Switching from Loom to ClipCabinet
Loom earned its place. It made "record your screen, send a link" a normal way to work, and its recording and viewing experience is still the most polished in the category. If you are reading this, you probably do not need convincing that async video works. You need a reason to move.
There are usually three.
First, ownership. Loom was acquired by Atlassian in 2023, and your recordings live inside Atlassian's player and ecosystem. If your tooling, or your appetite for suite software, points elsewhere, that ownership question matters more every quarter.
Second, pricing. Loom's free plan is limited, and the paid plans are shaped for teams. If you are a solo developer who records a handful of clips a week, you are paying for seats and features built for someone else.
Third, and the reason ClipCabinet exists at all: a Loom is opaque. You get a hosted video and a share link. The auto-transcript lives behind Loom's player, there is no structured search inside a clip, and there is no way for an AI agent to pull the content. If you spend your day next to Claude Code or Cursor, every Loom you record is context your tools cannot read.
This guide covers what maps to what, what you gain, what you honestly give up, and the four steps to switch. For a feature-by-feature comparison, see /vs/loom.
What maps to what
Your daily habits survive the move. Here is the translation table:
| In Loom | In ClipCabinet |
|---|---|
| Record a tab, window, or desktop | Same, from the Chrome extension. An optional start-on-click mode trims the dead air before your first click. |
| Share a link | Public share links. Anyone with the link can watch and comment, no account needed, and links unfurl with a preview image in Slack and elsewhere. |
| Comments on a clip | Click-to-comment. Viewers click directly on the frame to leave feedback on an exact spot, pinned to a timestamp on video clips. |
| Transcripts | Automatic transcription, plus frame captions, a summary, and the URLs and errors that appeared on screen. All of it indexed for search. |
The recording flow will feel familiar: pick what to capture, hit record, get a link when you stop. The difference is what happens to the clip afterwards.
What you gain
Your agent can read your clips. ClipCabinet runs a native MCP server. Connect Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP client, and your agent can list your recordings, search across them, and read a clip's transcript, captions, and metadata directly. Instead of watching your own video and retyping what it shows, you point the agent at the clip.
Search that covers what was said and what was shown. Every clip is transcribed, its frames are captioned, and both are indexed for semantic search. "The clip where checkout threw a 500" is a query, not ten minutes of scrubbing.
Markdown export. Append .md to any clip URL and you get a clean Markdown view: transcript, comments, metadata. There is also a one-click "Copy as Markdown" in the app. Your recordings become addressable text, not files locked behind a player.
20 free clips, no card. The free tier includes MCP access, so you can test the entire agent workflow before paying anything.
What you give up
The honest part. If what you want is a polished video messaging tool for non-technical teams, with viewer analytics and rich editing, Loom is more mature, and switching would be a downgrade for you. ClipCabinet does not tell you who watched your video or how much of it, and it is not an editing suite.
If your recordings mostly go to customers and your questions are about engagement, stay on Loom. If your recordings mostly go to teammates and agents, keep reading.
How to switch
- Install the extension. Grab it from /install. It records a tab, a window, or your whole desktop.
- Record your first clip. Hit record, walk through the thing, hit stop. Processing starts immediately, and the clip is watchable before the full pipeline finishes.
- Share the link. Send it exactly like you would a Loom. Viewers can watch and leave pinned comments without an account.
- Connect your agent over MCP. Go to Settings, then API tokens, and use the connect card for your client. Claude Code and Cursor connect in one click. From then on, "look at my latest clip" is something your agent can actually do.
What about your existing Looms? Leave them where they are. There is no importer, and most old recordings age out of relevance on their own. The switch is about where the next clip goes, not about migrating an archive.
Record one real clip, ask your agent about it, and you will know within five minutes whether this is your tool.
FAQ
Can I import my Looms?
No. ClipCabinet has no Loom importer today. Keep your old Looms where they are and start new recordings in ClipCabinet; the switch is about where the next clip goes.
Is ClipCabinet free?
The free tier is 20 clips with no card required, and it includes MCP access.
Does ClipCabinet work with Claude Code and Cursor?
Yes. ClipCabinet runs a native MCP server, and connecting a client takes one click from the app. Once connected, the agent can list, search, and read your clips.