CLI recipes

Working commands for common jobs. Each one assumes you have signed in with scribiz login, saved your own key with scribiz setup, or set GEMINI_API_KEY or SCRIBIZ_API_KEY. Install steps are in Install the CLI.

Subtitles for an editor

Make an SRT that lines up with a timeline that starts at one hour, the way most editors start a sequence:

scribiz ./interview.mov --offset 01:00:00 -o ./interview.srt

Add --speakers to start each cue with the speaker. Use --format vtt for web video.

A folder of recordings

scribiz ./recordings -o ./transcripts

In a terminal you get a picker. To process everything without asking, which is what a script needs, add --no-input:

$ scribiz ./recordings -o ./transcripts --no-input.../Users/you/transcripts/speech.srt/Users/you/transcripts/talking.srtDone: 2 succeeded, 0 failed

Each input becomes one file in ./transcripts. The paths are printed on standard output, and the progress and the Done: line go to standard error. A failure on one file does not stop the rest, and the exit code is the first failure's. A credential or minutes problem stops the rest, because the next file would fail the same way. Add --json and read one result per file, each with the path of its <name>.json, then a summary. Without -o, those .json files are written next to your media.

Chapters for a video description

Save the Context once, then print the chapters as timecodes:

scribiz context https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID --format json -o video.jsonjq -r '.synthesis.chapters[] | (.start | floor) as $s  | (if $s >= 3600 then "\($s / 3600 | floor):" else "" end) as $h  | (($s % 3600 / 60) | floor | tostring | if length < 2 then "0" + . else . end) as $m  | (($s % 60) | tostring | if length < 2 then "0" + . else . end) as $x  | "\($h)\($m):\($x) \(.title)"' video.json

Each line is MM:SS Title, or H:MM:SS Title past an hour. The chapter times come from real transcript segments, not from the model's own seconds. A video that is too short or has too little to split gets no chapters, and then the list is empty. YouTube only accepts a list that starts at 00:00, has at least three chapters and keeps each at least ten seconds long, and this command does not enforce that. Check the list before you paste it.

For the same chapters as a bullet list, ask for the context format and read its Chapters section:

scribiz format video.json --format context | awk '/^## Chapters/{f=1;next} /^## /{f=0} f&&NF'

- 00:00 Intro- 00:04 The fox- 00:10 The number

Pipe a video into an LLM

The context format is made for this. It is plain Markdown with the summary, chapters, key moments and transcript, and ON SCREEN notes in between.

scribiz context https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID | claude -p "List the action items and who owns them."

Progress goes to standard error, so the pipe gets only the Markdown. For a long video, give the model the overview first and ask it to say what it needs. The MCP server does this for you.

A silent screen recording

A QuickTime or Screen Studio recording often has no narration. Listen finds nothing, so use Watch:

scribiz context ./screen-recording.mov --mode watch

Watch builds a small copy of the video on your machine, uploads that, and returns what was on screen with the text that appeared. Auto does the same when it sees there is no audio.

$ scribiz context silent.mp4...## On screenThe video displays three consecutive illustrated scenes featuring different objects and text titles, representing a red apple, a green forest, and a blue ocean.[00:00] ON SCREEN: A cream-colored background shows a red circle resembling an apple in the center, with text at the bottom. Text: "SCENE ONE - RED APPLE"[00:03] ON SCREEN: A dark green background shows three light green triangular mountain shapes, with text at the bottom. Text: "SCENE TWO - GREEN FOREST"[00:05] ON SCREEN: A blue sky over a lighter blue ocean with a yellow sun in the upper right, and text at the bottom. Text: "SCENE THREE - BLUE OCEAN"

A plain scribiz silent.mp4 stops with NO_AUDIO_STREAM, because SRT, VTT and TXT need speech. A Screen Studio bundle (.screenstudio) can be passed as it is. Its microphone track is transcribed.

Ask a saved result

Run the video once, keep the file, and ask as many questions as you like without reading the video again:

scribiz context ./talk.mp4 --format json -o talk.jsonscribiz ask talk.json "What was decided about the launch date?"

Use it in CI

Put a credential in your CI's secret store and expose it as SCRIBIZ_API_KEY (a key from the dashboard, counted in your account's minutes) or GEMINI_API_KEY (your own Gemini key, billed by Google). Nobody is there to confirm a sign-in code in CI, so the browser sign-in does not fit: use the environment variable. Make the run non-interactive. --max-cost stops a run whose estimate is over a limit, before it spends anything. Only macOS has been tested, so try it on your CI image first.

scribiz ./release-demo.mp4 --format vtt --no-input --max-cost 0.50

Check the exit code. 3 is a credential or quota problem, 4 is a problem with the file or link, 5 is the service. See Commands.

Keep a Context and render it later

scribiz context ./talk.mp4 --visual --format json -o talk.jsonscribiz format talk.json --format md -o talk.mdscribiz format talk.json --format srt -o talk.srt

One run pays for all three files.