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Quick Start

Process your first podcast episode in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

  • Inkwell installed (uv tool install inkwell-cli)
  • ffmpeg installed
  • Google AI API key

Step 1: Set Your API Key

inkwell config set transcription.api_key "your-google-ai-api-key"

The same key is used for Gemini extraction unless you set extraction.gemini_api_key separately.

Or use an environment variable:

export GOOGLE_API_KEY="your-google-ai-api-key"

Step 2: Process an Episode

You can process any YouTube video or podcast episode directly:

inkwell fetch https://youtube.com/watch?v=your-video-id

Inkwell shows live pipeline progress as it works, then a summary when done:

inkwell fetch terminal output showing four pipeline stages completing successfully

What happens:

  1. Inkwell checks for a free YouTube transcript
  2. If unavailable, it transcribes using the configured Gemini model
  3. AI extracts key information (summary, quotes, concepts)
  4. Markdown files are created in your output directory

Step 3: View Your Notes

ls ~/inkwell-notes/

You'll see a folder for each processed episode:

~/inkwell-notes/
└── podcast-2025-01-15-episode-title/
    ├── .metadata.yaml
    ├── summary.md
    ├── quotes.md
    ├── key-concepts.md
    └── tools-mentioned.md

Open any .md file to see your structured notes!

Optional: Add a Podcast Feed

For recurring podcasts, add the feed once:

# Add a feed
inkwell add "https://example.com/podcast/feed.rss" --feed-name my-podcast

# List your feeds
inkwell list

# Process the latest episode
inkwell fetch my-podcast --latest

Optional: Interview Mode

Capture your personal insights with guided Q&A:

# Requires Anthropic API key
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-key"

# Process with interview
inkwell fetch my-podcast --latest --interview

Check Your Costs

inkwell costs

Typical costs:

  • YouTube transcript: Free
  • Gemini transcription: ~$0.01/hour of audio
  • Extraction (3 templates): ~$0.005

Next Steps