quietshrink

# quietshrink — Agent Skill You have access to `cli-anything-quietshrink`, a CLI for compressing video files on macOS Apple Silicon. It uses the Media Engine (hardware HEVC encoder), not the CPU, so encoding is fast and silent. ## When to use it - User wants to compress a screen recording, screencast, or any .mov/.mp4 file - File is too large to share (chat, email, GitHub) - Need smaller files but cannot tolerate visible quality loss - Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2/M3/M4) — best results **Don't** use this on non-screen content (camera footage, vlogs) — savings will be much smaller because there are no duplicate frames to drop. ## Commands ```bash # Compress with default transparent quality cli-anything-quietshrink compress <input> [output] # Compress with specific preset cli-anything-quietshrink compress -q tiny <input> # smallest cli-anything-quietshrink compress -q transparent <input> # default, visually lossless cli-anything-quietshrink compress -q pristine <input> # near-source quality # Inspect a file before compressing cli-anything-quietshrink probe <input> # List quality presets cli-anything-quietshrink presets # Verify environment cli-anything-quietshrink doctor ``` All commands accept `--json` for machine-readable output. ## Quality presets | Preset | q | Typical reduction | SSIM | Use case | |--------|---|-------------------|------|----------| | `tiny` | 50 | ~90% | ~0.95 | Chat/email — small artifacts OK | | `balanced` | 55 | ~88% | ~0.99 | Docs/sharing — high quality | | `transparent` (default) | 60 | ~87% | ~0.99+ | **Anything important** — visually lossless | | `pristine` | 70 | ~84% | ~0.997 | Archival — near-source | ## JSON output schema `compress` returns: ```json { "input": "/path/to/input.mov", "output": "/path/to/output.mov", "input_size": 105952129, "output_size": 12345678, "saved_bytes": 93606451, "saved_percent": 88.3, "duration_seconds": 193.3, "elapsed_seconds": 87, "encoding_speed": "2.2x", "quality_preset": "transparent", "q_value": 60, "gop": 600 } ``` `probe` returns: ```json { "path": "...", "size_bytes": 105952129, "size_mb": 101.04, "codec": "h264", "width": 3024, "height": 1964, "framerate": "120/1", "duration_seconds": 193.31 } ``` ## Decision flow for agents ``` User wants to share a recording ├─ Is it on Apple Silicon Mac? → use quietshrink │ ├─ For chat/email/quick share → -q tiny │ ├─ For docs/important sharing → -q transparent (default) │ └─ For archival/editing → -q pristine └─ Not on Mac? → falls back to software, less efficient ``` Before processing, run `doctor` to verify environment. For unfamiliar files, run `probe` to understand resolution/codec/duration. ## Errors and recovery - `ffmpeg not found` → `brew install ffmpeg` - `hevc_videotoolbox not available` → `brew reinstall ffmpeg` - `compression_failed` → check input file isn't corrupted; try `--verbose` mode to see ffmpeg errors ## Source - Main repo: https://github.com/achiya-automation/quietshrink - Bash CLI: `quietshrink` command (via the install script) - Why this approach works: see [WHY.md](https://github.com/achiya-automation/quietshrink/blob/main/WHY.md)