youtube-transcript

SKILL.md

YouTube Transcript

Extract transcripts from YouTube videos using the youtube-transcript-api.

Usage

Run the script with a YouTube URL or video ID:

uv run scripts/get_transcript.py "VIDEO_URL_OR_ID"

With timestamps:

uv run scripts/get_transcript.py "VIDEO_URL_OR_ID" --timestamps

Defaults

Without timestamps (default): Plain text, one line per caption segment

With timestamps: [MM:SS] text format (or [HH:MM:SS] for longer videos)

Supported URL Formats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID

https://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID

Raw video ID (11 characters)

Output

CRITICAL: YOU MUST NEVER MODIFY THE RETURNED TRANSCRIPT

If the transcript is without timestamps, you SHOULD clean it up so that it is arranged by complete paragraphs and the lines don't cut in the middle of sentences.

If you were asked to save the transcript to a specific file, save it to the requested file.

If no output file was specified, use the YouTube video ID with a -transcript.txt suffix.

Notes

Fetches auto-generated or manually added captions (whichever is available)

Requires the video to have captions enabled

Falls back to auto-generated captions if manual ones aren't available