# Openrouter Transcribe

> Transcribe audio files via OpenRouter using audio-capable models (Gemini, GPT-4o-audio, etc).

- Skill: `majiayu000/openrouter-transcribe` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add majiayu000/openrouter-transcribe`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/majiayu000/openrouter-transcribe/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: majiayu000 (https://skillmd.com/u/majiayu000)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/majiayu000/openrouter-transcribe

---


# OpenRouter Audio Transcription

Transcribe audio files using OpenRouter's chat completions API with `input_audio` content type. Works with any audio-capable model.

## Quick start

```bash
{baseDir}/scripts/transcribe /path/to/audio.m4a
```

Output goes to stdout.

## Useful flags

```bash
# Custom model (default: google/gemini-3-flash-preview)
{baseDir}/scripts/transcribe audio.ogg --model openai/gpt-4o-audio-preview

# Custom instructions
{baseDir}/scripts/transcribe audio.m4a --prompt "Transcribe with speaker labels"

# Save to file
{baseDir}/scripts/transcribe audio.m4a --out /tmp/transcript.txt
```

## How it works

1. Base64 encodes the audio file directly
2. Sends to OpenRouter chat completions with `input_audio` content
3. Extracts transcript from response

## Supported formats

- wav, mp3, aiff, aac, ogg, flac, m4a, pcm16, pcm24

## API key

Set `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` env var, or configure in `~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json`:

```json5
{
  skills: {
    "openrouter-transcribe": {
      apiKey: "YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY"
    }
  }
}
```

## Headers

The script sends identification headers to OpenRouter:
- `X-Title`: Caller name (default: "Peanut/Clawdbot")
- `HTTP-Referer`: Reference URL (default: "https://clawdbot.com")

These show up in your OpenRouter dashboard for tracking.

## Troubleshooting

**ffmpeg format errors**: The script uses a temp directory (not `mktemp -t file.wav`) because macOS's mktemp adds random suffixes after the extension, breaking format detection.

**Argument list too long**: Large audio files produce huge base64 strings that exceed shell argument limits. The script writes to temp files (`--rawfile` for jq, `@file` for curl) instead of passing data as arguments.

**Empty response**: If you get "Empty response from API", the script will dump the raw response for debugging. Common causes:
- Invalid API key
- Model doesn't support audio input
- Audio file too large or corrupted