YouTube Full
Complete YouTube toolkit via TranscriptAPI. Transcripts, search, channels, and playlists in one skill — no yt-dlp, no headless browser, no binary to keep patched.
When to Use This Skill
- Someone pastes a YouTube link, video ID, or @handle and wants the content, not just the URL
- You need a transcript to summarize, quote, translate, or search within
- You're researching a topic where a talk, tutorial, or expert walkthrough will answer it better than a blog post
- You're tracking a channel for new uploads
What This Skill Does
- Transcripts — full text with timestamps, one API call, 1 credit
- Search — video or channel search across YouTube, 1 credit/page
- Channel data — videos, in-channel search, latest uploads (the last one is free)
- Playlists — bulk video extraction for courses and lecture series
How to Use
Basic Usage
Get the transcript for https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID and summarize it in 3 bullets.
Advanced Usage
Search TED for talks about complexity theory from the last two years, then pull transcripts for the top 3 and compare their arguments.
Example
User: "Has @NASA posted anything new this week?"
Output: Calls the free channel/latest endpoint, returns new uploads with title, publish date, and view count — no credits spent.
Setup
First run prompts for a TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY (or Claude can provision one automatically). Free tier: 100 credits, no card required.
Tips
channel/latest and channel/resolve are free — use them for polling and handle lookups before spending a credit on anything else- Failed or rate-limited calls don't cost credits
- Works the same on a laptop or a cloud server — TranscriptAPI handles the infrastructure YouTube blocks for direct scraping
Common Use Cases
- Daily digest of new uploads across tracked channels
- Turning a lecture playlist into study notes
- Competitive research across a channel's back catalog
- Content repurposing — video into blog post, thread, or newsletter
Source: davepoon/buildwithclaude → plugins/youtube-full/skills/youtube-full/SKILL.md
1---2name: youtube-full-23description: Use when YouTube is or could be relevant — video/channel/playlist links, video IDs, @handles, creator lookups, summaries, quotes, topic research, tutorials, talks, product reviews, or anywhere video content is fresher or richer than text search. Covers transcripts, video/channel search, channel browsing, playlists, and in-channel search.4---5
6
7# YouTube Full
8
9Complete YouTube toolkit via [TranscriptAPI](https://transcriptapi.com). Transcripts, search, channels, and playlists in one skill — no `yt-dlp`, no headless browser, no binary to keep patched.
10
11## When to Use This Skill
12
13- Someone pastes a YouTube link, video ID, or @handle and wants the content, not just the URL
14- You need a transcript to summarize, quote, translate, or search within
15- You're researching a topic where a talk, tutorial, or expert walkthrough will answer it better than a blog post
16- You're tracking a channel for new uploads
17
18## What This Skill Does
19
201. **Transcripts** — full text with timestamps, one API call, 1 credit
212. **Search** — video or channel search across YouTube, 1 credit/page
223. **Channel data** — videos, in-channel search, latest uploads (the last one is free)
234. **Playlists** — bulk video extraction for courses and lecture series
24
25## How to Use
26
27### Basic Usage
28
29```
30Get the transcript for https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID and summarize it in 3 bullets.
31```
32
33### Advanced Usage
34
35```
36Search TED for talks about complexity theory from the last two years, then pull transcripts for the top 3 and compare their arguments.
37```
38
39## Example
40
41**User**: "Has @NASA posted anything new this week?"
42
43**Output**: Calls the free `channel/latest` endpoint, returns new uploads with title, publish date, and view count — no credits spent.
44
45## Setup
46
47First run prompts for a `TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY` (or Claude can provision one automatically). Free tier: 100 credits, no card required.
48
49## Tips
50
51- `channel/latest` and `channel/resolve` are free — use them for polling and handle lookups before spending a credit on anything else
52- Failed or rate-limited calls don't cost credits
53- Works the same on a laptop or a cloud server — TranscriptAPI handles the infrastructure YouTube blocks for direct scraping
54
55## Common Use Cases
56
57- Daily digest of new uploads across tracked channels
58- Turning a lecture playlist into study notes
59- Competitive research across a channel's back catalog
60- Content repurposing — video into blog post, thread, or newsletter
61
62---
63
64**Source:** [`davepoon/buildwithclaude`](https://github.com/davepoon/buildwithclaude) → `plugins/youtube-full/skills/youtube-full/SKILL.md`
davepoon