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youtube-transcript

youtube-transcript

github.com/intellectronicaProductivity2983.4k installsUpdated 27w ago
Repository

About youtube-transcript

youtube-transcript is a skill for fetching YouTube captions through youtube-transcript-api. It serves workflows that need transcript text, with an option to retain timestamps.

Key features

  1. 01Fetches video captions
  2. 02Accepts URLs or video IDs
  3. 03Optional timestamp formatting
  4. 04Uses manual or auto-generated captions

Use cases

  1. 01Extracting a video transcript
  2. 02Keeping caption timestamps for reference

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/intellectronica/agent-skills --skill youtube-transcript

After installing, type/youtube-transcriptin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Bundled filesscripts/get_transcript.py

Details

From the project README

YouTube Transcript

Extract transcripts from YouTube videos using the youtube-transcript-api.

Usage

Run the script with a YouTube URL or video ID:

uv run scripts/get_transcript.py "VIDEO_URL_OR_ID"

With timestamps:

uv run scripts/get_transcript.py "VIDEO_URL_OR_ID" --timestamps

Defaults

  • Without timestamps (default): Plain text, one line per caption segment
  • With timestamps: [MM:SS] text format (or [HH:MM:SS] for longer videos)

Supported URL Formats

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
  • https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
  • https://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
  • Raw video ID (11 characters)

Output

  • CRITICAL: YOU MUST NEVER MODIFY THE RETURNED TRANSCRIPT
  • If the transcript is without timestamps, you SHOULD clean it up so that it is arranged by complete paragraphs and the lines don't cut in the middle of sentences.
  • If you were asked to save the transcript to a specific file, save it to the requested file.
  • If no output file was specified, use the YouTube video ID with a -transcript.txt suffix.

Notes

  • Fetches auto-generated or manually added captions (whichever is available)
  • Requires the video to have captions enabled
  • Falls back to auto-generated captions if manual ones aren't available

Comments

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