FrancoStino youtube-full — YouTube transcript, search, channels & playlists via TranscriptAPI
YouTube transcripts, video search, channel browsing, in-channel search, playlist extraction, and new-upload monitoring — all via TranscriptAPI. Processes 500K+ transcripts daily, fast. No yt-dlp, no headless browsers, no Google API key.
This is the API-backed alternative to ingest-youtube. Where ingest-youtube uses yt-dlp (which stops working on cloud server IPs), youtube-full calls TranscriptAPI's API and works from any runtime — local machine, cloud server, serverless function, or CI environment. 686 installs via the skills CLI (skills.sh/zeropointrepo/youtube-skills).
When to Use This Skill
- User asks to get, fetch, or retrieve a YouTube video transcript
- User asks to search YouTube for videos on a topic
- User wants to monitor a channel for new uploads
- User needs channel metadata, video lists, or playlist contents
- Agent is deployed on a cloud server where yt-dlp calls fail (YouTube blocks cloud IPs)
- Building a research corpus from YouTube conference talks, tutorials, or interviews
- Competitive intelligence: monitoring competitor channels for new content
Do NOT use for:
- Downloading actual video or audio files (use yt-dlp directly with
-f best) - YouTube comments, likes, or engagement data (not in API)
- Private or age-restricted videos (not accessible without user authentication)
- Live stream transcripts (not stable until stream ends)
How It Works
Step 1: Install the skill
npx skills add ZeroPointRepo/youtube-skills --skill youtube-full
100 free credits included. API key is provisioned automatically via TranscriptAPI OAuth on first invocation — no manual setup.
Step 2: Use it by asking Claude
Get the transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
Search YouTube for "LLM reasoning 2026" and summarize the top 3 results
What are the latest uploads on @3Blue1Brown?
List all videos in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYLIST_ID
Step 3: Available operations
| Operation | Skill invocation | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Get transcript | get_transcript(video_id) |
1 |
| Search YouTube | search_youtube(query) |
1 per page |
| Channel video list | get_channel_videos(handle) |
1 per page |
| In-channel search | search_in_channel(handle, query) |
1 per page |
| Playlist extraction | get_playlist_videos(playlist_id) |
1 per page |
| Track new uploads | channel_latest(handle) |
Free |
| Resolve channel handle | channel_resolve(handle) |
Free |
Failed or rate-limited calls cost zero credits.
Examples
Example 1: Research corpus from conference talks
Search YouTube for "NeurIPS 2025 keynote" and get transcripts for the top 5 results.
Summarize the main themes across all talks.
The agent calls search_youtube, selects the top 5 results, calls get_transcript for each, and synthesizes.
Example 2: Competitive channel monitoring
Check @AnthropicAI and @OpenAI channels for any new videos in the last week.
For each new video, get the transcript and extract any product announcements.
The agent calls channel_latest (free) for each channel, fetches transcripts of new uploads, and extracts signal.
Example 3: Direct transcript with timestamps
Get the full transcript with timestamps for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
The agent calls get_transcript(video_id, timestamps=true) and returns the full text.
Best Practices
- Use
channel_latest(free) beforeget_transcriptto check if a video is new - Cache transcripts in your workflow — each
get_transcriptcall costs 1 credit - Use
search_in_channelwhen you already know the channel to avoid broad search noise - Prefer
get_playlist_videosfor course or lecture series — cheaper than searching by query - Don't batch-transcribe entire channels unless the user explicitly requested it
- Don't use
search_youtubewhen you already have the video URL — jump straight toget_transcript
Limitations
- This skill does not replace environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
- Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, or safety boundaries are missing.
- Transcripts are available only when YouTube has captions (manual or auto-generated). Some videos have no captions.
- API key is required for paid usage beyond the free 100-credit tier. Get one at transcriptapi.com.
- Rate limits apply: 200 RPM on Monthly plan, 300 RPM on Annual. Contact support for higher limits.
Security & Safety Notes
- This skill makes HTTPS API calls to
transcriptapi.com. No local data is written. - The API key is stored in the agent's credential store, not in this SKILL.md.
- No shell commands, no binary execution, no local system mutation. Risk level:
safe.
Common Pitfalls
Problem:
yt-dlpfails when the agent runs on a cloud server.
Solution: This is exactly the use case foryoutube-full. The API routes through TranscriptAPI's infrastructure and works from any cloud runtime.Problem: Credit balance runs out mid-workflow.
Solution: Usechannel_latest(free) to check before fetching; use targeted search to fetch only the videos you need.Problem: Transcript is not available for a video.
Solution: The API returns a structured error (zero credits charged). Ask the user to provide an alternative source.
Related Skills
@ingest-youtube— yt-dlp-based local ingestion to a markdown vault; works locally but not on cloud servers@deep-research— General-purpose research skill that can incorporate youtube-full as a data source@ai-research-corpus— Building searchable knowledge bases; pairs well with youtube-full for video content