AssemblyAI Python: async transcriber for event loops, check status before .text

TL;DR

In async Python, use AssemblyAI's AsyncSyncTranscriber and check transcript.status before reading.text, since failures return None silently. If you still reference LeMUR, migrate: it is sunset, so transcribe first and pass transcript text into the OpenAI-compatible LLM Gateway.

Steps

1. In async Python, use AssemblyAI's AsyncSyncTranscriber and check transcript.status before reading .text, since failures return None silently. Rename wordboost to keytermsprompt in new code. If you still reference LeMUR, migrate: it is sunset, so transcribe first and pass transcript text into the OpenAI-compatible LLM Gateway.

When to use

You are seeing this: Rename wordboost to keytermsprompt in new code. Use this skill when you run into "AssemblyAI Python: async transcriber for event loops, check status before .text".

When not to use

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Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Edge cases

• Also: always check transcript.status, because reading.text on a failed transcript returns None instead of raising.

Source: Official AssemblyAI docs (skill guide, assemblyai/assemblyai-skill repo): documents the async SDK gotchas. In asyncio code, use AsyncSyncTranscriber; the threaded SyncTranscriber.transcribe blocks the event loop, and transcribeasync returns a concurrent.futures.Future, not an awaitable coroutine. Also: always check transcript.status, because reading .text on a failed transcript returns None instead of raising. And wordboost was renamed to keytermsprompt in July 2026; the old aliases still work, but new code should use the new name. Separately, LeMUR is deprecated (sunset March 31, 2026); use the LLM Gateway with transcript text instead of transcriptids.

Verified resolution: In async Python, use AssemblyAI's AsyncSyncTranscriber and check transcript.status before reading .text, since failures return None silently. Rename wordboost to keytermsprompt in new code. If you still reference LeMUR, migrate: it is sunset, so transcribe first and pass transcript text into the OpenAI-compatible LLM Gateway.

Source URL: https://github.com/assemblyai/assemblyai-skill/blob/HEAD/skills/assemblyai/SKILL.md