descript

The talk-content editing tool skill — write the edit in the transcript, Overdub with consent, refine the sound, dress the visuals, and ship the cuts. The agent plans (and can drive Underlord via API/MCP where connected); the human verifies by ear and approves; WoopSocial publishes the exports. (Ships with tools/integrations/descript.md.)

The POV: the transcript is the timeline — decide in text, verify by ear

For dialogue-heavy content, editing the transcript beats scrubbing a timeline: delete the sentence, the clip disappears; move the paragraph, the footage follows — reviews report ~60–70% editing-time cuts for talk content. But the paradigm has two sharp edges the top 1% respect. (1) The voice spine: Overdub's consent-verified, own-voice-only design is the model, not an obstacle — it exists so nobody types words into someone else's mouth; and the craft truth is it shines on flubbed words, not paragraphs (long Overdub drifts synthetic — re-record those). (2) The meaning spine: text-editing makes it dangerously easy to rearrange a guest into saying something they didn't — concision yes, meaning-flips never, and the human owns the final cut of anyone else's words. Operationally: the accuracy pass is mandatory (transcript errors become wrong edits AND wrong captions), and since the Sept 2025 overhaul, the workflow must be credit-aware — media minutes count everything you import, and formerly-unlimited AI features are metered.

Read these first

1. The recording's content skill — podcast-and-audiograms / youtube-long-form / educational-content.
2. brand-profile + voice-builder (written outputs) + design-and-templates (captions/layout).

The framework: WORDS

(Depth: references/the-words-framework.md.)

• W — Write the edit: accuracy pass first; then cut tangents/bad takes, one-step filler+silence removal (Underlord), restructure by moving paragraphs — decide in text, verify by ear.
• O — Overdub with consent: own-voice-only, consent-verified; single words/short phrases (paragraphs = re-record); vocabulary/credit limits; disclose synthetic speech where required.
• R — Refine the sound: Studio Sound once per source (credits; cleaner audio also improves the transcript); level speakers; extreme noise is a re-record, not a rescue.
• D — Dress the visuals: Automatic Multicam (record separate tracks on purpose), captions from the corrected transcript, human-approved B-roll, Eye Contact used honestly; beat-sync/color route elsewhere.
• S — Ship the cuts: one transcript → the episode + clips (Underlord flags, the human picks fairly) + show notes + chapters + a text post; route onward and publish via WoopSocial.

The reality (verify-quarterly)

2026 Descript: Underlord (agentic co-editor — filler/silence in one step, bad-take flags, B-roll suggestions, clips, show notes) now triggerable via the 2026 public API (open beta) incl. MCP connections; Overdub (~24–48h training; source-audio requirements have varied — verify); Studio Sound (~10 credits/use); Automatic Multicam; Eye Contact; ~92–95% transcription accuracy on clean audio, ~75–85% with noise/accents/jargon; ~23 languages; SOC 2 Type II; cloud-dependent (no offline). Pricing: the Sept 2025 overhaul moved to media minutes + AI-credit metering of formerly-unlimited features; documented bill-shock and no mid-cycle proration (G2, attributed); tier figures conflict across sources — verify in-app. Full detail: references/descript-2026-reality.md. The weekly loop, credit-aware checklist, the Overdub decision table, the interview-integrity checklist, and two worked examples: references/workflows-and-templates.md.

Honest scope (never violate)

• The agent plans the edit and can trigger Underlord/media actions via the API/MCP where connected (exact human steps otherwise — no pretended automation); the human verifies by ear (pacing/tone/fairness don't live in text) and approves — the agent never fabricates "that cut sounds great." WoopSocial publishes the finished exports; it does not edit media; podcast RSS distribution is separate (human; podcast-and-audiograms).
• Voice spine: own-voice-only cloning; never a guest/competitor/public figure; never fabricated words in a real mouth; AI-disclosure for synthetic speech where required (EU AI Act; C2PA). Meaning spine: interview edits preserve meaning + clip context; approval offered on significant edits. Never fabricate tiers, credits, or metrics — verify in-app. (Full scope: references/scope-and-connections.md.)

Distinct from its siblings (route correctly)

descript (this) = text-based talk-content editing · capcut = beat-synced visual short-form (the hybrid: master here, style cuts there) · captions-and-clipping / opus-clip = clip selection at scale (this feeds them the master) · podcast-and-audiograms = the strategy this tool serves · ai-voiceover (elevenlabs) = dedicated TTS/narration (Overdub = own-voice corrections) · talking-head-and-piece-to-camera = the performance (Eye Contact patches a read, doesn't replace delivery) · youtube-long-form = the structure the recording follows.

Where this connects

Reads first: podcast-and-audiograms / youtube-long-form + brand-profile/voice-builder + design-and-templates. Feeds: captions-and-clipping / opus-clip (the master), capcut (short-form styling), text-post-and-microblog (the written cut), email-and-newsletter (show notes), youtube-publishing-and-metadata. Publishes via: exports → scheduling-and-queue → WoopSocial (social); RSS host (podcast — human). Tool file: tools/integrations/descript.md. Measure with: native + analytics-and-reporting on listen-through/watch-through + clips — never fabricated.

Definition of done

A talk-content edit made at the speed of text and verified by ear: transcript corrected first (names/jargon — errors become wrong edits and captions), tangents/bad takes cut and filler+silences removed in batched Underlord passes, restructure done in text and the result listened through; flubs fixed with consent-verified own-voice Overdub at word/phrase length only (paragraphs re-recorded; synthetic speech disclosed where required); Studio Sound run once per source; multicam/captions/layout dressed on-brand; the interview rule held (meaning + clip context preserved, approval offered, the human owning the final cut of anyone else's words); one corrected transcript shipped as the episode + human-picked clips + show notes + chapters, routed onward and published via WoopSocial; the workflow credit-aware under the post-Sept-2025 model (import only what you'll edit; verify tiers in-app); API/MCP automation only where actually connected; no cloned third-party voices, no meaning-flips, no fabricated tiers/credits/metrics; and correctly distinguished from capcut, captions-and-clipping/opus-clip, ai-voiceover, and podcast-and-audiograms.