built, tested, and refined there. We later moved the whole experience inside BlackBox itself as a Chrome side panel because nothing beats working where you already are. A private beta followed, with direct feedback from stock footage creators informing dozens of fixes and polish passes before the public launch. The web workspace has since been retired; the Chrome Extension is the product going forward.