Chapters with an AI

PodEditor does not contain an AI and never sends your audio or text anywhere. Instead it can import a chapter list, so you can ask the assistant you already use — Claude, ChatGPT, whatever you prefer — to suggest where the chapters should go, and hand its answer back.

The deciding is the assistant’s: which topics, how many chapters, what to call them. PodEditor’s part is reading the answer and putting the markers on the timeline.

The steps

1. Get a transcript with timestamps of the finished episode. PodEditor does not transcribe; use whatever you already have — a mixing service’s transcript, your podcast host’s, a transcription app. It must be of the episode as it plays on the timeline, so that a time in the transcript is the same time in PodEditor.
2. Copy the prompt below into your assistant, then paste the transcript under it.
3. Copy the assistant’s list into a text file and choose File ▸ Import Chapters…. Chapters appear as markers on the timeline, and the whole import is one undo step.

If the project already has chapters, PodEditor asks whether to replace them or add to them. Markers are never touched.

The prompt

The numbers are a starting point. If you get too many chapters, change “every 5 to 8 minutes” to something longer.

Below is a timestamped transcript of a podcast episode. Suggest chapter markers a listener could use to find a topic.

Rules:
- Reply with only the list: one chapter per line, written as `HH:MM:SS Title`. No other text.
- The first chapter starts at 00:00:00.
- A chapter marks a change of topic, not a change of speaker or a new question on the same topic.
- Aim for one chapter every 5 to 8 minutes: enough to find what you want, few enough not to overwhelm. A 60-minute episode usually gets 8 to 12 chapters, a 20-minute one 3 to 5. Never put two chapters less than 90 seconds apart.
- Keep titles under 50 characters, plain and specific. Name the topic itself, not "Discussion about" it.
- Copy each timestamp from the transcript at the point where the topic begins. Never estimate or invent one.
- Give a sponsor read its own chapter titled "Ad: <sponsor>", so listeners can skip it.

Transcript:

What Import Chapters reads

One chapter per line, a time, then a title:

00:00:00 Cold open
00:07:15 Why the deal fell apart
1:12:30 Closing thoughts

It is forgiving about the time: 5:30, 1:05:30, 00:12:00.500, [12:00] and a leading dash or bullet all work, and a link in angle brackets after the title (<https://example.com>) becomes the chapter’s link. It also reads a Podcasting 2.0 chapters.json file, which many podcast hosts produce.

Nothing is skipped silently. The status line says how many lines could not be read, and a chapter that starts after the end of your audio is left out and counted — it usually means the transcript was of a different cut of the episode.

Check before you trust it

• Play a few chapters. An assistant that is given a transcript can still pick a moment a sentence too early or late. Drag a marker to nudge it.
• Import chapters last. If you cut or move clips afterward, markers stay at their times and drift away from the audio. A chapter locked to a clip moves with it; use Lock Chapters (the lock button in the transport bar) after importing if you will keep editing.

From the command line

For scripts, or an assistant that can run commands (such as Claude Code):

podeditor-cli chapters MyShow.podproj > chapters.txt
podeditor-cli import-chapters MyShow.podproj list.txt [--replace] [--dry-run]

chapters prints the current chapters in the same format the import reads, so it can be handed to an assistant to revise. --dry-run says what would change without writing.