Deepgram CLI — Getting Started

Transcribe audio, synthesize speech, and manage your Deepgram account — all from your terminal.

Deepgram CLI — Getting Started

Transcribe audio, synthesize speech, and manage your Deepgram account — all from your terminal.

The dg CLI gives you full access to Deepgram APIs from your terminal. Transcribe files, stream live audio, synthesize speech, analyze text, and manage your Deepgram account — without writing a single line of code.

Prerequisites

Python 3.10 or later
A Deepgram API key (get one free)

Quick Start

$ # Install
$ curl -fsSL deepgram.com/install.sh | sh
$ 
$ # Authenticate
$ dg login
$ 
$ # Transcribe an audio file
$ dg listen recording.wav
$ 
$ # Synthesize text-to-speech
$ dg speak "Hello from Deepgram"

Core Workflows

Transcribe audio

$ # Transcribe a local file
$ dg listen audio.mp3
$ 
$ # Transcribe from a URL
$ dg listen https://example.com/audio.mp3
$ 
$ # Stream from your microphone
$ dg listen --mic
$ 
$ # Pipe transcript to another tool
$ dg listen audio.mp3 -o json | jq '.results.channels[0].alternatives[0].transcript'

Text-to-speech

$ # Generate speech and save to file
$ dg speak "Hello from Deepgram" -o hello.wav
$ 
$ # Pipe audio to your speaker
$ echo "Latest headlines" | dg speak | ffplay -nodisp -autoexit -

Text intelligence

$ # Analyze a document
$ dg read report.txt --topics --sentiment --summarize
$ 
$ # Summarize piped text
$ cat transcript.txt | dg read --summarize

Account management

$ # List your projects
$ dg projects list
$ 
$ # Create an API key
$ dg keys create "ci-runner"
$ 
$ # Check your usage
$ dg usage

Output Formats

The CLI defaults to human-readable output in the terminal. Use -o or --output to switch formats:

$ dg listen audio.mp3 -o json   # Structured JSON
$ dg listen audio.mp3 -o yaml   # YAML
$ dg listen audio.mp3 -o table  # ASCII table
$ dg listen audio.mp3 -o csv    # CSV

When stdout is a pipe, the CLI automatically switches to JSON.

Agent-Friendly Mode

The CLI auto-detects AI agent environments (Claude Code, Aider, OpenAI Codex, Gemini) and adjusts its behavior:

Disables interactive prompts
Routes status messages to stderr
Defaults to JSON output

To explicitly enable agent-friendly mode:

$ dg listen audio.mp3 --agent-friendly

To get machine-readable parameter documentation:

$ dg listen --agent-friendly

Next Steps

Install the CLI — More installation methods including pip, pipx, and Homebrew
Authenticate — Learn about authentication options
Speech-to-Text — Full transcription reference
Text-to-Speech — Full TTS reference