Inspect

Read-only media inspection. Use this skill when you need metadata without changing files.

When to use

This skill — ffprobe metadata, duration, resolution, batch comparison tables, structured JSON for agent reasoning.
audio / image / video-transformation — when you need to transform media (trim, transcode, resize). Run inspect first to confirm codecs and duration before destructive operations.
Raw ffprobe — fine for one-off queries, but these scripts return consistent JSON the agent can parse reliably.

Container vs stream duration — ffprobe format.duration is authoritative for most files; individual stream durations can differ when audio/video lengths don't match (bad mux, trailing silence). Prefer format.duration for edit boundaries.
No video stream — audio-only files return empty resolution; resolution.py reports width/height as null, not an error.
Variable frame rate (VFR) — avg_frame_rate in probe JSON may differ from r_frame_rate. For frame-accurate edits, inspect both before assuming CFR.
Corrupt or partial files — moov atom not found means an incomplete MP4 (common with interrupted downloads). Re-download or remux; probing cannot recover metadata.
Image "video" streams — some still formats appear as a single-frame video stream; duration may be N/A or 0.04 seconds.