ScribeIt!

ScribeIt! is a web application that allows you to transcribe videos and download the subtitles for free. Powered by OpenAI's Whisper.

How It Works

After a video is uploaded on the client:

1. The video gets sent to the server for processing.
2. On the server, the video is first converted to audio format using ffmpeg.
3. After the conversion, the audio is passed to the Whisper model to transcribe.
4. The transcription result is stored in the Redis cache, before being fetched by the client to display.

For real-time updates on the status of the transcription, the server communicates with the client using Pusher events.

Demo

scribeit-demo.mov

Getting Started

The following contains the steps required to get the application up and running on your local workspace.

Prerequisites

The following packages must be installed on your PC:

• Node v22.2.0
• yarn v1.22.19
• Git v2.39.3
• Python v3.9.14
• ffmpeg v7.0.1

You also need secrets from the following providers to continue. To see the exact secrets you need, check the .env.sample files in the backend and frontend folders:

• Redis: You can run the server by installing Redis locally, or using Redis Cloud.
• Pusher: Get started by creating an account on Pusher.com and creating a Channels app.

Running locally

Using Docker Compose

To run the app locally, follow the steps below:

1. Clone the repository to your PC using your terminal. For more info, refer to this article.

2. After cloning, navigate into the repo using the command:

   cd scribeit
   

3. Make sure you have Docker Desktop up and running on your PC.

4. Setup the project using the command:

   ./bin/setup
   

5. Once the command above runs, a new .env file will be generated at the root of both the backend and frontend folders. Configure your environment variables with your values in the backend/.env and frontend/.env files.

6. Run the app using the command:

   ./bin/start
   

Without Docker

To run the app locally, follow the steps below:

1. Clone the repository to your PC using your terminal. For more info, refer to this article.

2. After cloning, navigate into the repo using the command:

   cd scribeit
   

3. At the root of the repo, install the dependencies in the package.json using the command:

   yarn install
   

4. After the dependencies have been installed successfully, create the virtual environment using the command:

   ./bin/create-venv
   

5. After creating the virtual environment, activate it using the command:

   source backend/.venv/bin/activate
   

6. Once you are in the virtual environment, you can setup the project using the command:

   ./bin/setup-no-docker
   

7. Once the command above runs, a new .env file will be generated at the root of both the backend and frontend folders. Configure your environment variables with your values in the backend/.env and frontend/.env files.

8. After adding the environment variables, run the app in your terminal using the command:

   source backend/.venv/bin/activate && ./bin/start-no-docker
   

PS: If the virtual environment is already activated, you can simply use the ./bin/start command to run the app.