Using Deepgram Speech-to-Text (JavaScript / TypeScript SDK)

Basic transcription for prerecorded audio (REST) or live audio (WebSocket) via /v1/listen.

When to use this product

• REST (client.listen.v1.media.transcribeUrl / transcribeFile) — one-shot transcription of a finished URL or file. Good for batch jobs, caption generation, offline processing.
• WebSocket (client.listen.v1.createConnection() / connect()) — continuous streaming transcription. Good for live captions, microphone audio, telephony streams, browser or Node realtime apps.

Use a different skill when:

• You also want summaries, topics, intents, sentiment, language detection, or redaction guidance on the same /v1/listen call → deepgram-js-audio-intelligence.
• You need Flux turn-taking and end-of-turn events on /v2/listen → deepgram-js-conversational-stt.
• You need a full interactive assistant with STT + LLM + TTS over one socket → deepgram-js-voice-agent.

Authentication

require("dotenv").config();

const { DeepgramClient } = require("@deepgram/sdk");

const deepgramClient = new DeepgramClient({
  apiKey: process.env.DEEPGRAM_API_KEY,
});

Use the exported DeepgramClient from src/CustomClient.ts, not DefaultDeepgramClient. The wrapper adds the required Token auth prefix, session headers, and patched WebSocket behavior.

Quick start — REST (prerecorded URL)

From examples/04-transcription-prerecorded-url.ts:

const data = await deepgramClient.listen.v1.media.transcribeUrl({
  url: "https://dpgr.am/spacewalk.wav",
  model: "nova-3",
  language: "en",
  punctuate: true,
  paragraphs: true,
  utterances: true,
});

console.log(
  "Transcription:",
  data.results?.channels?.[0]?.alternatives?.[0]?.transcript,
);

Quick start — REST (prerecorded file)

From examples/05-transcription-prerecorded-file.ts:

const { createReadStream } = require("fs");

const data = await deepgramClient.listen.v1.media.transcribeFile(
  createReadStream("./examples/spacewalk.wav"),
  {
    model: "nova-3",
    language: "en",
    punctuate: true,
    paragraphs: true,
    utterances: true,
    smart_format: true,
  }
);

transcribeFile(...) accepts multiple upload shapes in this SDK: fs.ReadStream, Buffer, ReadableStream, Blob, File, ArrayBuffer, and Uint8Array (see examples/23-file-upload-types.ts).

Quick start — WebSocket (live streaming)

From examples/07-transcription-live-websocket.ts:

const deepgramConnection = await deepgramClient.listen.v1.createConnection({
  model: "nova-3",
  language: "en",
  punctuate: "true",
  interim_results: "true",
});

deepgramConnection.on("message", (data) => {
  if (data.type === "Results") {
    console.log("Transcript:", data);
  }
});

deepgramConnection.connect();
await deepgramConnection.waitForOpen();

// Swap this for a mic capture (e.g. `node-microphone` / `MediaRecorder`)
// in real apps; the repo examples use `createReadStream` over a sample WAV.
const { createReadStream } = require("node:fs");
const audioStream = createReadStream("samples/spacewalk.wav");

audioStream.on("data", (chunk) => {
  deepgramConnection.sendMedia(chunk);
});

audioStream.on("end", () => {
  deepgramConnection.sendFinalize({ type: "Finalize" });
});

The repo examples use the two-step socket flow: createConnection() → register handlers → connect() → waitForOpen().

Key parameters / API surface

• REST: model, language, punctuate, smart_format, paragraphs, utterances, multichannel, numerals, search, keyterm, keywords, encoding, sample_rate, callback, tag.
• WSS connect args (src/api/resources/listen/resources/v1/client/Client.ts): model is required; common realtime flags include language, interim_results, endpointing, utterance_end_ms, vad_events, encoding, sample_rate, multichannel, punctuate, smart_format.
• WSS client messages (src/api/resources/listen/resources/v1/client/Socket.ts): sendMedia(...), sendFinalize(...), sendCloseStream(...), sendKeepAlive(...).
• WSS server events: Results, Metadata, UtteranceEnd, SpeechStarted.

API reference (layered)

1. In-repo reference: reference.md → Listen V1 Media for REST; WSS behavior lives in src/CustomClient.ts and src/api/resources/listen/resources/v1/client/{Client,Socket}.ts.
2. Canonical OpenAPI (REST): https://developers.deepgram.com/openapi.yaml
3. Canonical AsyncAPI (WSS): https://developers.deepgram.com/asyncapi.yaml
4. Context7: library ID /llmstxt/developers_deepgram_llms_txt
5. Product docs:
   • https://developers.deepgram.com/reference/speech-to-text/listen-pre-recorded
   • https://developers.deepgram.com/reference/speech-to-text/listen-streaming

Gotchas

1. Use DeepgramClient, not DefaultDeepgramClient. The custom wrapper adds Token auth, session IDs, browser WS auth protocols, and patched sockets.
2. Repo examples are two-stage for WSS. createConnection() does not open the socket; call connect() and usually waitForOpen().
3. Finalize before closing v1 streams. sendFinalize({ type: "Finalize" }) flushes the final partial.
4. Keep idle streams alive. Use audio or sendKeepAlive({ type: "KeepAlive" }) on long pauses.
5. Raw audio metadata must match reality. If you send PCM, encoding and sample_rate must match the bytes.
6. Browser auth differs from Node auth. In browsers, the wrapper moves auth/session info into WebSocket subprotocols because custom headers are unavailable.
7. Use /v2/listen only for Flux. If you need turn-aware conversational STT, switch skills instead of forcing v1.

Example files in this repo

• examples/04-transcription-prerecorded-url.ts
• examples/05-transcription-prerecorded-file.ts
• examples/06-transcription-prerecorded-callback.ts
• examples/07-transcription-live-websocket.ts
• examples/08-transcription-captions.ts
• examples/23-file-upload-types.ts
• examples/27-deepgram-session-header.ts

Central product skills

For cross-language Deepgram product knowledge — the consolidated API reference, documentation finder, focused runnable recipes, third-party integration examples, and MCP setup — install the central skills:

npx skills add deepgram/skills

This SDK ships language-idiomatic code skills; deepgram/skills ships cross-language product knowledge (see api, docs, recipes, examples, starters, setup-mcp).