short-translate

Short Translate

One take in, the same take in another language out, in the creator's own voice (ElevenLabs clones it from the take itself). The image stays the original: no lip-sync. Then /short-editing edits the translated take like any other, with captions in the new language.

Talk to them in their language. <slug>: the take's slug; <lang>: the target language code (en, es, fr, de, pt, it, ja...), <from>: the source one.

1. The ElevenLabs key (once)

The key lives in video-agent/.env, never in a chat message, a script or a commit:

grep -c ELEVENLABS_API_KEY video-agent/.env 2>/dev/null

0 or no file:

1. They create a key at elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys (an ElevenLabs account; dubbing uses the credits of their plan, the free plan adds a watermark).
2. They paste it into video-agent/.env themselves, as one line: ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=sk_.... Offer to create the empty file and open it. Never ask them to paste the key in the chat; if they do anyway, write it to the file and tell them they can regenerate it.
3. video-agent/.env must be in the project's .gitignore (add the line video-agent/.env if it isn't).

Every command below loads it with set -a; . video-agent/.env; set +a and never prints it.

2. What to translate

Translate the take, not a finished video: a finished video has captions burned in the old language. Then short-editing cuts, captions and times everything on the new voice.

• A take already edited (video-agent/edits/short-<slug>/source/spec.js exists): send only the kept parts, so no silence, stutter or retake is paid for. Make the plain cut at normal speed with short-editing's engine: add speed: 1 to the spec for this one command, then

  node <skill>/engine/short.mjs rough video-agent/edits/short-<slug>
  

  (<skill> = the short-editing skill folder) and remove speed: 1 again. The source is video-agent/edits/short-<slug>/output/short-<slug>-rough.mp4.
• A raw take: offer to run /short-editing up to its cut list first (steps 1 to 4) for the same reason. In a hurry: send the raw take as it is.

3. Estimate, then send

ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of csv=p=0 "<source>"

Show one line and wait for a yes: Dub <slug> fr → en · 0:52 of video · billed on your ElevenLabs credits for about 1 minute (check your plan's dubbing price on elevenlabs.io/pricing) · no lip-sync.

Then send it (about 10 s per minute of upload):

mkdir -p video-agent/.tmp
set -a; . video-agent/.env; set +a
curl -sS --fail-with-body -X POST https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/dubbing \
  -H "xi-api-key: $ELEVENLABS_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@<source>" -F "target_lang=<lang>" -F "source_lang=<from or auto>" \
  -F "num_speakers=1" -F "watermark=false" -F "name=<slug>-<lang>" \
  > video-agent/.tmp/<slug>-<lang>.job.json
cat video-agent/.tmp/<slug>-<lang>.job.json

It returns {"dubbing_id": "...", "expected_duration_sec": ...}. Keep the id: if anything stops, polling again with it costs nothing. A 401 is a wrong key; a 402 or "quota" means no credits left on their plan; watermark refused: send it again without that field.

4. Wait, then download

Poll every 15 s until status is dubbed (failed: show the error and stop). Usually 1 to 5 minutes for a short; run it in the background:

set -a; . video-agent/.env; set +a
curl -sS --fail-with-body -H "xi-api-key: $ELEVENLABS_API_KEY" https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/dubbing/<dubbing_id>

Then the dubbed file:

set -a; . video-agent/.env; set +a
curl -sS --fail-with-body -H "xi-api-key: $ELEVENLABS_API_KEY" -o video-agent/.tmp/<slug>-<lang>.dub https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/dubbing/<dubbing_id>/audio/<lang>
ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream=codec_type -of csv=p=0 video-agent/.tmp/<slug>-<lang>.dub

• It has a video stream: it is already the dubbed video, move it to video-agent/takes/<slug>-<lang>.mp4.
• Audio only: lay it back on the original image:

  ffmpeg -y -i "<source>" -i video-agent/.tmp/<slug>-<lang>.dub -map 0:v -map 1:a -c:v copy -c:a aac -b:a 192k -shortest video-agent/takes/<slug>-<lang>.mp4
  

Check it: same length as the source (within a second). Then ask them to listen to the first 10 seconds before editing (voice, accent, a wrong word).

5. Edit the translated take

/short-editing <slug>-<lang>, and tell it:

• The language changed: in video-agent/studio/whisper-config.mjs, set WHISPER_LANG to <lang> for this transcription (English: WHISPER_MODEL = "medium.en" works best; any other language: "medium"), and put it back after. The hook, the boards and post.md are written in <lang>.
• Same edit as the original when there is one: same hook and boards (translated), placed on the matching words of the new transcript.
• The ask (CTA) in <lang>: ask them once for its translation, or translate the one in voice.md and show it.

Name everything <slug>-<lang> so both versions sit side by side. Then /publish <slug>-<lang> on the account for that language.

Delete video-agent/.tmp/<slug>-* at the end, except the job file if they may want to download the dub again.

Honest limits

• No lip-sync: the lips move in the original language. Fine with a lot of motion, a small face or quick cuts; noticeable on a long close-up.
• The voice clone comes from the take: a noisy take or music under the voice gives a worse clone.
• Machine translation: names, jargon and jokes can come out wrong. Ask them (or a native speaker) to check the transcript of the dubbed take before posting.
• Dubbing costs ElevenLabs credits per minute, and the price depends on their plan. Trimming the take first is the cheapest saving.