# Generating and Saving Transcripts From the Terminal ## Before You Start Before you run the code, you'll need to do a few things. ### Create a Deepgram Account :::callout{intent="info"} Before you can use Deepgram, you'll need to [create a Deepgram account](https://console.deepgram.com/signup?jump=keys). Signup is free and includes **$200** in free credit and access to all of Deepgram's features! ::: ### Create a Deepgram API Key :::callout{intent="info"} Before you start, you'll need to follow the steps in the [Make Your First API Request](/guides/guides-fundamentals-make-your-first-api-request) guide to obtain a Deepgram API key, and configure your environment if you are choosing to use a Deepgram SDK. ::: ### Install JQ In this guide, we use `jq`, which is an excellent command-line utility that allows you to display and manipulate JSON data, so you will also need to install [jq](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/). ## Making a curl Request Open your terminal, and run the following curl command: **`cURL`** ```bash cURL curl \ --request POST \ --header 'Authorization: Token YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY' \ --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \ --data '{"url":"https://static.deepgram.com/examples/nasa-spacewalk-interview.wav"}' \ --url 'https://api.deepgram.com/v1/listen?punctuate=true' ``` :::callout{intent="warning"} Replace `YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY` with your [Deepgram API Key](/guides/guides-docs-create-additional-api-keys). ::: Let’s look more closely at this request: - `--request POST`: An HTTP request with the POST method. - `--header 'Authorization: Token YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY'`: Includes authorization details and links the request with your Deepgram account and Project. - `--header 'Content-Type: application/json'`: JSON data that will be sent with this request. - `--data '{"url":""}'`: JSON data sent to Deepgram (an object containing one URL parameter). - `--url 'https://api.deepgram.com/v1/listen?punctuate=true'`: URL to which the request should be made (Deepgram's endpoint). `punctuate=true` enables the [punctuation](/guides/formatting-punctuation) feature. - `\`: Allows you to break one command over several lines for readability. When you run this command and it is finished processing (often after only a few seconds), you’ll receive a JSON response that looks similar to the following: This may look daunting, so let's look at a way to make both our curl request and our response easier to read. ## Shortening Your curl Request Now that you've seen a full curl request and understand the required parameters, let's look at a more concise way to make the same request: **`cURL`** ```bash cURL curl https://api.deepgram.com/v1/listen?punctuate=true \ -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"url":"https://static.deepgram.com/examples/nasa-spacewalk-interview.wav"}' ``` In this example, notice: - The URL comes immediately after the `curl` command. - No HTTP method is present. Normally, this would default to a GET request, but because this request has a body, curl assumes a POST request. - `--header` is shortened to `-H` - `--data` is shortened to `-d`. ## Formatting Your JSON Response To make the JSON response more readable, you can use `jq`, which is an excellent command-line utility that allows you to display and manipulate JSON data. In the terminal, a pipe (`|`) is often used to send the output of one command as an input for a second command. `jq` expects some JSON as input, plus an expression to describe how to display it. The following `jq` expression will extract just the transcript from the returned data object: ` | jq '.results.channels[0].alternatives[0].transcript'` To use it, add it to the end of your curl request: **`cURL`** ```bash cURL curl https://api.deepgram.com/v1/listen?punctuate=true \ -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"url":"https://static.deepgram.com/examples/nasa-spacewalk-interview.wav"}' \ | jq '.results.channels[0].alternatives[0].transcript' ``` :::callout{intent="warning"} Replace `YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY` with your [Deepgram API Key](/guides/guides-docs-create-additional-api-keys). ::: When you run this command and it is finished processing (often after only a few seconds), you’ll receive a JSON response that looks similar to the following: ## Saving Output to a File Once you have the transcript extracted and formatted using `jq`, you