podwise-podcast-copilot

Podcast copilot workflows with podwise CLI: search podcasts or episodes by keyword, monitor followed shows for new releases, find current popular episodes, a...

Security Scan

The skill's instructions align with a Podwise CLI helper: it expects a local podwise CLI and configured API key and asks for user confirmation before uploads/processing; there are no unrelated or disproportionate requirements.

Purpose & Capability

The name and description match the instructions: the SKILL.md is a CLI-driven podcast copilot that runs podwise commands (search, ask, process, get, list, popular). Nothing in the skill's content requests access to services or credentials unrelated to Podwise or handling podcast/audio inputs.

Instruction Scope

Instructions tell the agent to run podwise commands and to inspect podwise help and podwise config show. This is appropriate for a CLI helper, but podwise config show may surface API key/credentials or other sensitive config. The runtime also includes uploading local audio/video files (podwise process <file>), which sends local data to Podwise — the skill correctly requires confirmation before doing so, but users should be aware of the privacy/quotas implications.

Install Mechanism

No install spec or external downloads are included (instruction-only skill). This is low-risk: nothing is written to disk by the skill package itself and it relies on an existing podwise binary.

Credentials

The skill metadata declares no required env vars, yet the instructions assume an API key is configured for the podwise CLI. This is coherent if CLI auth is stored in a local config rather than environment variables, but it's a mismatch with the metadata: the skill doesn't declare where or how credentials are stored. Users should verify where podwise holds credentials (config files, keychain, env) before running commands that reveal or use them.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill does not request permanent presence (always:false) and does not include installation steps that modify other skills or global agent settings. Autonomous invocation is allowed (platform default) and is appropriate for this helper.

Assessment

This is an instruction-only helper for the Podwise CLI and appears coherent with that purpose, but before installing/using it: (1) ensure you have the official podwise CLI from a trusted source; (2) be aware that running `podwise config show` may reveal API keys or sensitive settings — check where Podwise stores credentials (config file, keychain, or env vars) and whether you are comfortable exposing them to the agent; (3) the skill will upload local audio/video if you confirm processing — only upload files you are comfortable sending to Podwise and confirm quota/privacy costs when prompted; (4) if you need stronger guarantees, run the podwise commands yourself (or inspect outputs) rather than allowing the agent to run them autonomously. If any of these are unacceptable, do not enable the skill.

Use this skill to turn raw podcast, video, and audio inputs into structured outputs that are easy to read, export, or reuse.

Goals

1. Verify that podwise is installed and that the API key is configured.
2. Distinguish keyword discovery from transcript-grounded answering, then choose the correct path: search, list, popular, ask, process, or get.
3. Ask for user confirmation before any process command because it consumes quota/credits, unless the user explicitly asked to proceed without pausing.
4. Fetch AI outputs only after process completes successfully and reaches done.
5. Return output in the shape that matches the workflow: discovery lists, transcript-grounded answers, or episode artifacts.

Step 1: Check the Environment

Run:

podwise --help
podwise config show

Treat podwise --help and podwise <command> --help as the source of truth for exact flags, subcommands, and examples.

When a workflow needs command details beyond this skill, inspect help progressively:

podwise search --help
podwise search episode --help
podwise search podcast --help
podwise ask --help
podwise list --help
podwise process --help
podwise get --help
podwise get transcript --help

Step 2: Choose the Workflow

Discover Content, Podcasts, Episodes

• Use search when the user wants matching podcasts or episodes returned as results to browse.
• Use ask when the user wants an answer, synthesis, or insights derived from transcript content across podcasts.
• If the user wants to find episodes by keyword, or title, run podwise search episode.
• If the user wants to find shows or feeds by podcast name or keyword, run podwise search podcast.
• If the user asks what podcasts say about a topic, asks for takeaways, or wants transcript-grounded analysis, run podwise ask.
• If the user wants to discover what is currently trending across Podwise, run podwise popular.
• If the user wants to check updates from podcasts they already follow, run podwise list episodes or podwise list podcasts.

Process an Episode

• Before running any process command, ask whether the user wants to spend quota/credits on processing.
• Skip that confirmation only when the user already made the intent explicit, for example by saying to process it now or not to pause for confirmation.
• If the user provides a YouTube or Xiaoyuzhou URL and confirms processing, run podwise process <url>; Podwise will import it automatically.
• If the user provides a local audio or video file path and confirms processing, run podwise process <file>; Podwise will upload it and create an episode automatically.
• If the user provides a Podwise episode URL and processing may not be complete yet, ask for confirmation first, then run podwise process <episode-url>.

Retrieve AI Results

• If the user wants a specific artifact for an already processed episode, run podwise get <type> <episode-url> directly.

