diff --git a/docs/src/components/BuiltinTools.mdx b/docs/src/components/BuiltinTools.mdx
index 941a1efc6a..7caed9168d 100644
--- a/docs/src/components/BuiltinTools.mdx
+++ b/docs/src/components/BuiltinTools.mdx
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ import { LinkCard } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';
 <LinkCard title="user_input_select" description="Ask the user to select an option." href="/genaiscript/reference/scripts/system#systemuser_input" />
 <LinkCard title="user_input_text" description="Ask the user to input text." href="/genaiscript/reference/scripts/system#systemuser_input" />
 <LinkCard title="video_probe" description="Probe a video file and returns the metadata information" href="/genaiscript/reference/scripts/system#systemvideo" />
-<LinkCard title="video_extract_audio" description="Extract audio from a video file into a .wav file. Returns the audio filename." href="/genaiscript/reference/scripts/system#systemvideo" />
+<LinkCard title="video_extract_audio" description="Extract audio from a video file into an audio file. Returns the audio filename." href="/genaiscript/reference/scripts/system#systemvideo" />
 <LinkCard title="video_extract_frames" description="Extract frames from a video file" href="/genaiscript/reference/scripts/system#systemvideo" />
 <LinkCard title="vision_ask_images" description="Use vision model to run a query on multiple images" href="/genaiscript/reference/scripts/system#systemvision_ask_images" />
 
diff --git a/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/system.mdx b/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/system.mdx
index 58d3dfd4ae..cad4f2d84b 100644
--- a/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/system.mdx
+++ b/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/system.mdx
@@ -3566,7 +3566,7 @@ defTool(
 Video manipulation tools
 
 -  tool `video_probe`: Probe a video file and returns the metadata information
--  tool `video_extract_audio`: Extract audio from a video file into a .wav file. Returns the audio filename.
+-  tool `video_extract_audio`: Extract audio from a video file into an audio file. Returns the audio filename.
 -  tool `video_extract_frames`: Extract frames from a video file
 
 `````js wrap title="system.video"
@@ -3582,14 +3582,16 @@ defTool(
         properties: {
             filename: {
                 type: "string",
-                description: "The video filename or URL to probe",
+                description: "The video filename to probe",
             },
         },
         required: ["filename"],
     },
     async (args) => {
         const { context, filename } = args
-        if (!filename) return "No filename or url provided"
+        if (!filename) return "No filename provided"
+        if (!(await workspace.stat(filename)))
+            return `File ${filename} does not exist.`
         context.log(`probing ${filename}`)
         const info = await ffmpeg.probe(filename)
         return YAML.stringify(info)
@@ -3598,20 +3600,22 @@ defTool(
 
 defTool(
     "video_extract_audio",
-    "Extract audio from a video file into a .wav file. Returns the audio filename.",
+    "Extract audio from a video file into an audio file. Returns the audio filename.",
     {
         type: "object",
         properties: {
             filename: {
                 type: "string",
-                description: "The video filename or URL to probe",
+                description: "The video filename to probe",
             },
         },
         required: ["filename"],
     },
     async (args) => {
         const { context, filename } = args
-        if (!filename) return "No filename or url provided"
+        if (!filename) return "No filename provided"
+        if (!(await workspace.stat(filename)))
+            return `File ${filename} does not exist.`
         context.log(`extracting audio from ${filename}`)
         const audioFile = await ffmpeg.extractAudio(filename)
         return audioFile
@@ -3626,7 +3630,7 @@ defTool(
         properties: {
             filename: {
                 type: "string",
-                description: "The video filename or URL to probe",
+                description: "The video filename to probe",
             },
             keyframes: {
                 type: "boolean",
@@ -3655,7 +3659,9 @@ defTool(
     },
     async (args) => {
         const { context, filename, transcription, ...options } = args
-        if (!filename) return "No filename or url provided"
+        if (!filename) return "No filename provided"
+        if (!(await workspace.stat(filename)))
+            return `File ${filename} does not exist.`
         context.log(`extracting frames from ${filename}`)
 
         if (transcription) {
diff --git a/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/videos.mdx b/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/videos.mdx
index 8e3254f8b2..4bd07c6226 100644
--- a/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/videos.mdx
+++ b/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/videos.mdx
@@ -28,13 +28,13 @@ or configure the `FFMPEG_PATH` / `FFPROBE_PATH` environment variables to point t
 As mentionned above, multi-modal LLMs typically support images as a sequence
 of frames (or screenshots).
 
-The `ffmpeg.extractFrames` will render frames from a video file or url
+The `ffmpeg.extractFrames` will render frames from a video file
 and return them as an array of file paths. You can use the result with `defImages` directly.
 
 - by default, extract keyframes (intra-frames)
 
