kachlan

kachlan - sliced lime

kachlan (কচলান) — Bangla for squeezing juice from a lime. Just like wringing every last drop from a lime, kachlan squeezes the excess out of your video files.

Fast video compression CLI powered by ffmpeg. Compress a single file or an entire folder with one command.

Download

No manual setup required! kachlan automatically downloads and installs ffmpeg on first run if it’s not already installed.

Desktop App (GUI)

A graphical desktop app with drag-and-drop, progress bar, and quality controls.

kachlan GUI - Main Interface

kachlan GUI - Video List Preview

Features:

Windows (x64)
✨ Includes ffmpeg		 macOS (Universal)
✨ Includes ffmpeg		 Linux (x64)
✨ Includes ffmpeg

Windows Installation:

  1. Download and extract the ZIP file
  2. Run kachlan.exe

✨ Includes ffmpeg - ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe are bundled in the ZIP. No separate installation needed!

Linux Installation:

Download the .deb file and install:

sudo apt install ./kachlan-gui_linux_amd64.deb

Or double-click the .deb file to install via Software Center.

⚠️ Ubuntu Software may show “potentially unsafe” warning because this is not from Ubuntu’s official repositories. This is expected for third-party packages. The app is open-source (MIT licensed) and safe to install.

macOS Installation:

⚠️ macOS Gatekeeper Warning: This app is not notarized by Apple. You’ll need to bypass Gatekeeper.

Step 1: Download and Install

  1. Download the DMG file
  2. Open the DMG
  3. Drag kachlan to Applications folder

Step 2: Bypass Gatekeeper (Required)

macOS will show “Apple could not verify ‘kachlan’ is free of malware” when you first open it.

Method 1: System Settings (Easiest)

  1. Try to open kachlan from Applications
  2. Click “Done” on the warning dialog
  3. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security
  4. Scroll down to the Security section
  5. Click “Open Anyway” next to the kachlan message
  6. Click “Open” in the confirmation dialog

Method 2: Right-Click (Alternative)

  1. Right-click kachlan in Applications
  2. Select “Open”
  3. Click “Open” in the dialog

Method 3: Terminal (Advanced)

sudo spctl --add /Applications/kachlan.app
sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/kachlan.app

If app doesn’t appear in Launchpad:

killall Dock

ℹ️ This is normal for open-source apps without an Apple Developer certificate. The source code is public and safe to review.

Having trouble? Check the Troubleshooting Guide

Command Line (CLI)

Windows

Download for Windows (x64)

Download for Windows (ARM)

Extract the zip, double-click kachlan.exe

macOS

brew install kmtusher97/tap/kachlan

or Apple Silicon | Intel

Linux

Download .deb (x64)

Download .rpm (x64)

Install: sudo dpkg -i kachlan_*.deb

All releases and architectures

Other install methods

# Go install
go install github.com/kmtusher97/kachlan/cli@latest

# From source
git clone https://github.com/kmtusher97/kachlan.git
cd kachlan/cli
make install

Usage

Compress a single video

kachlan video.mp4
# → video-compressed.mp4

Compress with custom output

kachlan video.mp4 -o output.mp4

Compress all videos in a folder

kachlan ./my-videos/
# → ./my-videos-compressed/  (same structure, all videos compressed)

Compress folder with parallel workers

kachlan ./my-videos/ -w 4

Adjust quality

# Higher quality (lower CRF = bigger file)
kachlan video.mp4 --crf 23

# Lower quality (higher CRF = smaller file)
kachlan video.mp4 --crf 32

# Slower encoding for better compression
kachlan video.mp4 --preset slow

Options

Flag Default Description
--crf 28 Quality level (0-51, lower = better quality)
--preset fast Encoding speed (ultrafast to veryslow)
-o, --output auto Output file or folder path
-w, --workers 1 Parallel compressions (folder mode)

Supported formats

.mp4 .avi .mov .mkv .wmv .flv .webm .m4v .mpg .mpeg .3gp .ts

How it works

kachlan wraps ffmpeg with sensible defaults:

When compressing a folder, kachlan mirrors the directory structure into a new <folder>-compressed directory, preserving the original files untouched.

License

MIT