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Transcribe Video

  • 196 installs
  • 13 repo stars
  • Updated April 16, 2026
  • feiskyer/video-skills

Transcribe local or remote video into text for captions, search indexes, summarization pipelines, or downstream NLP features inside a media or content product.

About

transcribe-video from feiskyer/video-skills helps Claude transcribe video assets into text for captions, archives, or AI summarization. It fits content platforms, agents, and APIs that ingest recordings, interviews, or lectures and need reliable transcripts during feature implementation.

  • Speech-to-text from video sources
  • Supports caption and search workflows
  • Feeds summarization and RAG pipelines
  • Part of feiskyer/video-skills media toolkit
  • Automates manual transcript creation

Transcribe Video by the numbers

  • 196 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Ranked #623 of 1,335 Generative Media skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Data as of Jul 24, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/feiskyer/video-skills --skill transcribe-video

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs196
repo stars13
Last updatedApril 16, 2026
Repositoryfeiskyer/video-skills

What it does

Transcribe local or remote video into text for captions, search indexes, summarization pipelines, or downstream NLP features inside a media or content product.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Transcribe Video

Extract transcript text from a local video file. The skill checks for embedded subtitles first (faster and more accurate), and only falls back to API-based speech recognition if none are found.

Step 1: Identify the video file

Confirm the video file path with the user. Supported formats: mp4, mkv, mov, avi, webm, and any format ffmpeg can handle.

Step 2: Check for embedded subtitles

ffprobe -v quiet -select_streams s -show_entries stream=index,codec_name:stream_tags=language,title -of json "<video_path>"
  • If subtitle streams exist → go to Step 3a (extract embedded subtitles)
  • If no subtitle streams → go to Step 3b (API transcription)

Step 3a: Extract embedded subtitles

If multiple subtitle tracks exist, prefer the one matching the video's primary language or ask the user which track to use.

# Extract as SRT (stream index 0 for first subtitle track; adjust if needed)
ffmpeg -i "<video_path>" -map 0:s:0 -c:s srt "<output_path>.srt" -y

After extraction, convert SRT to clean text:

  • Remove sequence numbers
  • Remove timestamp lines (lines matching \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2})
  • Remove HTML-like tags (<i>, </i>, etc.)
  • Join remaining non-empty lines

Save the clean transcript to <video_name>.txt next to the video file. Done — skip Step 3b.

Step 3b: API-based transcription

Use the bundled transcription script. It reads credentials from ~/.transcribe_video.env.

Prerequisites check

1. Verify the env file exists:

   test -f ~/.transcribe_video.env && echo "OK" || echo "MISSING"

2. If MISSING, tell the user to create ~/.transcribe_video.env with:

   OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key-here
   # Optional Base URL:
   # OPENAI_API_BASE=https://<base-url>/v1/
   # Optional Model Name:
   # TRANSCRIBE_MODEL=gpt-4o-transcribe

Wait for the user to confirm before proceeding.

3. Verify dependencies:

   python3 -c "from openai import OpenAI; from dotenv import load_dotenv; print('OK')" 2>&1

If missing: pip install openai python-dotenv

Run transcription

python3 <skill_directory>/scripts/transcribe.py "<video_path>"

The script extracts audio (WAV, 16kHz mono), sends it to the API, and saves the transcript to <video_name>.txt next to the video file.

Step 4: Report results

Tell the user:

  • Where the transcript file was saved
  • How many lines / approximate word count
  • Whether it came from embedded subtitles or API transcription
  • Display the first few lines as a preview

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