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CLI Anything Quietshrink

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cli-anything-quietshrink

CLI Anything Quietshrink is an Agent Skill for documents published in the HKUDS/CLI-Anything repository on GitHub: a SKILL.md instruction file an AI agent can load to do this task.

Compress macOS screen recordings with zero CPU stress using Apple Silicon's hardware HEVC encoder. Typically reduces file size 70-90% while staying visually lossless. Computer stays silent during encoding.

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How to use this skill

Bring this guide into your coding agent with a prompt tailored to the tool you use.

  1. Open your project in Codex.
  2. Copy and paste the prompt below.
  3. Review files and risks before approving any action.
Prompt to paste
Inspect the Agent Skill at https://github.com/HKUDS/CLI-Anything/blob/HEAD/skills/cli-anything-quietshrink/SKILL.md and all supporting files. Report provenance, permissions, scripts, dependencies, and security risks. Propose an exact installation into .agents/skills/cli-anything-quietshrink, but wait for my approval before writing files or running scripts.

Copying this prompt does not install or run the skill. Review third-party files before use.

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

# 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

PresetqTypical reductionSSIMUse case
tiny50~90%~0.95Chat/email — small artifacts OK
balanced55~88%~0.99Docs/sharing — high quality
transparent (default)60~87%~0.99+Anything important — visually lossless
pristine70~84%~0.997Archival — near-source

JSON output schema

compress returns:

{
  "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:

{
  "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