Youtube Transcript

YouTube Transcript Skill

Purpose

Fetch transcripts from YouTube videos for analysis, note-taking, research, or content extraction. Uses uvx to run youtube-transcript-api without requiring installation.

When to Use

Call this skill when:

• User provides a YouTube URL (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID)
• User asks to "get the transcript", "fetch YouTube transcript", or "transcribe this video"
• User wants to analyze, summarize, or extract content from a YouTube video
• User needs video content for research or documentation purposes

Quick Reference

Basic usage:

# From full URL
uvx --from youtube-transcript-api youtube_transcript_api VIDEO_ID --format text

# Extract video ID from URL
# https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvLdNkgO-N0 → LvLdNkgO-N0

Output formats:

• --format text - Plain text (recommended for reading/analysis)
• --format json - JSON with timestamps
• --format srt - SubRip subtitle format
• --format vtt - WebVTT subtitle format

Language selection:

# Specific language
uvx --from youtube-transcript-api youtube_transcript_api VIDEO_ID --languages en --format text

# Multiple language preferences
uvx --from youtube-transcript-api youtube_transcript_api VIDEO_ID --languages en,es,fr --format text

Video ID Extraction

YouTube URLs come in various formats:

Extract video ID with bash:

# From standard URL
echo "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvLdNkgO-N0" | grep -oP '(?<=v=)[^&]*'

# From short URL
echo "https://youtu.be/LvLdNkgO-N0" | grep -oP '(?<=youtu.be/)[^?]*'

# Universal (works for most formats)
echo "URL" | sed -E 's/.*[?&v=|youtu.be\/]([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11}).*/\1/'

Saving Transcripts

Transcripts can be saved to appropriate vault locations based on use case:

Naming convention:

youtube-[video-id]-brief-description.md

Examples:

• youtube-LvLdNkgO-N0-claude-code-advanced-techniques.md
• youtube-dQw4w9WgXcQ-rickroll.md

Skill Behavior

When invoked:

1. Extract Video ID

Parse the provided URL to extract the 11-character video ID:

VIDEO_ID=$(echo "$URL" | sed -E 's/.*[?&v=|youtu.be\/]([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11}).*/\1/')

2. Fetch Transcript

Use uvx to fetch the transcript without installation:

uvx --from youtube-transcript-api youtube_transcript_api "$VIDEO_ID" --format text

3. Handle Output

The output may be large (>50KB). Common approaches:

Option A: Display excerpt Show first ~2000 characters and ask if user wants it saved

Option B: Save directly If user asked to "save" or "create note", save to appropriate location

Option C: Summarize If user asked for summary, use the transcript as context for analysis

4. Save to Vault (if requested)

# Save with proper naming
OUTPUT_FILE="3-resources/transcripts/youtube-${VIDEO_ID}-${BRIEF_TITLE}.md"

# Add frontmatter
cat > "$OUTPUT_FILE" <<EOF
---
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=${VIDEO_ID}
fetched: $(date +%Y-%m-%d)
type: youtube-transcript
---

# ${VIDEO_TITLE}

${TRANSCRIPT_CONTENT}
EOF

5. Error Handling

Common errors and solutions:

Example Workflow

# 1. User provides URL
URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvLdNkgO-N0"

# 2. Extract video ID
VIDEO_ID=$(echo "$URL" | sed -E 's/.*[?&v=|youtu.be\/]([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11}).*/\1/')

# 3. Fetch transcript
TRANSCRIPT=$(uvx --from youtube-transcript-api youtube_transcript_api "$VIDEO_ID" --format text)

# 4. Save to vault
cat > "3-resources/transcripts/youtube-${VIDEO_ID}-how-i-ai-claude-code.md" <<EOF
---
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=${VIDEO_ID}
fetched: $(date +%Y-%m-%d)
type: youtube-transcript
title: "How I AI - Advanced Claude Code Techniques"
---

# How I AI - Advanced Claude Code Techniques with John Lindquist

${TRANSCRIPT}
EOF

Advanced Usage

Timestamp Preservation

Use JSON format to preserve timestamps for detailed analysis:

uvx --from youtube-transcript-api youtube_transcript_api VIDEO_ID --format json | jq -r '.[] | "[\(.start | floor)]s: \(.text)"'

Batch Processing

Process multiple videos:

for video_id in VIDEO_ID1 VIDEO_ID2 VIDEO_ID3; do
  uvx --from youtube-transcript-api youtube_transcript_api "$video_id" --format text > "transcript-${video_id}.txt"
done

Language Detection

List available languages:

uvx --from youtube-transcript-api youtube_transcript_api VIDEO_ID --list-transcripts

Related Tools

• yt-dlp: Alternative tool for downloading videos and subtitles (can run via uvx yt-dlp)
• youtube-dl: Older alternative (less maintained)
• WebFetch: For general web content (doesn't work well for YouTube)

Related Skills

This skill complements other research and documentation workflows:

• Web clipping skills: For capturing written content
• Note-taking skills: For processing and summarizing transcripts
• Research skills: For building knowledge bases from video content

Common Use Cases

1. Research Documentation: Capture talks, tutorials, interviews for reference
2. Content Analysis: Extract key points from educational videos
3. Meeting/Talk Notes: Convert recorded presentations to searchable text
4. Accessibility: Create text versions of video content
5. Quote Extraction: Find specific statements or explanations

Tips

• First fetch downloads Python 3.14, subsequent runs are instant
• Large transcripts (>50KB) should be saved to files rather than displayed
• Auto-generated transcripts may have typos/errors
• Manual transcripts (when available) are more accurate
• Consider asking user where to save before creating files
• Add metadata (title, date, source) to saved transcripts

Skill Activation

This skill activates when:

• User provides a YouTube URL in their message
• User explicitly requests a transcript: "get transcript from..."
• User asks to analyze/summarize a YouTube video
• User asks about YouTube transcript capabilities