podcast-production - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: podcast-production description: Plan, generate, mix, and publish a daily multi-persona podcast episode using podcast_plan + podcast_generate, with optional HeyGen video and YouTube upload flow. metadata: { "argent": { "emoji": "podcast", "skillKey": "podcast-production", "requires": { "envAny": ["ELEVENLABS_API_KEY", "XI_API_KEY"] }, },

}

Podcast Production

Use this skill when the user asks to create/ship podcast episodes end-to-end.

Primary Tools

podcast_plan: normalize script/personas, produce podcast_generate payload + runbook
podcast_generate: one-shot ElevenLabs dialogue render + optional FFmpeg intro/outro/bed mix
podcast_publish_pipeline: one-call orchestrator for audio -> HeyGen -> YouTube metadata -> thumbnail -> optional YouTube upload
heygen_video: avatar/voice discovery, HeyGen video generation, status polling, downloads
youtube_metadata_generate: YouTube title + description + chapters + thumbnail brief
youtube_thumbnail_generate: generate final thumbnail image asset
sessions_spawn / sessions_send: dispatch research minions/family agents
web_search / web_fetch: source and verify stories

Daily Flow (Autonomous)

Research swarm

Spawn 2-6 research agents focused on model releases, infra, pricing, and notable papers.
Require source URLs and publication timestamps for each claim.
Merge into a short ranked shortlist (3-5 stories + 1 deep dive).

Script planning

Build a host/cohost script with clear segments.
Call podcast_plan with personas (1-3), script, and publish targets.
Reuse podcast_plan.podcast_generate output as the direct next call payload.

Audio generation

Call podcast_generate exactly once for dialogue rendering.
If music assets exist, pass music.intro_path, music.outro_path, music.bed_path.
Keep ducking: true for speech clarity unless the user asks otherwise.

Publish operations

Spotify: use Spotify for Creators web flow for episode publish.
HeyGen (optional): generate avatar/headless video from script/audio.
- For scene cuts/B-roll style sequencing, pass scenes[] to heygen_video so each entry maps to one video_inputs[] scene.
- Default Argent avatar ID for this setup: 885b0ad5cd61488b8a9828ff0e244e15 (pass as default_avatar_id, or set HEYGEN_DEFAULT_AVATAR_ID).
YouTube packaging: run youtube_metadata_generate, then youtube_thumbnail_generate.
- For creator-style long descriptions, use:
  - description_style: "creator_longform"
  - style_profile_path: "skills/podcast-production/references/youtube-style-creator-longform.json"
YouTube upload (optional): upload video using YouTube Data API workflow.

Record outcomes

Save URLs, episode title/date, and blockers into memory/tasks.
Log follow-up improvements for tomorrow's run.

Constraints

Do not split dialogue into per-line TTS files unless one-shot generation fails.
Keep persona count between 1 and 3.
Treat publishing as separate from generation; generation success does not imply publish success.
If a platform publish step fails, still deliver usable audio/video artifacts and report exact failure.

Quick Start Payload Shape

{
  "title": "Bleeding Edge Episode",
  "personas": [
    { "id": "argent", "voice_id": "cgSgspJ2msm6clMCkdW9", "aliases": ["ARGENT", "HOST"] },
    { "id": "juniper", "voice_id": "aMSt68OGf4xUZAnLpTU8", "aliases": ["JUNIPER"] }
  ],
  "script": "ARGENT: ...\nJUNIPER: ...",
  "publish": { "spotify": true, "heygen": true, "youtube": true },
  "publish_time_local": "08:00",
  "timezone": "America/Chicago"
}

Use the returned podcast_generate object directly in the next tool call.

One-Call Pipeline Example

{
  "mode": "run",
  "podcast_generate": {
    "title": "Bleeding Edge Episode",
    "dialogue": [
      { "text": "[energetic] You're listening to Argent.", "voice_id": "cgSgspJ2msm6clMCkdW9" },
      { "text": "[warm] Juniper here.", "voice_id": "aMSt68OGf4xUZAnLpTU8" }
    ],
    "model_id": "eleven_v3",
    "output_format": "mp3_44100_192"
  },
  "heygen": {
    "enabled": true,
    "wait_for_completion": true,
    "params": {
      "default_avatar_id": "885b0ad5cd61488b8a9828ff0e244e15",
      "scenes": [
        {
          "script": "Argent opening.",
          "voice_id": "REPLACE_HEYGEN_VOICE_ID",
          "background_type": "color",
          "background_value": "#0F172A"
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "youtube_metadata": {
    "description_style": "creator_longform",
    "style_profile_path": "skills/podcast-production/references/youtube-style-creator-longform.json"
  },
  "youtube_upload": {
    "enabled": true,
    "privacy_status": "private",
    "notify_subscribers": false
  }
}

References

For current publish platform notes, read references/publish-targets.md.
For reusable longform YouTube description defaults, read references/youtube-style-creator-longform.json.
For a ready HeyGen scene template using Argent's avatar ID, read references/heygen-scenes-argent.json.