How do I install the Transcribing Youtube skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add m31uk3/transcribing-youtube 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 Transcribing Youtube 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 Transcribing Youtube?

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 Transcribing Youtube free to use?

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

Who published Transcribing Youtube?

m31uk3 (@m31uk3) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Transcribing Youtube by m31uk3 — Agent Skill

Name: Transcribing Youtube
Author: m31uk3

Transcribing Youtube

Download and transcribe YouTube videos into clean, deduplicated Markdown documents with chapter headings. Wraps yt-dlp to fetch subtitles (manual or auto-generated), removes the rolling-text triplication artifacts from auto-subs, inserts chapter markers from video metadata, and produces both a timestamped transcript and a prose-only version. Use when the user wants to: (1) transcribe a YouTube video, (2) get a transcript or subtitles from YouTube, (3) create an InfoNugget from a video, (4) extract text from a YouTube URL or video ID, or (5) mentions yt-dlp, YouTube transcript, or video subtitles.

m31uk3 cc1d623 3 files · 15.5 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Transcribing YouTube Videos

Generate clean, deduplicated Markdown transcripts from YouTube videos using yt-dlp.

Prerequisites

Verify CLI dependencies before running:

command -v yt-dlp jq awk sed find

Required: yt-dlp, jq, awk, sed, find (standard POSIX utilities).

Workflow

Step 1: Get the video identifier

Accept any of these input formats:

Full URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6pbQ5li5Cg
Short URL: https://youtu.be/q6pbQ5li5Cg
Shorts URL: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q6pbQ5li5Cg
Bare video ID: q6pbQ5li5Cg

Step 2: Run the script

bash {baseDir}/scripts/genInfoNugget.sh <URL_or_VIDEO_ID>

To reprocess an existing SRT without re-downloading:

bash {baseDir}/scripts/genInfoNugget.sh --fix <URL_or_VIDEO_ID>

Step 3: Verify output

The script produces two files in the current directory:

File	Contents
`*.InfoNug.DDMMMYY.HHMMSS.md`	Timestamped transcript with `####` chapter headings
`*.InfoNug.DDMMMYY.HHMMSS.md_chapters.md`	Prose-only version grouped by chapter (no timestamps)

After the script completes, read the first ~30 lines of the prose file (_chapters.md) to confirm no triplication. Each phrase should appear exactly once.

Step 4: Present results

Report the two output filenames to the user. If the user wants a summary, read the prose file and summarize by chapter.

How the script works

Download: Tries manual subs first (--write-subs), falls back to auto-generated (--write-auto-subs) only if needed
Deduplicate: AWK pass removes ≤100ms transition blocks and strips rolling duplicate lines carried forward from previous blocks
Chapters: Extracts chapter timestamps from info.json via jq, inserts #### headings in a single AWK pass
Prose: Strips all timestamps and joins text into flowing paragraphs grouped by chapter

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
"No SRT file found"	No subtitles in target language	Check video has captions enabled
Tripled text in output	Using old v1 script	Use this skill's script which includes deduplication
`--fix` fails with no SRT	Previous run cleaned up intermediate files	Run without `--fix` to re-download

Why does tripling happen? See references/faqs.md for a detailed explanation of YouTube's rolling VTT format and how the dedup works.

---name: transcribing-youtubedescription: Download and transcribe YouTube videos into clean, deduplicated Markdown documents with chapter headings. Wraps yt-dlp to fetch subtitles (manual or auto-generated), removes the rolling-text triplication artifacts from auto-subs, inserts chapter markers from video metadata, and produces both a timestamped transcript and a prose-only version. Use when the user wants to: (1) transcribe a YouTube video, (2) get a transcript or subtitles from YouTube, (3) create an InfoNugget from a video, (4) extract text from a YouTube URL or video ID, or (5) mentions yt-dlp, YouTube transcript, or video subtitles.---# Transcribing YouTube VideosGenerate clean, deduplicated Markdown transcripts from YouTube videos using yt-dlp.## PrerequisitesVerify CLI dependencies before running:```bashcommand -v yt-dlp jq awk sed find```Required: `yt-dlp`, `jq`, `awk`, `sed`, `find` (standard POSIX utilities).## Workflow### Step 1: Get the video identifierAccept any of these input formats:- Full URL: `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6pbQ5li5Cg`- Short URL: `https://youtu.be/q6pbQ5li5Cg`- Shorts URL: `https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q6pbQ5li5Cg`- Bare video ID: `q6pbQ5li5Cg`### Step 2: Run the script```bashbash {baseDir}/scripts/genInfoNugget.sh <URL_or_VIDEO_ID>```To reprocess an existing SRT without re-downloading:```bashbash {baseDir}/scripts/genInfoNugget.sh --fix <URL_or_VIDEO_ID>```### Step 3: Verify outputThe script produces two files in the current directory:| File | Contents ||------|----------|| `*.InfoNug.DDMMMYY.HHMMSS.md` | Timestamped transcript with `####` chapter headings || `*.InfoNug.DDMMMYY.HHMMSS.md_chapters.md` | Prose-only version grouped by chapter (no timestamps) |After the script completes, read the first ~30 lines of the prose file (`_chapters.md`) to confirm no triplication. Each phrase should appear exactly once.### Step 4: Present resultsReport the two output filenames to the user. If the user wants a summary, read the prose file and summarize by chapter.## How the script works1. **Download**: Tries manual subs first (`--write-subs`), falls back to auto-generated (`--write-auto-subs`) only if needed2. **Deduplicate**: AWK pass removes ≤100ms transition blocks and strips rolling duplicate lines carried forward from previous blocks3. **Chapters**: Extracts chapter timestamps from `info.json` via `jq`, inserts `####` headings in a single AWK pass4. **Prose**: Strips all timestamps and joins text into flowing paragraphs grouped by chapter## Troubleshooting| Symptom | Cause | Fix ||---------|-------|-----|| "No SRT file found" | No subtitles in target language | Check video has captions enabled || Tripled text in output | Using old v1 script | Use this skill's script which includes deduplication || `--fix` fails with no SRT | Previous run cleaned up intermediate files | Run without `--fix` to re-download |**Why does tripling happen?** See [references/faqs.md](references/faqs.md) for a detailed explanation of YouTube's rolling VTT format and how the dedup works.

Frequently asked questions