name

youtube-fetcher

description

Fetch transcripts from YouTube videos and save as structured Markdown files to ~/yt_transcripts/. Use this skill whenever the user shares a YouTube URL or video ID and wants the transcript, captions, or subtitles extracted. Also triggers when the user wants to take notes on a YouTube video, summarize video content, analyze what was said in a video, or reference YouTube content in their notes — even if they don't explicitly say "transcript." If the user pastes a YouTube link with no other context, default to fetching the transcript.

YouTube Fetcher

Overview

Fetches transcripts from YouTube videos and saves them as structured Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. Uses two tools:

yt-dlp — video metadata (title, channel, description, duration, chapters)
youtube-transcript-api — transcript/captions extraction

Each file includes full video metadata, the video description (with links and chapters), and the transcript. Files are saved to ~/yt_transcripts/ with the naming convention YYYY-MM-DD_video-title-slug_[VIDEO_ID].md.

When to Use This Skill

User shares a YouTube URL (any format) or video ID
User wants a transcript, captions, subtitles, or "the text" from a video
Note-taking or summarization workflows involving YouTube content
User pastes a YouTube link — even without explicit instructions, default to fetching

How Claude Should Use This Skill

The script path is: ~/.config/skillshare/skills/youtube-fetcher/scripts/fetch_transcript.py

Always use --force when running from Claude — the duplicate check uses an interactive prompt that doesn't work in non-interactive contexts. If you need to check for duplicates first, look for matching files in ~/yt_transcripts/ yourself.

Typical workflow:

Run the script with --force to fetch the transcript
Tell the user where the file was saved
If the user wants a summary or analysis, read the saved file and process it

Example invocation:

python3 ~/.config/skillshare/skills/youtube-fetcher/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --force

If the user wants the transcript in the conversation (not just saved to a file), add --stdout:

python3 ~/.config/skillshare/skills/youtube-fetcher/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --force --stdout

If deps are missing, the script exits with code 2 and prints install instructions. Run the pip/brew commands it suggests.

Prerequisites

The script checks dependencies automatically on each run and will guide you through installation if anything is missing. You can also run a manual check:

python3 ~/.config/skillshare/skills/youtube-fetcher/scripts/fetch_transcript.py --check-deps

Required:

pip install youtube-transcript-api requests

Recommended (for video description, chapters, duration):

brew install yt-dlp  # or: pip install yt-dlp

Usage

Default (saves structured Markdown to ~/yt_transcripts/)

python3 ~/.config/skillshare/skills/youtube-fetcher/scripts/fetch_transcript.py <youtube_url_or_id>

This creates a file like ~/yt_transcripts/2026-03-04_video-title-here_[dQw4w9WgXcQ].md.

Duplicate Detection

If a video was already transcribed, the script will:

Interactive terminal: prompt Re-transcribe anyway? [y/N]:
Non-interactive (Claude, pipes, scripts): auto-skip and suggest --force

Use --force to always re-fetch regardless of duplicates.

Options

# With timestamps in transcript body
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --timestamps

# Specific language
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --lang es

# Override source project name
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --source "my-project"

# Custom output path
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --output ~/notes/my-transcript.md

# Skip video description (transcript only)
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --no-description

# Force re-fetch (skip duplicate check)
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --force

# Print to stdout instead of saving
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --stdout

# JSON or SRT format (raw, no Markdown wrapping)
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --format json
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --format srt

# List available transcripts for a video
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py <url> --list

# Check dependencies
python3 .../fetch_transcript.py --check-deps

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Runtime error (fetch failed, invalid URL)
2	Missing required dependencies
3	Duplicate skipped (user declined re-fetch or non-interactive)

Output Structure

File Location

~/yt_transcripts/YYYY-MM-DD_video-title-slugified_[VIDEO_ID].md

File Content

---
title: "Video Title"
channel: "Channel Name"
url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"
video_id: "VIDEO_ID"
fetched: "2026-03-04"
source_project: "JARVIS-Obsidian-Setup"
language: "en"
caption_type: "manual"
duration: "36m 26s"
upload_date: "2024-01-15"
tags:
  - yt-transcript
---

# Video Title

## Video Details

| Field    | Value |
|----------|-------|
| URL      | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID |
| Channel  | Channel Name |
| Duration | 36m 26s |
| Uploaded | 2024-01-15 |
| Fetched  | 2026-03-04 |
| Source   | JARVIS-Obsidian-Setup |
| Language | en (manual) |

## Video Description

The video description text with links, summaries, etc.

### Chapters

- `00:00` Intro
- `02:23` My Testimony
- ...

## Transcript

The full transcript text here...

Accepted URL Formats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
https://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
Just the video ID directly

Limitations

Only works on videos that have captions (manual or auto-generated)
Cannot transcribe videos without any captions — use Whisper for that
Some videos have captions disabled by the uploader