Podcast Production Team
A coordinated five-role agent team — researcher, scriptwriter, show-note editor, distribution manager, and reviewer — that produces a full podcast episode's content in one pass, with the team size scaling to match the actual request.
You ask for 'a podcast episode' and get one undifferentiated wall of text that's trying to be research, script, and show notes all at once — because one pass through one role can't actually do what five specialized ones can.
Who it's for: podcasters wanting a repeatable production pipeline instead of starting from a blank page every episode, content teams adding a podcast to an existing content strategy, solo creators who need research, scripting, and distribution copy without hiring a full production team, shows doing interview episodes that need a real question structure, anyone tired of one-shot podcast content that reads like it skipped a planning step
Example
"Plan a 30-minute interview episode on AI ethics with a researcher guest" → A research brief with 5+ current issues and guest talking points, a full script with a DEPTH-structured interview progression and dialogue cues, show notes with real timestamps tied to script segments, a distribution package with platform-specific promo copy and a posting calendar, and a review report confirming every deliverable is internally consistent before delivery
CLAUDE.md Template
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
# Podcast Production Team
## Your Role
You run a full podcast episode production pipeline — planning, research, scripting, show notes, and distribution strategy — using a coordinated team of specialized sub-agents rather than doing everything in one undifferentiated pass. Different scopes get different team sizes; a full episode gets all five roles, a quick script-only request gets three.
**Out of scope**: actual audio recording/editing (Audacity, GarageBand), podcast hosting API integration, and RSS feed technical setup. This produces the content; production tooling is a separate concern.
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What This Does
Runs podcast episode production through five specialized roles instead of one generic pass: a researcher who investigates the topic and extracts talking points, a scriptwriter who builds the actual episode script, a show-note editor who compiles timestamped notes, a distribution manager who writes platform-specific promo copy, and a reviewer who cross-checks every deliverable for consistency before calling it done. The team size scales to the request — a full episode gets all five, "just write the script" gets three.
Quick Start
Step 1: Create a Project Folder
mkdir podcast-episode && cd podcast-episode
Step 2: Download the Template
Click Download above, then:
mv ~/Downloads/CLAUDE.md ./
Step 3: Plan an Episode
claude
Then describe the episode — topic, type (solo/interview/panel), and any guest info — and ask for a full production pass or just a specific deliverable.
The Five Roles
| Role | Deliverable |
|---|---|
| researcher | Research brief — talking points, verified facts, references |
| scriptwriter | Full episode script with dialogue cues |
| shownote-editor | Timestamped show notes and reference links |
| distribution-manager | Platform-specific promo copy and posting calendar |
| production-reviewer | Cross-validation report across all deliverables |
Execution Modes
| Ask for... | Team deployed |
|---|---|
| Full production / "plan an episode" | All 5 roles |
| Script only | researcher + scriptwriter + reviewer |
| Show notes from an existing script | shownote-editor + reviewer |
| Promo copy from an existing script | distribution-manager + reviewer |
| A review of an existing script | reviewer only |
Tips & Best Practices
- Match the mode to what you actually need. Running all five roles for "just write me a script" produces unused deliverables and wastes the parallel-execution advantage that show-notes and distribution get from running simultaneously once the script is done.
- Structure interview questions with a DEPTH progression — facts, then reasoning, then implications, then personal stakes, then forward-looking synthesis — rather than a flat list. This is what makes a scripted interview feel like a real conversation instead of a Q&A form.
- Show notes timestamps should trace to actual script segment boundaries, not estimates. A show note that guesses at timing drifts out of sync with the real episode the moment recording deviates even slightly from the script.
- Write platform-specific distribution copy, not one description everywhere. A short-form hook-first clip description and a longer show-notes-style post perform differently — reusing one for both under-serves at least one platform.
- Trust the review report's Must-Fix items. The reviewer's cross-validation exists specifically to catch inconsistencies between deliverables (a fact in the script that contradicts the research brief, a timestamp in show notes that doesn't match the script) that are easy to miss when each piece is read in isolation.
Limitations
- Explicitly out of scope: actual audio recording and editing (Audacity, GarageBand-level work), podcast hosting API integration, and RSS feed technical setup — this produces content, not audio production
- Interview and narrative-pacing techniques (DEPTH questioning, narrative arcs) are guidance, not guarantees — episode quality still depends on how well the actual topic and guest fit the format
- Best suited for planning and content generation ahead of recording, not for post-recording transcription or editing workflows