Gladia Using Cli

Terminal transcription of audio files and URLs with the Gladia CLI (gladia speech-to-text). Use when the user has gladia-cli installed, wants shell-based transcription, or asks an agent to transcribe audio then answer questions about the content. For audio intelligence features not available as CLI flags, use the SDK skills instead.

Gladia CLI

The Gladia CLI (gladia) transcribes pre-recorded audio from the terminal. Local files are auto-uploaded; URLs are passed directly to the API.

CLI vs SDK: use the CLI for quick terminal workflows when gladia is on PATH. For app integration or audio intelligence not exposed as CLI flags, see gladia-sdk-integration and gladia-audio-intelligence.

When to Use

• User mentions gladia-cli, gladia transcribe, or wants quick terminal transcription
• Agent should transcribe a local file or URL, then answer follow-up questions about the content
• One-off transcription without writing application code

Prerequisites: verify gladia --version succeeds and an API key is configured (GLADIA_API_KEY, ~/.gladia, or --gladia-key).

When NOT to Use

• Live / real-time audio — use gladia-live-transcription
• Building an app or CI pipeline in code — use gladia-sdk-integration
• Audio intelligence not in CLI (translation, summarization, NER, PII, audio-to-LLM) — use gladia-audio-intelligence with the SDK

References

Consult these resources as needed:

• ./references/cli-vs-sdk.md -- CLI vs SDK routing: which features have CLI flags and which require SDK skills
• ../gladia-pre-recorded-transcription/SKILL.md -- SDK pre-recorded workflow and options
• ../gladia-audio-intelligence/SKILL.md -- Addons beyond CLI flags
• ../gladia-troubleshooting/SKILL.md -- API key, upload, and polling errors
• gladia-cli repository

Setup

Install (macOS/Linux):

bash

curl -fsSL https://github.com/gladiaio/gladia-cli/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

Auth — get a key at app.gladia.io/account. Three options:

bash

# 1. Environment variable (preferred for CI and shells)
export GLADIA_API_KEY=<API_KEY>

# 2. Persist locally
gladia auth set <API_KEY>

# 3. Pass per command (global flag, works on any command)
gladia transcribe meeting.wav --gladia-key <API_KEY>

Credential order: GLADIA_API_KEY → ~/.gladia → --gladia-key (first match wins)

List valid language codes: gladia languages

Commands

Command	Description
gladia transcribe <source>	Transcribe a local file or http(s) URL
gladia auth set <key>	Save API key to ~/.gladia
gladia languages	List supported ISO 639-1 codes

Transcribe Flags

Flag	Default	Description
-o, --output	text	text, json, json-full, srt, vtt
--language	—	Expected language(s), comma-separated (en or en,fr,de)
--code-switching, --code-switch	off	Detect language per utterance
--diarize	off	Speaker identification
--model	API default	solaria-1 or solaria-3
-v, --verbose	off	Show progress while polling

Global: --gladia-key — API key override

Agent Workflow: Transcribe Then Q&A

1. Check CLI — gladia --version; install or use SDK skills if missing
2. Pick flags — match output format and options to the user's question (tables below)
3. Run — gladia transcribe <source> [flags]; capture stdout
4. Answer — ground responses only in captured output; cite speakers and timestamps when available
5. Re-run if needed — if the question requires data not in the current output (e.g. timestamps, speakers), re-transcribe with different flags
6. Long audio — use -v for progress; for very long transcripts, redirect stdout to a temp file and read selectively

Do not invent transcript content. If output is empty or unclear, say so and suggest different flags or SDK skills.

Output Format Selection

User need	CLI approach
Plain transcript	default or -o text
Who spoke when	--diarize -o text or -o json
Timestamps per utterance	-o json (utterance list with time_begin, time_end)
Full API payload	-o json-full
Subtitle file	-o srt or -o vtt (add --diarize for speaker labels)
Model choice	--model solaria-1 or --model solaria-3

Language behavior

You can list all the possible languages compatible with gladia with the command gladia languages.

Goal	Command
Auto-detect	gladia transcribe <source>
Constrain detection	--language en,fr,de (does not enable code switching)
Code switching	--code-switching (+ optional --language hints)

CLI vs SDK (summary)

For full CLI vs SDK routing, see ./references/cli-vs-sdk.md.

Feature	CLI	If not in CLI
Basic transcription	gladia transcribe	—
Speaker diarization	--diarize	gladia-audio-intelligence for advanced config
Language / code-switch	--language, --code-switching	SDK for advanced language_config
Translation, NER, PII, sentiment, audio-to-LLM	No	gladia-audio-intelligence
API summarization addon	No	SDK (agent may summarize -o text output informally)
Live streaming	No	gladia-live-transcription

Examples

bash

gladia transcribe meeting.wav
gladia transcribe https://example.com/podcast.mp3 -o json
gladia transcribe call.wav --diarize -o srt
gladia transcribe interview.mp3 --language en,fr --code-switching -v
gladia transcribe podcast.mp3 --model solaria-1 -o json-full
gladia transcribe meeting.wav --gladia-key <API_KEY>   # inline key, no env or ~/.gladia needed

Common Mistakes

• Treating --language en,fr as code-switching — it only constrains detection; add --code-switching separately for per-utterance language detection
• Answering without re-running — timestamp or speaker questions need -o json or --diarize; plain text may lack required fields
• Inventing CLI flags — translation, summarization, NER, and PII have no CLI flags today; route to SDK skills
• Using SDK code when CLI is requested — if the user has gladia installed and wants terminal workflow, run shell commands
• Skipping auth check — transcription fails without a valid API key in env, ~/.gladia, or --gladia-key

For API errors and diagnostics, see gladia-troubleshooting.

Further Reading

• gladia-cli README
• Pre-recorded quickstart