Agent skill

Transcription

by MadAppGang in MadAppGang/claude-code

Audio/video transcription using OpenAI Whisper. An agent skill from MadAppGang/claude-code.

MITAuto-check passedMedia & Creative

Install Transcription

skills CLI
$ npx skills add MadAppGang/claude-code --skill transcription -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install MadAppGang/claude-code transcription --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/MadAppGang/claude-code.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/video-editing/skills/transcription .claude/skills/transcription && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
transcription
GitHub stars
285
Token cost
~1.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
188 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
69
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Audio/video transcription using OpenAI Whisper. An agent skill from MadAppGang/claude-code.

  • Works in 3 steps: Noise reduction before transcription → Use language hint → Provide initial prompt for context
  • Transcribing media
  • SKILL.md covers System Requirements, Basic Transcription, Output Formats and Audio Extraction for…, plus 6 more sections
  • Calls whisper, ffmpeg and pip; reaches github.com

What it does

Transcription is an agent skill from MadAppGang/claude-code. Audio/video transcription using OpenAI Whisper. Covers installation, model selection, transcript formats (SRT, VTT, JSON), timing synchronization, and speaker diarization. Use when transcribing media or generating subtitles.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Media & Creative, covering Transcription. It works with Whisper. The repository describes itself as: claude code plugins marketplace. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Transcribing media
  • Generating subtitles

Example prompts

  • “/transcription”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Noise reduction before transcription
  2. Use language hint
  3. Provide initial prompt for context

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6097ad4. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • whisper
    • ffmpeg
    • pip
    • brew
    • git
    • make
    • ffprobe

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • github.com

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Transcription loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 60 tokens; SKILL.md has 188 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~60
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from MadAppGang/claude-code at commit 6097ad4, republished under its MIT licence (© MadAppGang). 188 words, ~1,674 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/transcription/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
transcription
description
Audio/video transcription using OpenAI Whisper. Covers installation, model selection, transcript formats (SRT, VTT, JSON), timing synchronization, and speaker diarization. Use when transcribing media or generating subtitles.

plugin: video-editing updated: 2026-01-20

Transcription with Whisper

Production-ready patterns for audio/video transcription using OpenAI Whisper.

System Requirements

Installation Options

Option 1: OpenAI Whisper (Python)

bash
# macOS/Linux/Windows
pip install openai-whisper

# Verify
whisper --help

Option 2: whisper.cpp (C++ - faster)

bash
# macOS
brew install whisper-cpp

# Linux - build from source
git clone https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp
cd whisper.cpp && make

# Windows - use pre-built binaries or build with cmake

Option 3: Insanely Fast Whisper (GPU accelerated)

bash
pip install insanely-fast-whisper
Model Selection
ModelSizeVRAMAccuracySpeedUse Case
tiny39M~1GBLowFastestQuick previews
base74M~1GBMediumFastDraft transcripts
small244M~2GBGoodMediumGeneral use
medium769M~5GBBetterSlowQuality transcripts
large-v31550M~10GBBestSlowestFinal production

Recommendation: Start with small for speed/quality balance. Use large-v3 for final delivery.

Basic Transcription

Using OpenAI Whisper
bash
# Basic transcription (auto-detect language)
whisper audio.mp3 --model small

# Specify language and output format
whisper audio.mp3 --model medium --language en --output_format srt

# Multiple output formats
whisper audio.mp3 --model small --output_format all

# With timestamps and word-level timing
whisper audio.mp3 --model small --word_timestamps True
Using whisper.cpp
bash
# Download model first
./models/download-ggml-model.sh base.en

# Transcribe
./main -m models/ggml-base.en.bin -f audio.wav -osrt

# With timestamps
./main -m models/ggml-base.en.bin -f audio.wav -ocsv

Output Formats

SRT (SubRip Subtitle)
1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,500
Hello and welcome to this video.

2
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,200
Today we'll discuss video editing.
VTT (WebVTT)
WEBVTT

00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:04.500
Hello and welcome to this video.

00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.200
Today we'll discuss video editing.
JSON (with word-level timing)
json
{
  "text": "Hello and welcome to this video.",
  "segments": [
    {
      "id": 0,
      "start": 1.0,
      "end": 4.5,
      "text": " Hello and welcome to this video.",
      "words": [
        {"word": "Hello", "start": 1.0, "end": 1.3},
        {"word": "and", "start": 1.4, "end": 1.5},
        {"word": "welcome", "start": 1.6, "end": 2.0},
        {"word": "to", "start": 2.1, "end": 2.2},
        {"word": "this", "start": 2.3, "end": 2.5},
        {"word": "video", "start": 2.6, "end": 3.0}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Audio Extraction for Transcription

Before transcribing video, extract audio in optimal format:

bash
# Extract audio as WAV (16kHz, mono - optimal for Whisper)
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -ar 16000 -ac 1 -c:a pcm_s16le audio.wav

