diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 87abc6e9c54..e01db72ea7a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 
 ### Fixes
 
+- Media-understanding/audio: expand deprecated `{input}` CLI placeholders to the local media path and migrate legacy `audio.transcription.command` configs to `{{MediaPath}}`, so custom audio transcribers no longer receive the literal placeholder. Fixes #72760. Thanks @krisfanue3-hash.
 - Control UI/Gateway: preserve WebChat client version labels across localhost, 127.0.0.1, and IPv6 loopback aliases on the same port, avoiding misleading `vcontrol-ui` connection logs while investigating duplicate-message reports. Refs #72753 and #72742. Thanks @LumenFromTheFuture and @allesgutefy.
 - Agents/reasoning: treat orphan closing reasoning tags with following answer text as a privacy boundary across delivery, history, streaming, and Control UI sanitizers so malformed local-model output cannot leak chain-of-thought text. Fixes #67092. Thanks @AnildoSilva.
 - Memory-core: run one-shot memory CLI commands through transient builtin and QMD managers so `memory index`, `memory status --index`, and `memory search` no longer start long-lived file watchers that can hit macOS `EMFILE` limits. Fixes #59101; carries forward #49851. Thanks @mbear469210-coder and @maoyuanxue.
diff --git a/docs/.generated/config-baseline.sha256 b/docs/.generated/config-baseline.sha256
index 4235008709c..844429421ea 100644
--- a/docs/.generated/config-baseline.sha256
+++ b/docs/.generated/config-baseline.sha256
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-1007d795926cef7568a93ed600c22304099c0559cf1b46392dbd8e863f248700  config-baseline.json
-37ce9efbc441fc91fbc344b7b5e1460ecc9344f45187ba37019ab40d81765bb7  config-baseline.core.json
+1784e028361704e55bbffd845234f0df5657e2772a8bf1e4816483ad453c8125  config-baseline.json
+12a9fb470f9a40d587b3595c96d777956c33804706d2b5bded6c42af12f4cc57  config-baseline.core.json
 07963db49502132f26db396c56b36e018b110e6c55a68b3cb012d3ec96f43901  config-baseline.channel.json
 ed65cefbef96f034ce2b73069d9d5bacc341a43489ff9b20a34d40956b877f79  config-baseline.plugin.json
diff --git a/docs/gateway/config-tools.md b/docs/gateway/config-tools.md
index e0eee038acb..9049215db7f 100644
--- a/docs/gateway/config-tools.md
+++ b/docs/gateway/config-tools.md
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ Configures inbound media understanding (image/audio/video):
     **CLI entry** (`type: "cli"`):
 
     - `command`: executable to run
-    - `args`: templated args (supports `{{MediaPath}}`, `{{Prompt}}`, `{{MaxChars}}`, etc.)
+    - `args`: templated args (supports `{{MediaPath}}`, `{{Prompt}}`, `{{MaxChars}}`, etc.; deprecated `{input}` is accepted as an alias for `{{MediaPath}}`)
 
     **Common fields:**
 
diff --git a/docs/nodes/audio.md b/docs/nodes/audio.md
index 1ca7df257d5..69b02c70ee4 100644
--- a/docs/nodes/audio.md
+++ b/docs/nodes/audio.md
@@ -163,6 +163,7 @@ Note: Binary detection is best-effort across macOS/Linux/Windows; ensure the CLI
 - `tools.media.audio.echoTranscript` is off by default; enable it to send transcript confirmation back to the originating chat before agent processing.
 - `tools.media.audio.echoFormat` customizes the echo text (placeholder: `{transcript}`).
 - CLI stdout is capped (5MB); keep CLI output concise.
+- CLI `args` should use `{{MediaPath}}` for the local audio file path. Deprecated `{input}` placeholders from older `audio.transcription.command` configs are accepted as a compatibility alias and migrate to `{{MediaPath}}`.
 
 ### Proxy environment support
 
diff --git a/src/commands/doctor/shared/legacy-config-migrate.test.ts b/src/commands/doctor/shared/legacy-config-migrate.test.ts
index cb4151c3c44..350bc816c2e 100644
--- a/src/commands/doctor/shared/legacy-config-migrate.test.ts
+++ b/src/commands/doctor/shared/legacy-config-migrate.test.ts
@@ -67,6 +67,28 @@ describe("legacy migrate audio transcription", () => {
     expect(res.config?.audio).toBeUndefined();
     expect(res.config?.tools?.media?.audio).toBeUndefined();
   });
+
+  it("rewrites legacy audio {input} placeholders to media templates", () => {
+    const res = migrateLegacyConfigForTest({
+      audio: {
+        transcription: {
+          command: ["whisper-cli", "--model", "small", "{input}", "--input={input}"],
+          timeoutSeconds: 30,
+        },
+      },
+    });
+
+    expect(res.changes).toContain("Moved audio.transcription → tools.media.audio.models.");
+    expect(res.config?.audio).toBeUndefined();
+    expect(res.config?.tools?.media?.audio?.models).toEqual([
+      {
+        type: "cli",
+        command: "whisper-cli",
+        args: ["--model", "small", "{{MediaPath}}", "--input={{MediaPath}}"],
+        timeoutSeconds: 30,
+      },
+    ]);
+  });
 });
 
 describe("legacy migrate mention routing", () => {
diff --git a/src/config/legacy.shared.ts b/src/config/legacy.shared.ts
index 7a067271cd3..60ced600741 100644
--- a/src/config/legacy.shared.ts
+++ b/src/config/legacy.shared.ts
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ export const mapLegacyAudioTranscription = (value: unknown): Record<string, unkn
     return null;
   }
 
