# Video Understanding

> Analyze videos with Google Gemini multimodal AI. Download from any URL (Loom, YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo, Twitter/X, Instagram, 1000+ sites) and get transcripts, descriptions, and answers to questions. Use when asked to watch, analyze, summarize, or transcribe a video, or answer questions about video content. Triggers on video URLs or requests involving video understanding.

- Skill: `javimosch/video-understanding` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add javimosch/video-understanding`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/javimosch/video-understanding/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Research & Search
- Author: javimosch (https://skillmd.com/u/javimosch)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/javimosch/video-understanding

---


# Video Understanding (Gemini)

Analyze videos using Google Gemini's multimodal video understanding. Supports 1000+ video sources via yt-dlp.

## Requirements

- `yt-dlp` — `brew install yt-dlp` / `pip install yt-dlp`
- `ffmpeg` — `brew install ffmpeg` (for merging video+audio streams)
- `GEMINI_API_KEY` environment variable

## Default Output

Returns structured JSON:
- **transcript** — Verbatim transcript with `[MM:SS]` timestamps
- **description** — Visual description (people, setting, UI, text on screen, flow)
- **summary** — 2-3 sentence summary
- **duration_seconds** — Estimated duration
- **speakers** — Identified speakers

## Usage

### Analyze a video (structured JSON output)

```bash
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/analyze_video.py "<video-url>"
```

### Ask a question (adds "answer" field)

```bash
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/analyze_video.py "<video-url>" -q "What product is shown?"
```

### Override prompt entirely

```bash
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/analyze_video.py "<video-url>" -p "Custom prompt" --raw
```

### Download only (no analysis)

```bash
uv run {baseDir}/scripts/analyze_video.py "<video-url>" --download-only -o video.mp4
```

## Options

| Flag | Description | Default |
|------|-------------|---------|
| `-q` / `--question` | Question to answer (added to default fields) | none |
| `-p` / `--prompt` | Override entire prompt (ignores -q) | structured JSON |
| `-m` / `--model` | Gemini model | gemini-2.5-flash |
| `-o` / `--output` | Save output to file | stdout |
| `--keep` | Keep downloaded video file | false |
| `--download-only` | Download only, skip analysis | false |
| `--max-size` | Max file size in MB | 500 |
| `--raw` | Raw text output instead of JSON | false |

## How It Works

1. **YouTube URLs** → Passed directly to Gemini (no download needed)
2. **All other URLs** → Downloaded via yt-dlp → uploaded to Gemini File API → poll until processed
3. Gemini analyzes video with structured prompt → returns JSON
4. Temp files and Gemini uploads cleaned up automatically

## Supported Sources

Any URL supported by [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/supportedsites.md): Loom, YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo, Twitter/X, Instagram, Dailymotion, Twitch, and 1000+ more.

## Tips

- Use `-q` for targeted questions on top of the full analysis
- YouTube is fastest (no download step)
- Large videos (10min+) work fine — Gemini File API supports up to 2GB (free) / 20GB (paid)
- The script auto-installs Python dependencies via `uv`