 ```js
-const frames = await ffmpeg.extractFrames("path_url_to_video")
+const frames = await ffmpeg.extractFrames("path_to_video")
 def("FRAMES", frames)
 ```
 
@@ -66,11 +66,11 @@ const transcript = await transcribe("...", { sceneThreshold: 0.3 })
 
 ## Extracting audio
 
-The `ffmpeg.extractAudio` will extract the audio from a video file or url
+The `ffmpeg.extractAudio` will extract the audio from a video file
 as a `.wav` file.
 
 ```js
-const audio = await ffmpeg.extractAudio("path_url_to_video")
+const audio = await ffmpeg.extractAudio("path_to_video")
 ```
 
 The conversion to audio happens automatically
@@ -78,10 +78,10 @@ for videos when using [transcribe](/genaiscript/reference/scripts/transcription)
 
 ## Probing videos
 
-You can extract metadata from a video file or url using `ffmpeg.probe`.
+You can extract metadata from a video file using `ffmpeg.probe`.
 
 ```js
-const info = await ffmpeg.probe("path_url_to_video")
+const info = await ffmpeg.probe("path_to_video")
 const { duration } = info.streams[0]
 console.log(`video duration: ${duration} seconds`)
 ```
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ You can further customize the `ffmpeg` configuration
 by passing `outputOptions`.
 
