Youtube Clip Crop

YouTube clip crop (audio only)

Run every step on the user's Mac. Do not stop at instructions.

Scope: download + crop + deliver m4a files. Do not transcribe, extract text, normalise volume, merge clips, or create articles unless the user explicitly asks.

For the full pipeline (normalise → transcribe → pack), use youtube-clip-transcribe.

Prerequisites

Parse user input

1. YouTube URL → extract {VIDEO_ID} from watch?v= or youtu.be/
2. One or more ranges — each START → END pair (accept M:SS, H:MM:SS, 1:8:53 = 1:08:53)
3. -to is absolute on the full video timeline (not relative duration)
4. "till the end" — -ss START only (omit -to)
5. Multiple URLs — repeat download + crop per video

Paths and naming

Compact timestamp in filename — strip colons, zero-pad minutes/seconds to 2 digits:

• 0:50 → 0050, 25:50 → 2550 → 0050-2550
• 1:08:53 → 6853, 11:43 → 1143
• Clip index {N}: 1, 2, 3… per video, in user order

Example: f0cDrN8ZwVc_clip1_0050-2550.m4a

Checklist

- [ ] Skip download if ~/Downloads/{VIDEO_ID}_full.m4a exists
- [ ] Download (conda yt-dlp) if missing
- [ ] Crop each range (ffmpeg stream copy)
- [ ] ffprobe duration check per clip
- [ ] Reply with reference table

Step 1 — Download

Skip if ~/Downloads/{VIDEO_ID}_full.m4a already exists.

zsh -c "source $(conda info --base)/etc/profile.d/conda.sh && conda activate test && \
  python3 -m yt_dlp -f 'ba/b' --no-playlist --concurrent-fragments 8 --no-part \
  -x --audio-format m4a \
  -o '/Users/praison/Downloads/{VIDEO_ID}_full.%(ext)s' 'URL'"

403 → pip install -U yt-dlp + --extractor-args 'youtube:player_client=android,web'.
No --print on download — it can skip writing the file.

Step 2 — Crop

One ffmpeg call per range:

FULL="$HOME/Downloads/{VIDEO_ID}_full.m4a"
OUT="$HOME/praisonai-audio-editor"

ffmpeg -y -nostdin -i "$FULL" -ss START -to END -map 0:a:0 -c copy \
  "$OUT/{VIDEO_ID}_clip{N}_{START}-{END}.m4a"

End of video: omit -to.

Step 3 — Verify

ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 CLIP.m4a

Expected duration ≈ END − START. Report H:MM:SS in the reference table.

Step 4 — Reference table (always)

End every run with this table for all clips produced:

Include full paths in a follow-up line or separate column if helpful: ~/praisonai-audio-editor/…

Do not use

• Homebrew yt-dlp alone (403)
• --download-sections on long clips
• Transcription / praisonai_editor transcribe (unless user asks)
• Volume normalisation (unless user asks)
• Merging clips (unless user asks)

Optional follow-ups (only if requested)

Examples

See examples.md.