You know I’m not so sure this is a brilliant idea. You open a project and are told it needs to be repaired. Shotcut then attempts to fix it and renames the file using the suffix ‘- repaired’. The problem is, the next time you come to open the file you’ll find the one you named initially and continue editing, acting on autopilot, losing any changes you made to the new file. You can end up with modifications across two separate files… useless because you have no idea which apply where. I can’t recall if there was a notification to say this was being done or not, though I did notice the filename change at the top of the editor.
In my case there was nothing to repair anyway - I deliberately deleted some files I decided not to include and was then prompted to find them. I expected to have the option to remove them from the MLT file at that stage and continue, but it appears to be a case of relocate them or else.
Hopefully that comes across as constructive criticism rather than a snarky moan. I just think it could be more intuitive and don’t like software making my decisions for me.
Thing is, not everyone shares the same intuitions.
Well, software defaults are there for people who operate on ‘Autopilot’ 
Fair enough. Everyone’s different and you can’t please all the people all the time when they have different expectations and ways of working. Universally loved default settings are always going to be a pipe dream.
Another option would be to correct the original file leaving the file name in tact, but create a separate file to store the pre-repaired version of the project just in case the fix turns out to be more a break. I imagine that’s the point of the ‘branching’ thing?
You might not necessarily know that this has happened at the time, but if anything goes wrong a newbie would try to find out if they can roll back and be pointed in the direction of my-project-backup.mlt or whatever. That way it wouldn’t be possible to waste any editing time, which could amount to many hours depending on when you realise your project has been forked when you weren’t looking.
There is your problem. I have no plans to change the way this works. Live and learn.
don’t like software making my decisions for me.
Then, you better start writing and using your own. All software is full of decisions. Every time there is an if statement.
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Yes, absolutely true. It’s a mistake I’ll only make once.
I could have phrased my suggestion/experience more diplomatically, sorry. I was frustrated and posted first without taking a breather. Never a good idea.
Anyway, I can’t and shouldn’t expect anything from free software other than what the author wants to do with it. It’s totally a case of take it or leave it… and I’ve chosen to take it and hopefully contribute something here by way of feedback. Commercial software (and especially commissioned commercial software) is a totally different ball game.
I wouldn’t even know where to start in achieving what you have with Shotcut so far, but I am the voice of the average amateur editor/non-programming, dumbo end user (i.e. a big part of your target audience), so I think there’s still some value to be gained from hearing my take on how everything hangs together. You know Shotcut like the back of your hand, which in some ways puts you at a disadvantage when trying to imagine a newbie getting to grips with it.