| name | langtalk |
| description | Hybrid LLM-engineering research — synthesizes a podcast-grounded answer from the Langtalks corpus with current web search results. Triggers on /langtalk, "langtalks", "what does langtalks say about", and LLM-system architecture/trade-off questions where named-practitioner provenance matters. |
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep, WebSearch, WebFetch |
/langtalk — Hybrid Langtalks + Web research consultant
Combines two sources for every LLM-engineering question:
- Langtalks — single-channel persistent NotebookLM notebook seeded with every public episode of the Langtalks podcast (channel
@langtalks, id UCWPBxQSxychk2M49Fuoq-5A). Provides Israeli-practitioner production stories, named guests, Hebrew quotes, lessons-learned.
- Web — current technical sources (papers, blogs, vendor docs, benchmarks). Provides recency, breadth, quantitative depth.
The skill returns a single synthesized answer in which every claim is tagged inline with its origin ([LT*] for Langtalks, [W*] for web), plus a unified sources footer.
Architecture (one notebook, forever)
- One persistent NLM notebook per install, identified by
state.json → notebook.nb_id.
- Channel id pinned in
config.json. No ad-hoc discovery.
bootstrap seeds the notebook from the channel's upload history (cap 200).update adds new uploads since last_refresh. Old sources never removed.- Queries auto-refresh if
now - last_refresh > freshness_days (default 7).
Subcommands
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/langtalk "<question>" | (default) Hybrid mode — fires the langtalks query AND a parallel web search, then synthesizes. |
/langtalk skill-only "<question>" | Skip the web layer; pure langtalks notebook output. |
/langtalk web-only "<question>" | Skip the langtalks layer; pure web search. |
/langtalk update | Pull new Langtalks uploads into the notebook. |
/langtalk status | Print notebook id, source count, freshness. |
/langtalk bootstrap | First-run only: create the notebook and seed all videos. |
How Claude should invoke this skill (hybrid default)
When $ARGUMENTS is a free-form question (not a subcommand), Claude MUST execute the hybrid flow:
Step 1 — Run langtalks AND web search in parallel
In a single message, fire both tool calls in parallel:
Tool 1 — Bash to invoke the langtalks layer:
SKILL_DIR="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:+$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/skills/consult}"
SKILL_DIR="${SKILL_DIR:-$HOME/.claude/skills/langtalk}"
cd "$SKILL_DIR"
ENV_FILE="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA:-$SKILL_DIR}/.env"
[[ -f "$ENV_FILE" ]] && { set -a; source "$ENV_FILE"; set +a; }
bash ./router.sh "$ARGUMENTS"
This returns: an answer body with [n] citations + a compact _Sources: ..._ italic footer with 1-2 episode URLs.
Tool 2 — WebSearch for the same question:
Search the web for 4-7 high-quality sources (papers, vendor docs, technical blogs) published in the last 18 months. Capture title, URL, and published_at where available.
Step 2 — Synthesize a unified answer
Combine both into ONE flowing answer of 400-800 words. Every substantive claim must be tagged inline with its origin:
[LT1], [LT2], ... — claims from Langtalks (renumber from langtalks's [n] to the unified scheme)[W1], [W2], ... — claims from web sources
Synthesis rules:
- Lead with whichever source has the strongest material for that paragraph. Don't artificially split or alternate.
- When both sources agree, tag both:
... cross-encoders generally outperform bi-encoders for the final reranking pass [LT1, W2].
- When they disagree or one is silent, tag the source that's making the claim. Do NOT fabricate web support for a langtalks claim or vice versa.
- Preserve direct Hebrew quotes from langtalks when they add color (with English glosses), but keep them tight — don't dump entire transcripts.
- If langtalks returned an empty answer or NLM timed out, fall back to web-only and note
(langtalks layer unavailable: <reason>) in the footer.
- If WebSearch returns nothing useful, fall back to langtalks-only and say so.
Step 3 — Print a unified sources footer
After the answer, print:
--- WHERE THIS CAME FROM ---
LangTalks (<n> episodes cited):
[LT1] "<episode title>" — <YouTube URL>
[LT2] ...
Web (<n> sources):
[W1] <title> — <publisher/year> — <URL>
[W2] ...
LangTalks notebook last refreshed: <iso>
Keep the footer compact. List only sources that were actually tagged in the answer (not every source consulted).
Step 4 — One-line "what came from where" summary
End with a single italic sentence summarizing the split, e.g.:
Web supplied the technical primitives, model names, and 2025-2026 benchmarks; LangTalks supplied the production trade-offs and Israeli-practitioner workflows.
This is the user's quick orientation: at a glance, they see which source pulled the load.
Subcommand variants
/langtalk skill-only "<q>" — run only router.sh "<q>", pass the langtalks output through verbatim. No WebSearch./langtalk web-only "<q>" — run only WebSearch. No langtalks. Useful when the user knows the topic isn't podcast-relevant./langtalk update / status / bootstrap — passthrough to router.sh <subcmd>. No web layer involved.
When to use the default (hybrid) mode
- Planning an LLM/agent system — wants production-grade trade-off advice.
- Trade-off questions ("X vs Y") — wants both textbook and practitioner views.
- Lessons-learned questions — wants both general industry consensus and specific practitioner stories.
When NOT to use
- Pure factual lookups (just use WebSearch directly — overkill to fire the podcast layer).
- Code-completion, debugging, command-syntax questions.
- Topics outside LLM/AI engineering.
Files
config.json — channel id, freshness policy, caps.state.json — { notebook: { nb_id, video_ids, videos_meta, last_refresh, ... } }..env — YOUTUBE_API_KEY=… (gitignored; never echo).scripts/common.sh — shared helpers (env, nlm auth, YT API, atomic state).scripts/bootstrap.sh — first-run seeding (now also caches videos_meta: title + url + published_at per video).scripts/update.sh — incremental refresh.scripts/query.sh — langtalks-only answer with [n] citations + compact sources footer.scripts/list.sh — status output.router.sh — entry point. Dispatches subcommands; for free-form questions returns langtalks-only output (the bash layer cannot synthesize with web — the LLM does that per Step 2 above).
Important: synthesis happens in Claude Code, not in bash
The bash skill provides ONE half (langtalks) as a primitive. Web search is a Claude Code tool (WebSearch). The hybrid synthesis is performed by Claude Code reading both tool outputs and weaving them. Do not try to call WebSearch from inside query.sh — it's an LLM tool, not a CLI.
