How do I install the Fetch Youtube Auto Closed Captions skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add cmd-christopher/fetch-youtube-auto-closed-captions in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Fetch Youtube Auto Closed Captions safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Fetch Youtube Auto Closed Captions?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Fetch Youtube Auto Closed Captions free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Fetch Youtube Auto Closed Captions?

cmd-christopher (@cmd-christopher) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Fetch Youtube Auto Closed Captions by cmd-christopher

Name: Fetch Youtube Auto Closed Captions
Author: cmd-christopher

Fetch Youtube Auto Closed Captions

Download YouTube auto-generated closed captions (VTT) with yt-dlp when a user provides a YouTube URL or video ID and wants auto-subs/transcripts; includes checking for yt-dlp and offering install guidance if missing.

File contents

YouTube auto captions via yt-dlp

Use this skill to fetch auto-generated English captions from YouTube using yt-dlp.

Workflow

Accept a YouTube URL or video ID from the user.
Check if yt-dlp is available.
If missing, ask the user if they want help installing it and offer install commands.
Run the download command or the bundled script to write auto-subs in VTT and a readable transcript in TXT.

Preferred command

Use exactly this command when running manually:

yt-dlp \
  --skip-download \
  --write-auto-subs \
  --sub-lang en \
  --sub-format vtt \
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

Bundled script

Use scripts/download_auto_captions.sh to handle URL or ID input and an optional output directory. It writes both .vtt and a cleaned .txt transcript (timestamps/tags stripped, common non-speech cues removed, merged into sentences):

bash scripts/download_auto_captions.sh <url-or-id> [output-dir]

Install guidance (ask first)

If yt-dlp is not installed, ask the user whether to install and then offer one of:

macOS (Homebrew): brew install yt-dlp
Python (pipx): pipx install yt-dlp
Python (pip): python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp

Notes

Output files are written as .vtt subtitles and .txt transcripts in the chosen directory.
Auto-subs depend on what YouTube provides; some videos may not have auto-generated captions.

Frequently asked questions