-  const args = command.slice(1);
+  const args = command.slice(1).map((part) => part.replace(/\{input\}/g, "{{MediaPath}}"));
   const timeoutSeconds =
     typeof transcriber?.timeoutSeconds === "number" ? transcriber?.timeoutSeconds : undefined;
 
diff --git a/src/config/schema.base.generated.ts b/src/config/schema.base.generated.ts
index 04045f69784..3f5a51a3576 100644
--- a/src/config/schema.base.generated.ts
+++ b/src/config/schema.base.generated.ts
@@ -18736,7 +18736,7 @@ export const GENERATED_BASE_CONFIG_SCHEMA: BaseConfigSchemaResponse = {
                 },
                 title: "Audio Transcription Command",
                 description:
-                  'Executable + args used to transcribe audio (first token must be a safe binary/path), for example `["whisper-cli", "--model", "small", "{input}"]`. Prefer a pinned command so runtime environments behave consistently.',
+                  'Executable + args used to transcribe audio (first token must be a safe binary/path), for example `["whisper-cli", "--model", "small", "{{MediaPath}}"]`. Deprecated `{input}` placeholders are still accepted and migrated to `{{MediaPath}}`.',
               },
               timeoutSeconds: {
                 type: "integer",
@@ -25727,7 +25727,7 @@ export const GENERATED_BASE_CONFIG_SCHEMA: BaseConfigSchemaResponse = {
     },
     "audio.transcription.command": {
       label: "Audio Transcription Command",
-      help: 'Executable + args used to transcribe audio (first token must be a safe binary/path), for example `["whisper-cli", "--model", "small", "{input}"]`. Prefer a pinned command so runtime environments behave consistently.',
+      help: 'Executable + args used to transcribe audio (first token must be a safe binary/path), for example `["whisper-cli", "--model", "small", "{{MediaPath}}"]`. Deprecated `{input}` placeholders are still accepted and migrated to `{{MediaPath}}`.',
       tags: ["media"],
     },
     "audio.transcription.timeoutSeconds": {
diff --git a/src/config/schema.help.ts b/src/config/schema.help.ts
index c372ebcb176..4e9a2315847 100644
--- a/src/config/schema.help.ts
+++ b/src/config/schema.help.ts
@@ -511,7 +511,7 @@ export const FIELD_HELP: Record<string, string> = {
   "audio.transcription":
     "Command-based transcription settings for converting audio files into text before agent handling. Keep a simple, deterministic command path here so failures are easy to diagnose in logs.",
   "audio.transcription.command":
-    'Executable + args used to transcribe audio (first token must be a safe binary/path), for example `["whisper-cli", "--model", "small", "{input}"]`. Prefer a pinned command so runtime environments behave consistently.',
+    'Executable + args used to transcribe audio (first token must be a safe binary/path), for example `["whisper-cli", "--model", "small", "{{MediaPath}}"]`. Deprecated `{input}` placeholders are still accepted and migrated to `{{MediaPath}}`.',
   "audio.transcription.timeoutSeconds":
     "Maximum time allowed for the transcription command to finish before it is aborted. Increase this for longer recordings, and keep it tight in latency-sensitive deployments.",
   bindings:
diff --git a/src/media-understanding/runner.cli-audio.test.ts b/src/media-understanding/runner.cli-audio.test.ts
index 6db28691336..fbc30e3dd32 100644
--- a/src/media-understanding/runner.cli-audio.test.ts
+++ b/src/media-understanding/runner.cli-audio.test.ts
@@ -64,4 +64,35 @@ describe("media-understanding CLI audio entry", () => {
       expect.any(Object),
     );
   });
+
+  it("expands legacy {input} aliases to the media path", async () => {
+    let mediaPath = "";
+    await withAudioFixture("openclaw-cli-audio-input-alias", async ({ ctx, cache }) => {
+      mediaPath = ctx.MediaPath;
+      await runCliEntry({
+        capability: "audio",
+        entry: {
+          type: "cli",
+          command: "mock-transcriber",
+          args: ["{input}", "--input={input}"],
+        },
+        cfg: {
+          tools: {
+            media: {
+              audio: {},
+            },
+          },
+        } as OpenClawConfig,
+        ctx,
+        attachmentIndex: 0,
+        cache,
+      });
+    });
+
+    expect(runExecMock).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      "mock-transcriber",
+      [mediaPath, `--input=${mediaPath}`],
+      expect.any(Object),
+    );
+  });
 });
diff --git a/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.ts b/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.ts
index 56d300a4f2e..b14a306aeb2 100644
--- a/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.ts
+++ b/src/media-understanding/runner.entries.ts
@@ -407,6 +407,15 @@ function resolveAudioRequestOverrides(config: MediaUnderstandingConfig | undefin
   };
 }
 
+function applyCliArgTemplate(part: string, ctx: MsgContext): string {
+  const templated = applyTemplate(part, ctx);
+  const mediaPath = ctx.MediaPath;
+  if (!mediaPath || !templated.includes("{input}")) {
+    return templated;
+  }
+  return templated.replace(/\{input\}/g, mediaPath);
+}
+
 async function resolveProviderExecutionAuth(params: {
   providerId: string;
   cfg: OpenClawConfig;
@@ -774,7 +783,7 @@ export async function runCliEntry(params: {
     MaxChars: maxChars,
   };
   const argv = [command, ...args].map((part, index) =>
-    index === 0 ? part : applyTemplate(part, templCtx),
+    index === 0 ? part : applyCliArgTemplate(part, templCtx),
   );
   try {
     if (shouldLogVerbose()) {