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mthinesmthines/agent-skills/skills/analysis/youtube-transcript/SKILL.md

youtube-transcript

Skill20 starsChanged 13 days agoMITView on GitHub

Fetches a YouTube video's transcript as plain text (optional [mm:ss] timestamps) with a stdlib-only Python script that works from cloud IPs where yt-dlp and youtube-transcript-api are blocked. Use before summarising or quoting a video; triggers on a youtube.com / youtu.be link plus "transcript", "summarise this video", or "/youtube-transcript".

  • Installs packages

59 other projects use a version of this.

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Used with

Projects with it also use research-prompt, ship-learn-next and 9 more.

Other files people use alongside this one.

Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
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    Also in 3 projects that use this

  • michalparkolaSkill

    ship-learn-next

    Transform learning content (like YouTube transcripts, articles, tutorials) into actionable implementation plans using the Ship-Learn-Next framework. Use when user wants to turn advice, lessons, or educational content into concrete action steps, reps, or a learning quest.

    Also in 4 projects that use this

  • huskerjeffSkill

    youtube-search

    Search YouTube and extract video metadata and captions using yt-dlp. Use when the user wants to search YouTube, find video transcripts, research topics via YouTube, or feed video content into other tools like NotebookLM.

    Also in 4 projects that use this

  • michalparkolaSkill

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  • ArogyaReddySkill

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The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

4 rules. 0 are common, 3 are distinctive, and 1 is very specific to this project.

  • 0

    Common

    Most of the 50 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 3

    Distinctive

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 1

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Distinctive:

    Run the script with the URL or the 11-character video id:

    line 26
  2. Very specific:

    Read transcript.txt from disk.

    line 36
  3. Distinctive:

    Never paste a long transcript back to the user verbatim: summarise or quote short passages.

    line 37
  4. Distinctive:

    If it still fails, tell the user the transcript is unobtainable from this IP.

    line 60

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 50 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

YouTube Transcript

Gets a YouTube video's captions as text in one command. Why the script takes this route, and what fails instead: references/why-innertube.md.

Procedure

  1. Run the script with the URL or the 11-character video id:

    python3 -I <skill_dir>/scripts/yt_transcript.py "<url-or-id>" > transcript.txt
    • --lang <code> picks the caption language (default en). It prefers a human-made track and falls back to an auto-generated (asr) one, then to any track.
    • --timestamps emits one [mm:ss] text line per caption instead of one paragraph.
    • stderr carries # <title> [<lang>, <manual|asr>]; stdout carries only the transcript.
  2. Read transcript.txt from disk. Never paste a long transcript back to the user verbatim: summarise or quote short passages.
  3. Tell the user when the track is asr: auto-captions mishear names and jargon, so quote them with that caveat.
# ✓ Right — one call, output to a file
python3 -I scripts/yt_transcript.py "https://youtu.be/J9NQTYUP6k0" --timestamps > transcript.txt

# ✗ Wrong — these are bot-blocked from cloud IPs; do not try them first
pip install youtube-transcript-api && youtube_transcript_api J9NQTYUP6k0
yt-dlp --write-auto-subs --skip-download "https://youtu.be/J9NQTYUP6k0"

When it fails

Exit message containsDo this
LOGIN_REQUIRED / not a bot on both clientsBump clientVersion and the matching User-Agent for ANDROID and IOS in CLIENTS to the current app versions, then retry once
HTTP 429Wait a minute and retry once; the IP is rate-limited
any other HTTP <code> or network errorRetry once; if it repeats, the host is unreachable from this session — report it verbatim
unreadable caption track or unexpected responseRetry once; if it repeats, YouTube is serving a block page to this IP — treat it as unobtainable (below). The video may still have captions, so never say it has none
UNPLAYABLE / ERROR with a reasonThe video is private, removed, or age/region-restricted; report the reason to the user
no captionsThe video has no caption tracks; say so — do not invent content

If it still fails, tell the user the transcript is unobtainable from this IP. Offer three ways forward: run the script on a residential IP (a local machine), set a proxy, or paste the transcript from YouTube's "Show transcript" panel. The video title is always available without a block from https://www.youtube.com/oembed?url=<url>&format=json.

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