Gencast

gencast Plugin for Claude Code

Auto-invoke gencast to generate conversational podcasts from documents. Always uses --minimal flag for clean context management.

Features

• Auto-invocation - Claude automatically suggests podcast generation when you mention "podcast", "audio", or "dialogue"
• Full CLI support - All gencast options available: styles, audiences, voices, planning
• Minimal output - Always uses --minimal flag to reduce context bloat
• Smart workflows - Validates inputs, checks installation, provides clear progress updates
• Reference docs - Voice options and style/audience combinations documented

Installation

The gencast CLI tool is required:

pip install gencast

Quick Start

Auto-invocation

Just mention podcast generation in your conversation:

"Can you convert this lecture.md to a podcast?"

Claude will automatically use gencast with appropriate options.

Explicit Commands

Generate podcast:

/gencast:podcast lecture.md

With custom style and audience:

/gencast:podcast api_docs.md --style interview --audience technical

Generate planning document only:

/gencast:plan research_paper.md

Styles

• educational (default) - Structured learning format
• interview - Q&A conversational style
• casual - Relaxed, friendly discussion
• debate - Contrasting perspectives

Audiences

• general (default) - Broad accessibility
• technical - Assumes domain knowledge
• academic - Scholarly approach
• beginner - Introductory level

Voices

6 voices available (alloy, echo, fable, onyx, nova, shimmer):

Defaults:

• HOST1: nova (bright, energetic)
• HOST2: echo (warm, friendly)

Custom voices:

/gencast:podcast doc.md --host1-voice onyx --host2-voice alloy

Examples

Educational Podcast (Default)

/gencast:podcast lecture_notes.md

Technical Interview

/gencast:podcast api_guide.md --style interview --audience technical

Beginner-Friendly Casual

/gencast:podcast intro.md --style casual --audience beginner

Academic Debate

/gencast:podcast paper.md --style debate --audience academic --with-planning

Multi-Chapter Course

/gencast:podcast ch1.md ch2.md ch3.md -o course.mp3

Options

Option	Description	Values
--style	Podcast style	educational, interview, casual, debate
--audience	Target audience	general, technical, academic, beginner
--with-planning	Generate comprehensive plan first	flag
--save-dialogue	Save dialogue script to text file	flag
--save-plan	Save planning document to text file	flag
-o, --output	Output file path	path (default: podcast.mp3)
--host1-voice	Voice for HOST1	alloy, echo, fable, onyx, nova, shimmer
--host2-voice	Voice for HOST2	alloy, echo, fable, onyx, nova, shimmer

Commands

/gencast:podcast

Generate podcast with full control over options.

/gencast:podcast <input-files...> [options]

/gencast:plan

Generate planning document only (no audio).

/gencast:plan <input-file>

Input Formats

Supported formats:

• Markdown (.md)
• Text (.txt)
• PDF (.pdf) - Requires MISTRAL_API_KEY environment variable

Output

With --minimal flag, gencast shows:

• Milestone: Planning (if --with-planning)
• Milestone: Generating dialogue
• Milestone: Synthesizing audio
• Final: Output path and duration

Advanced Usage

With Planning and Dialogue Saving

/gencast:podcast complex_doc.md --with-planning --save-dialogue --save-plan

Creates:

• podcast.mp3 - Audio file
• podcast_dialogue.txt - Dialogue script
• podcast_plan.txt - Planning document

Review Plan Before Audio

/gencast:plan document.md
# Review document_plan.txt
/gencast:podcast document.md --with-planning

Custom Voice Pairing

/gencast:podcast story.md --host1-voice fable --host2-voice shimmer --style casual

Reference Documentation

• skills/gencast/references/voices.md - Voice options and pairings
• skills/gencast/references/styles.md - Style/audience combinations

Tips

1. Always uses --minimal - Context-friendly output
2. Default works well - educational + general suits most content
3. Match style to content - interview for Q&A, debate for analysis
4. Use planning for complex docs - Ensures comprehensive coverage
5. Save dialogue for review - Check script before re-generating

Requirements

• gencast CLI (pip install gencast)
• For PDFs: MISTRAL_API_KEY environment variable

License

MIT