How do I install the Tighten Pace skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add jperrello/tighten-pace in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

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Which AI agents work with Tighten Pace?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Tighten Pace free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Tighten Pace?

jperrello (@jperrello) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Tighten Pace by jperrello — Agent Skill

Name: Tighten Pace
Author: jperrello

Tighten Pace

Remove dead air from a clip by collapsing any inter-word gap > gap_max (default 0.18s). Gaps collapse to collapse_to (default 0.08s), or sentence_beat (default 0.15s) when the preceding word ends with . ? or !. Re-emits the clip and a re-timed transcript so downstream subtitle / chunk / title skills align. Use right after cut-clip + rebase to keep pacing punchy.

jperrello 79eac05 3 files · 8.7 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

tighten-pace

Podcast clips die on dead air. This skill walks a word-timed transcript, finds any silence longer than gap_max, and collapses that silence to a short floor — either collapse_to (mid-sentence) or sentence_beat (after a ., ?, or ! so a beat is preserved between thoughts). Output is a new clip plus a transcript whose timestamps reflect the tightened timeline, so chunk-captions, burn-subtitles, and title-transition all align correctly.

Invoke

.claude/skills/tighten-pace/tighten-pace.sh <input_clip> <input_transcript> <out_clip> <out_transcript> [gap_max=0.18] [sentence_beat=0.15] [collapse_to=0.08]

input_clip — clip-local mp4 (post cut-clip + rebase)
input_transcript — clip-local word-timed transcript JSON
out_clip — written mp4 with silences collapsed
out_transcript — written transcript JSON with shifted t0/t1
gap_max — silence threshold in seconds; only gaps strictly greater are collapsed
sentence_beat — target gap (sec) at sentence boundaries
collapse_to — target gap (sec) elsewhere

Env overrides: TIGHTEN_GAP, TIGHTEN_SENTENCE_BEAT, TIGHTEN_COLLAPSE_TO.

How

plan.py walks word pairs. When nxt.t0 - prev.t1 > gap_max, the kept ranges are split: the previous range ends at prev.t1 + target/2 and the next starts at nxt.t0 - target/2, so the residual silence after ffmpeg select+aselect is exactly target seconds. target is sentence_beat when prev.w ends with ., ?, or !; otherwise collapse_to.

Caveats

Always re-encodes (select filter cannot stream-copy).
Idempotent via <out>.tpmeta (input + transcript mtimes + all three params).
If the transcript has fewer than 2 words, the input is copied through.

---name: tighten-pacedescription: Remove dead air from a clip by collapsing any inter-word gap > gap_max (default 0.18s). Gaps collapse to collapse_to (default 0.08s), or sentence_beat (default 0.15s) when the preceding word ends with . ? or !. Re-emits the clip and a re-timed transcript so downstream subtitle / chunk / title skills align. Use right after cut-clip + rebase to keep pacing punchy.---# tighten-pacePodcast clips die on dead air. This skill walks a word-timed transcript,finds any silence longer than `gap_max`, and collapses that silence to ashort floor — either `collapse_to` (mid-sentence) or `sentence_beat` (aftera `.`, `?`, or `!` so a beat is preserved between thoughts). Output is anew clip plus a transcript whose timestamps reflect the tightened timeline,so chunk-captions, burn-subtitles, and title-transition all align correctly.## Invoke```.claude/skills/tighten-pace/tighten-pace.sh <input_clip> <input_transcript> <out_clip> <out_transcript> [gap_max=0.18] [sentence_beat=0.15] [collapse_to=0.08]```- `input_clip` — clip-local mp4 (post cut-clip + rebase)- `input_transcript` — clip-local word-timed transcript JSON- `out_clip` — written mp4 with silences collapsed- `out_transcript` — written transcript JSON with shifted t0/t1- `gap_max` — silence threshold in seconds; only gaps strictly greater are collapsed- `sentence_beat` — target gap (sec) at sentence boundaries- `collapse_to` — target gap (sec) elsewhereEnv overrides: `TIGHTEN_GAP`, `TIGHTEN_SENTENCE_BEAT`, `TIGHTEN_COLLAPSE_TO`.## How`plan.py` walks word pairs. When `nxt.t0 - prev.t1 > gap_max`, the keptranges are split: the previous range ends at `prev.t1 + target/2` and thenext starts at `nxt.t0 - target/2`, so the residual silence after ffmpeg`select`+`aselect` is exactly `target` seconds. `target` is `sentence_beat`when `prev.w` ends with `.`, `?`, or `!`; otherwise `collapse_to`.## Caveats- Always re-encodes (select filter cannot stream-copy).- Idempotent via `<out>.tpmeta` (input + transcript mtimes + all three params).- If the transcript has fewer than 2 words, the input is copied through.

Frequently asked questions