 ```js 'outputOptions: "-b:a 16k",'
-const audio = await ffmpeg.extractAudio("path_url_to_video", {
+const audio = await ffmpeg.extractAudio("path_to_video", {
     outputOptions: "-b:a 16k",
 })
 ```
diff --git a/packages/core/src/fetch.ts b/packages/core/src/fetch.ts
index e90f6d1439..4ba2f5d88a 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/fetch.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/fetch.ts
@@ -9,12 +9,15 @@ import {
 import { errorMessage } from "./error"
 import { logVerbose, toStringList } from "./util"
 import { CancellationOptions, CancellationToken } from "./cancellation"
-import { readText } from "./fs"
 import { resolveHttpProxyAgent } from "./proxy"
 import { host } from "./host"
 import { renderWithPrecision } from "./precision"
 import crossFetch from "cross-fetch"
 import prettyBytes from "pretty-bytes"
+import { fileTypeFromBuffer } from "file-type"
+import { isBinaryMimeType } from "./binary"
+import { toBase64 } from "./base64"
+import { deleteUndefinedValues } from "./cleaners"
 
 export type FetchType = (
     input: string | URL | globalThis.Request,
@@ -137,7 +140,7 @@ export async function fetchText(
     const url = urlOrFile.filename
     let ok = false
     let status = 404
-    let text: string
+    let bytes: Uint8Array
     if (/^https?:\/\//i.test(url)) {
         const f = await createFetch({
             retries,
@@ -149,25 +152,39 @@ export async function fetchText(
         const resp = await f(url, rest)
         ok = resp.ok
         status = resp.status
-        if (ok) text = await resp.text()
+        if (ok) bytes = new Uint8Array(await resp.arrayBuffer())
     } else {
         try {
-            text = await readText("workspace://" + url)
-            ok = true
+            bytes = await host.readFile(url)
         } catch (e) {
             logVerbose(e)
             ok = false
             status = 404
         }
     }
-    const file: WorkspaceFile = {
-        filename: urlOrFile.filename,
-        content: text,
+
+    let content: string
+    let encoding: "base64"
+    let type: string
+    const mime = await fileTypeFromBuffer(bytes)
+    if (isBinaryMimeType(mime?.mime)) {
+        encoding = "base64"
+        content = toBase64(bytes)
+    } else {
+        content = host.createUTF8Decoder().decode(bytes)
     }
+    ok = true
+    const file: WorkspaceFile = deleteUndefinedValues({
+        filename: urlOrFile.filename,
+        encoding,
+        type,
+        content,
+    })
     return {
         ok,
         status,
-        text,
+        text: content,
+        bytes,
         file,
     }
 }
diff --git a/packages/core/src/filesystem.ts b/packages/core/src/filesystem.ts
index 3e7aa0223e..b4c5f22139 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/filesystem.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/filesystem.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { stat } from "fs/promises"
 import { JSONLineCache } from "./cache"
 import { DOT_ENV_REGEX } from "./constants"
 import { CSVTryParse } from "./csv"
@@ -111,6 +112,17 @@ export function createFileSystem(): Omit<WorkspaceFileSystem, "grep"> {
             const res = JSONLineCache.byName<any, any>(name)
             return res
         },
+        stat: async (filename: string) => {
+            try {
+                const res = await stat(filename)
+                return {
+                    size: res.size,
+                    mode: res.mode,
+                }
+            } catch {
+                return undefined
+            }
+        },
     } satisfies Omit<WorkspaceFileSystem, "grep">
     ;(fs as any).readFile = readText
     return Object.freeze(fs)
diff --git a/packages/core/src/genaisrc/system.video.genai.js b/packages/core/src/genaisrc/system.video.genai.js
index 6743b68562..1a7b02472d 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/genaisrc/system.video.genai.js
+++ b/packages/core/src/genaisrc/system.video.genai.js
@@ -10,14 +10,16 @@ defTool(
         properties: {
             filename: {
                 type: "string",
-                description: "The video filename or URL to probe",
+                description: "The video filename to probe",
             },
         },
         required: ["filename"],
     },
     async (args) => {
         const { context, filename } = args
-        if (!filename) return "No filename or url provided"
+        if (!filename) return "No filename provided"
+        if (!(await workspace.stat(filename)))
+            return `File ${filename} does not exist.`
         context.log(`probing ${filename}`)
         const info = await ffmpeg.probe(filename)
         return YAML.stringify(info)
@@ -26,20 +28,22 @@ defTool(
 
 defTool(
     "video_extract_audio",
-    "Extract audio from a video file into a .wav file. Returns the audio filename.",
+    "Extract audio from a video file into an audio file. Returns the audio filename.",
     {
         type: "object",
         properties: {
             filename: {
                 type: "string",
-                description: "The video filename or URL to probe",
+                description: "The video filename to probe",
             },
         },
         required: ["filename"],
     },
     async (args) => {
         const { context, filename } = args
-        if (!filename) return "No filename or url provided"
+        if (!filename) return "No filename provided"
+        if (!(await workspace.stat(filename)))
+            return `File ${filename} does not exist.`
         context.log(`extracting audio from ${filename}`)
         const audioFile = await ffmpeg.extractAudio(filename)
         return audioFile
@@ -54,7 +58,7 @@ defTool(
         properties: {
             filename: {
                 type: "string",
-                description: "The video filename or URL to probe",
+                description: "The video filename to probe",
             },
             keyframes: {
                 type: "boolean",
@@ -83,7 +87,9 @@ defTool(
     },
     async (args) => {
         const { context, filename, transcription, ...options } = args
-        if (!filename) return "No filename or url provided"
+        if (!filename) return "No filename provided"
+        if (!(await workspace.stat(filename)))
+            return `File ${filename} does not exist.`
         context.log(`extracting frames from ${filename}`)
 
         if (transcription) {
diff --git a/packages/core/src/promptcontext.ts b/packages/core/src/promptcontext.ts
index b8fcbff173..24d187f776 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/promptcontext.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/promptcontext.ts
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ export async function createPromptContext(
             })
             return res
         },
+        stat: (filename) => runtimeHost.workspace.stat(filename),
         grep: async (
             query,
             grepOptions: string | WorkspaceGrepOptions,
diff --git a/packages/core/src/types/prompt_template.d.ts b/packages/core/src/types/prompt_template.d.ts
index beb5eb12d3..f4ffd5c3de 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/types/prompt_template.d.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/types/prompt_template.d.ts
@@ -885,6 +885,14 @@ interface FindFilesOptions {
     readText?: boolean
 }
 
+interface FileStats {
+    /**
+     * Size of the file in bytes
+     */
+    size: number
+    mode: number
+}
+
 interface WorkspaceFileSystem {
     /**
      * Searches for files using the glob pattern and returns a list of files.
@@ -911,6 +919,12 @@ interface WorkspaceFileSystem {
         options?: Omit<WorkspaceGrepOptions, "path" | "glob">
     ): Promise<WorkspaceGrepResult>
 
+    /**
+     * Reads metadata information about the file. Returns undefined if the file does not exist.
+     * @param filename
+     */
+    stat(filename: string): Promise<FileStats>
+
     /**
      * Reads the content of a file as text
      * @param path