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Features

Caching

The summarizer keeps a transcript cache so you can re-process the same video with different styles, providers, or languages without waiting for transcription again.

How It Works

When you run the CLI or webapp:

  1. A cache key is built from the parameters that affect transcription output
  2. If a matching transcript exists in memory (or on disk when persistence is enabled), it is returned instantly
  3. On a cache miss, the transcript is fetched normally and stored for later reuse

Cache hits are reported in verbose mode:

[+] Transcript cache hit (memory, a3f7b2d8e1c4) — skipping transcription
[+] Transcript cache hit (disk, a3f7b2d8e1c4) — skipping transcription
no yes yes no yes no key from source, language,method, model, speed, captions cache on? download and transcribe return transcript memory hit? disk file? load into memory download and transcribe store in memory, and on disk if persist

Cache Key

The key is a SHA-256 hash of these parameters joined together:

ParameterDefault
source_url_or_path—
languageauto
transcription_methodCloud Whisper
whisper_modeltiny
speed1.0
use_youtube_captionstrue

Changing any of these values produces a different key and triggers a fresh transcription. Changing the summary style, provider, output language, or JEV include/exclude rules does not affect the key, so those re-runs are instant.

In-Memory Cache (Default)

By default, transcripts are cached in process memory only. Restarting the CLI or Streamlit server clears the in-memory cache.

Disk Persistence (Docker / Long-Running Deployments)

Enable on-disk caching so transcripts survive container restarts:

defaults:
  cache-transcript-persist: true
  output-dir: summaries

Cached files are stored under {output-dir}/.cache/transcripts/.

Or set environment variables (used when the YAML key is omitted):

VariableEffect
SUMMARIZER_CACHE_PERSIST=trueEnable disk persistence
SUMMARIZER_CACHE_DIRCustom cache directory (optional)

Docker Compose sets SUMMARIZER_CACHE_PERSIST=true by default. The image ships with cache-transcript-persist: true in summarizer.docker.yaml.

Disabling the Cache

Set cache-transcript: false in summarizer.yaml:

defaults:
  cache-transcript: false

Or pass --no-config and the cache is bypassed entirely.

Important Notes

  • In-memory entries are always used first; disk is checked on a miss.
  • The cache does not apply to visual mode (--visual), which skips transcription entirely.
  • JEV prefiltering runs after a cache read or write and never stores its selected text in the transcript cache. See JEV Prefiltering.
  • The cache applies to TXT files too, since they bypass audio processing and are treated as pre-existing transcripts.