Deepgram Hello World

Overview

Minimal working example demonstrating core Deepgram speech-to-text functionality.

Prerequisites

Completed deepgram-install-auth setup
Valid API credentials configured
Audio file for transcription (or use URL)

Instructions

Step 1: Create Entry File

Create a new file for your hello world example.

Step 2: Import and Initialize Client

import { createClient } from '@deepgram/sdk';

const deepgram = createClient(process.env.DEEPGRAM_API_KEY);

Step 3: Transcribe Audio from URL

async function transcribe() {
  const { result, error } = await deepgram.listen.prerecorded.transcribeUrl(
    { url: 'https://static.deepgram.com/examples/nasa-podcast.wav' },
    { model: 'nova-2', smart_format: true }
  );

  if (error) throw error;
  console.log(result.results.channels[0].alternatives[0].transcript);
}

transcribe();

Output

Working code file with Deepgram client initialization
Successful transcription response
Console output showing transcribed text

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Solution | |-------|-------|----------| | Import Error | SDK not installed | Verify with npm list @deepgram/sdk | | Auth Error | Invalid credentials | Check environment variable is set | | Audio Format Error | Unsupported format | Use WAV, MP3, FLAC, or OGG | | URL Not Accessible | Cannot fetch audio | Ensure URL is publicly accessible |

Examples

TypeScript - Transcribe URL

import { createClient } from '@deepgram/sdk';

const deepgram = createClient(process.env.DEEPGRAM_API_KEY);

async function main() {
  const { result, error } = await deepgram.listen.prerecorded.transcribeUrl(
    { url: 'https://static.deepgram.com/examples/nasa-podcast.wav' },
    { model: 'nova-2', smart_format: true }
  );

  if (error) throw error;
  console.log('Transcript:', result.results.channels[0].alternatives[0].transcript);
}

main().catch(console.error);

TypeScript - Transcribe Local File

import { createClient } from '@deepgram/sdk';
import { readFileSync } from 'fs';

const deepgram = createClient(process.env.DEEPGRAM_API_KEY);

async function transcribeFile(filePath: string) {
  const audio = readFileSync(filePath);

  const { result, error } = await deepgram.listen.prerecorded.transcribeFile(
    audio,
    { model: 'nova-2', smart_format: true, mimetype: 'audio/wav' }
  );

  if (error) throw error;
  console.log('Transcript:', result.results.channels[0].alternatives[0].transcript);
}

transcribeFile('./audio.wav');

Python Example

from deepgram import DeepgramClient, PrerecordedOptions
import os

deepgram = DeepgramClient(os.environ.get('DEEPGRAM_API_KEY'))

options = PrerecordedOptions(
    model="nova-2",
    smart_format=True,
)

url = {"url": "https://static.deepgram.com/examples/nasa-podcast.wav"}
response = deepgram.listen.rest.v("1").transcribe_url(url, options)

print(response.results.channels[0].alternatives[0].transcript)

Resources

Next Steps

Proceed to deepgram-local-dev-loop for development workflow setup.