can redirect the output to a new file by appending `> output.txt` to any command that prints to the terminal. For example: **`cURL`** ```bash cURL curl https://api.deepgram.com/v1/listen?punctuate=true \ -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"url":"https://static.deepgram.com/examples/nasa-spacewalk-interview.wav"}' \ | jq '.results.channels[0].alternatives[0].transcript' > output.txt ``` ## Processing Multiple Files To process multiple files, you can create `.sh` files containing multiple lines of `bash` script to execute from your terminal. Create a new file called `transcripts.sh`, and open it in a code editor. Populate it with the following: **`Shell`** ```shell Shell #!/bin/bash urls=("https://static.deepgram.com/examples/TrumpDemocratsMeeting.nancyshort.wav" "https://static.deepgram.com/examples/nasa-spacewalk-interview.wav" "https://static.deepgram.com/examples/deep-learning-podcast-clip.wav") dg_features="punctuate=true&utterances=true&diarize=true&tier=enhanced" dg_key="YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY" for url in ${urls[@]}; do filename=${url##*/} RESPONSE=$( curl -X POST https://api.deepgram.com/v1/listen?$dg_features \ -H "Authorization: Token $dg_key" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d "{\"url\":\"$url\"}" ) echo $RESPONSE | jq '.results.channels[0].alternatives[0].transcript' > $filename.txt done ``` :::callout{intent="warning"} Replace `YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY` with your [Deepgram API Key](/guides/guides-docs-create-additional-api-keys). ::: In this file, notice: - The first line (`#!/bin/bash`) is a shebang and specifies which program should be called to run the script. In this case, `bash`. - `urls` is a variable containing an array with three URLs. The arrays use parentheses, and items are separated by only one space. - `dg_features` and `dg_key` are variables you should alter for your exact use case. Note that the request, as written, uses Deepgram's punctuation, utterances, diarize, and tier features included in the `dg_features` variable. - Inside the `for` loop: - `filename` extracts the last part of the URL (the filename), which will later be used to name the output file. - The `curl` command is the same as before, but with variables interpolated. The output is stored in a new variable called `RESPONSE`. - `RESPONSE` is sent to `jq`, and then redirected into a new text file. Run the file in your terminal: **`Shell`** ```shell Shell ./transcripts.sh ``` ## Experimenting with jq `jq` is a remarkable powerful tool that you can use to format data in more advanced ways. For example, the following expression will loop through the `results.utterances` array and format a string for each item, interpolating the speaker identifier and transcript text: **`Shell`** ```shell Shell echo $RESPONSE | jq -r '.results.utterances[] | "[Speaker:\(.speaker)] \(.transcript)"' > $filename.txt ``` When you run a previous curl command with this `jq` appended and it is finished processing, you’ll receive a JSON response formatted in the following way: **`JSON`** ```json JSON [Speaker:0] agreement on other things that are really good. Nancy, would you like to say something? [Speaker:1] Well, thank you, mister president for the opportunity to meet with you so that we can work together in a bipartisan way [Speaker:1] to meet the needs of the American people. I think the American people recognize [Speaker:1] that we must keep government open, that a shutdown is not worth anything. [Speaker:1] And that you should ``` *** ## Related pages - [Automatically Generating WebVTT & SRT Captions](./pre-recorded-audio-automatically-generating-webvtt-and-srt-captions.md) - [Automatically Transcribe and Summarize Phone Calls](./pre-recorded-audio-automatically-transcribing-and-summarizing-phone-calls.md) - [Getting Started with Deepgram Whisper Cloud](./pre-recorded-audio-deepgram-whisper-cloud.md) - [Using Callbacks to Return Transcripts to Your Server](./pre-recorded-audio-using-callbacks-to-return-transcripts-to-your-server.md) - [When Callback Is Not Received](./pre-recorded-audio-payload-too-large.md) - [When To Use Multichannel and Diarization](./pre-recorded-audio-multichannel-vs-diarization.md) - [When To Use Keywords and Search](./pre-recorded-audio-keywords-vs-search.md) # Agent Instructions Cite this page’s canonical URL and keep its documentation version. Follow Link headers to discover available agent guidance and tools. 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