External Scripting in DaVinci Resolve: what Local does, and why a local tool asks for it.

Set to Local, External Scripting lets a program on the same Mac hand Resolve Studio a timeline while it runs. Where it is, what Local and Network mean, and the free Resolve route.

What External Scripting actually is

DaVinci Resolve ships a scripting interface: a way for a Python or Lua program to open projects, add clips to the Media Pool, build and import timelines, and switch pages, the same things you do with the mouse. Scripts that live inside Resolve run from the Workspace > Scripts menu and the Console. External Scripting is the switch that lets a program running outside Resolve, as its own app on the Mac, connect to that interface while Resolve is open.

The preference has three settings. None closes the door. Local opens it to programs on this machine only. Network opens it to programs on other machines on your network as well. For an editing tool sitting next to Resolve on the same Mac, Local is the whole requirement, and nothing about it reaches the network.

How do you set External Scripting to Local in DaVinci Resolve?

1. Check your edition first. External Scripting is a Resolve Studio feature. On free Resolve a program outside Resolve cannot connect through it, and no setting changes that. If you are on free Resolve, skip to the file route below; it works and takes one dialog.
2. Open the System preferences. Choose DaVinci Resolve > Preferences from the menu bar, or press Cmd+Comma. Preferences open on two tabs, System and User. Click System, then General in the list on the left.
3. Find "External scripting using". It sits in the General panel with a menu beside it: None, Local and Network. If it reads None, nothing outside Resolve can see the running app, which is why a tool that tried to send you a timeline fell back to saving a file.
4. Choose Local. Local means a program on this Mac may connect; it does not open a port to other machines. Pick Network only if a machine elsewhere on your network needs to drive this Resolve, which is rare in an interview edit.
5. Save, and restart Resolve if the tool still cannot see it. Click Save. Some versions read the setting only at launch, so if the tool still reports Resolve as unreachable, quit Resolve fully and reopen it.
6. Keep Resolve open with the right project. A tool connecting through the scripting interface talks to the running Resolve and the project that is open. Open the project you are cutting before you send anything, so the media and the timeline land in that Media Pool and not in whatever was open last.
7. Send the timeline and look at the Media Pool. Run the export from the tool. The camera files it references appear in the Media Pool, the new timeline appears alongside them, and Resolve switches to it. If a clip comes in offline, the usual cause is a source file that moved since the tool read it; relink and the timeline plays.

Why does a local tool ask for it?

Because without it the only way into Resolve is a file. An editing tool that works from a transcript ends with a list of selects: a clip name, a source timecode in and out, and a note for each. Resolve can take that list two ways. It can read it from a timeline file you import, a CMX 3600 EDL or an FCPXML, with File > Import > Timeline. Or, with External Scripting on, the tool can add the media and import the timeline itself, through the interface Resolve ships for exactly that.

The second route saves the dialog and the hunt for the file. It also does the Media Pool step for you, which is where a file import goes wrong when the camera files are not in the project yet. The result is the same either way: a stringout of your selects, in order, with the words of each one in its note.

The setting earns some suspicion, and the suspicion is healthy. Here is what it does not do. It does not send anything anywhere; Local is on-machine only. It does not give the tool your footage; Resolve already has it, and the tool only tells Resolve which files and which frames. It does nothing while Resolve is closed, and nothing until you press the tool's export button.

What if you are on free Resolve?

Then the file route is yours, and it is a good route. The free edition imports an EDL and an FCPXML the same as Resolve Studio does: put the camera files in the Media Pool, set the project to the camera frame rate, choose File > Import > Timeline and pick the file. The dialog and the one reel-name setting that sends clips offline are in how to import an EDL from a transcript into DaVinci Resolve. Multicam interviews travel as a file too, as FCPXML, which is what keeps the multicam clip switchable after the import.

Transcription on free Resolve is a separate question, answered in how to transcribe video in DaVinci Resolve, free edition included: the built-in transcription is Resolve Studio only.

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