Step 3: Run the Commands

Search for Episodes or Podcasts

podwise search episode "AI agent" --limit 10 --json
podwise search podcast "Lex Fridman" --limit 10 --json

Use --json when the output will be parsed by another tool or step.

Use search when the user wants a list of matching podcasts or episodes, not a synthesized answer.

Use episode search when the user is looking for a specific episode, or episode title keywords.

Use podcast search when the user is looking for a show by name, wants candidate podcasts to subscribe to, or is trying to identify the podcast behind an episode.

Multiple words are treated as a single phrase; pass them together as one quoted query or as separate arguments.

Discover Popular Episodes

podwise popular --json

Use popular when the user wants hot, trending, or currently popular episodes rather than keyword matches.

Check Followed Podcast Updates

podwise list episodes --json
podwise list episodes --json --date today
podwise list episodes --json --date yesterday
podwise list episodes --json --date 2026-03-01 
podwise list episodes --json --latest 7
podwise list podcasts --json
podwise list podcasts --json --date today
podwise list podcasts --json --latest 14

Use list episodes to see new episodes published by shows the user follows.

Use list podcasts to see which followed podcasts have had recent updates.

Ask Questions Across Podcast Transcripts

podwise ask "the future of AI agents"

Use ask when the user wants a synthesized answer, takeaways, comparison, or insights grounded in podcast transcripts rather than a list of matching episodes.

Do not use ask when the user only wants to locate podcasts or episodes by keyword; use search for that.

ask may take up to about 60s because Podwise searches transcripts and generates an answer.

Process an Episode, Video, or Local File

podwise process https://podwise.ai/dashboard/episodes/7360326
podwise process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0-Gn_Bxf8s
podwise process https://youtu.be/d0-Gn_Bxf8s
podwise process https://www.xiaoyuzhoufm.com/episode/abc123
podwise process ./interview.mp3
podwise process ./meeting.wav --title "Product Review Meeting"
podwise process ./demo.mp4 --title "Launch Demo Recording" --hotwords "Podwise,LLM,ASR"

process always waits for processing to finish before it exits.

Because process consumes quota/credits, do not run it silently. Confirm with the user first unless they explicitly asked to proceed without pausing.

Supported local file extensions: .mp3 .wav .m4a .mp4 .m4v .mov .webm.

Retrieve AI Outputs

podwise get transcript <episode-url>
podwise get summary <episode-url>
podwise get qa <episode-url>
podwise get chapters <episode-url>
podwise get mindmap <episode-url>
podwise get highlights <episode-url>
podwise get keywords <episode-url>

podwise get accepts only a Podwise episode URL. Do not pass a YouTube URL, a Xiaoyuzhou URL, or a local file path to get.

For local files, follow the same pattern: run process <file> first, then use the resulting Podwise episode URL with get.

User Request to Command Mapping

• "What do podcasts say about this topic?" -> ask
• "Summarize the main insights from podcast transcripts on this topic" -> ask
• "Find podcast episodes about this topic" -> search episode
• "Find a few episodes on this topic, then I will choose what to read" -> search episode
• "Find the podcast/show named Lex Fridman" -> search podcast
• "Show me what's trending on Podwise right now" -> popular
• "Show today's new episodes from podcasts I follow" -> list episodes
• "Show which followed podcasts published recently" -> list podcasts
• "Process this YouTube video and return the transcript and summary" -> confirm first, then process + get transcript + get summary
• "Export this episode as subtitles" -> get transcript --format srt or get transcript --format vtt
• "Give me an episode recap with summary, chapters, highlights, and keywords" -> get summary + get chapters + get highlights + get keywords
• "Transcribe this local audio/video file and summarize the key points" -> confirm first, then process <file> + get transcript + get summary

Common Failure Cases

• If podwise is missing or not configured correctly, stop immediately and tell the user to fix the CLI setup first.
• If a local file does not exist or the extension is unsupported, stop and ask for a valid path or supported media format.
• If the workflow requires process and the user has not agreed to spend quota/credits, pause and ask for confirmation before continuing.
• If ask returns an error or plan-limit issue, report it directly; do not fabricate an answer.

Output Contract

For process and get workflows, include:

1. The resolved Podwise episode URL.
2. The current processing status.
3. The requested artifacts such as summary or transcript.
4. Any unavailable artifact explicitly marked as unavailable.

For ask workflows, include:

1. The answer text.
2. Source excerpts and episode links when --sources is used.
3. A note if the answer is uncited because sources were not requested.

For search, list, and popular workflows, return the result list in a scannable order and preserve the CLI's intent: discovery, updates, or trending content.

For search workflows specifically, return matching podcasts or episodes rather than a transcript-synthesized answer.