# Extract as high-quality WAV for archival
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -c:a pcm_s16le audio.wav

# Extract as compressed MP3 (smaller, still works)
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 audio.mp3

Timing Synchronization

Convert Whisper JSON to FCP Timing
python
import json

def whisper_to_fcp_timing(whisper_json_path, fps=24):
    """Convert Whisper JSON output to FCP-compatible timing."""
    with open(whisper_json_path) as f:
        data = json.load(f)

    segments = []
    for seg in data.get("segments", []):
        segments.append({
            "start_time": seg["start"],
            "end_time": seg["end"],
            "start_frame": int(seg["start"] * fps),
            "end_frame": int(seg["end"] * fps),
            "text": seg["text"].strip(),
            "words": seg.get("words", [])
        })

    return segments
Frame-Accurate Timing
bash
# Get exact frame count and duration
ffprobe -v error -count_frames -select_streams v:0 \
  -show_entries stream=nb_read_frames,duration,r_frame_rate \
  -of json video.mp4

Speaker Diarization

For multi-speaker content, use pyannote.audio:

bash
pip install pyannote.audio
python
from pyannote.audio import Pipeline

pipeline = Pipeline.from_pretrained("pyannote/speaker-diarization@2.1")
diarization = pipeline("audio.wav")

for turn, _, speaker in diarization.itertracks(yield_label=True):
    print(f"{turn.start:.1f}s - {turn.end:.1f}s: {speaker}")

Batch Processing

bash
#!/bin/bash
# Transcribe all videos in directory

MODEL="small"
OUTPUT_DIR="transcripts"
mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"

for video in *.mp4 *.mov *.avi; do
  [[ -f "$video" ]] || continue

  base="${video%.*}"

  # Extract audio
  ffmpeg -i "$video" -ar 16000 -ac 1 -c:a pcm_s16le "/tmp/${base}.wav" -y

  # Transcribe
  whisper "/tmp/${base}.wav" --model "$MODEL" \
    --output_format all \
    --output_dir "$OUTPUT_DIR"

  # Cleanup temp audio
  rm "/tmp/${base}.wav"

  echo "Transcribed: $video"
done

Quality Optimization

Improve Accuracy
  1. Noise reduction before transcription:
bash
ffmpeg -i noisy_audio.wav -af "highpass=f=200,lowpass=f=3000,afftdn=nf=-25" clean_audio.wav
  1. Use language hint:
bash
whisper audio.mp3 --language en --model medium
  1. Provide initial prompt for context:
bash
whisper audio.mp3 --initial_prompt "Technical discussion about video editing software."
Performance Tips
  1. GPU acceleration (if available):
bash
whisper audio.mp3 --model large-v3 --device cuda
  1. Process in chunks for long videos:
python
# Split audio into 10-minute chunks
# Transcribe each chunk
# Merge results with time offset adjustment

Error Handling

bash
# Validate audio file before transcription
validate_audio() {
  local file="$1"
  if ffprobe -v error -select_streams a:0 -show_entries stream=codec_type -of csv=p=0 "$file" 2>/dev/null | grep -q "audio"; then
    return 0
  else
    echo "Error: No audio stream found in $file"
    return 1
  fi
}

# Check Whisper installation
check_whisper() {
  if command -v whisper &> /dev/null; then
    echo "Whisper available"
    return 0
  else
    echo "Error: Whisper not installed. Run: pip install openai-whisper"
    return 1
  fi
}
  • ffmpeg-core - Audio extraction and preprocessing
  • final-cut-pro - Import transcripts as titles/markers

© MadAppGang, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in plugins/video-editing/skills/transcription of MadAppGang/claude-code.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6097ad4

Compare with similar skills

Transcription next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Transcription compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Transcription this skillMadAppGang/claude-code285—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Transcribe Mdhrescak/transcribe-md104—~474Automated safety check: NotesMIT
Interview Transcriptionjamditis/claude-skills-journalism416—~3.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Wjs Transcribing Audiojianshuo/claude-skills131—~4.4kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Whisper Transcriptionbenchflow-ai/skillsbench1.8k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Voice Memo SyncLeoYeAI/openclaw-master-skills2.2k—~5.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Questions about Transcription

What does Transcription do?

Audio/video transcription using OpenAI Whisper. An agent skill from MadAppGang/claude-code. Transcription is an agent skill from MadAppGang/claude-code. Audio/video transcription using OpenAI Whisper.

When should I use Transcription?

Transcription fits situations like: transcribing media; generating subtitles.

How do I install Transcription in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add MadAppGang/claude-code --skill transcription -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/video-editing/skills/transcription in MadAppGang/claude-code) into .claude/skills/transcription in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Transcription in Codex?

Run `npx skills add MadAppGang/claude-code --skill transcription -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/video-editing/skills/transcription in MadAppGang/claude-code) into .agents/skills/transcription in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Transcription in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add MadAppGang/claude-code --skill transcription -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/transcription, .gemini/skills/transcription, .github/skills/transcription and .opencode/skills/transcription in your project.

What does Transcription need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Transcription needs the command-line tools its instructions call (whisper, ffmpeg, pip, brew, git and make). Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Transcription access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. In commands or code: github.com; the agent is likely to contact it when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Transcription safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Transcription use?

Transcription is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Transcription use?

About 1.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.7k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Transcription?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Transcription: Transcribe Md (hrescak/transcribe-md, 104 stars), Interview Transcription (jamditis/claude-skills-journalism, 416 stars), Wjs Transcribing Audio (jianshuo/claude-skills, 131 stars) and Whisper Transcription (benchflow-ai/skillsbench, 1.8k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Transcription?

MadAppGang (a GitHub organization) maintains it in MadAppGang/claude-code, which has 285 GitHub stars. The repository holds 69 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on March 15, 2026.

Source: MadAppGang/claude-code on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.