youtube-transcript-english

# YouTube Transcript English Use this skill when a YouTube transcript must come back in English. ## Source - Upstream repository: `https://github.com/jdepoix/youtube-transcript-api` - Integrated source commit: `85c859450c014d860297ab9fd4f88145c47ff2e2` - Local checkout: `%USERPROFILE%\.youtube-transcript-api\youtube-transcript-api` - Isolated venv CLI: `%USERPROFILE%\.youtube-transcript-api\venv\Scripts\youtube_transcript_api.exe` - English-enforcing shim: `%USERPROFILE%\.youtube-transcript-api\bin\youtube-transcript-english.cmd` ## README-Grounded Usage The upstream README states that `YouTubeTranscriptApi().fetch(video_id)` defaults to English, accepts `languages=['en']`, supports `TranscriptList`, and can translate transcripts with `transcript.translate('en')` when translation is available. Use the bundled English wrapper first: ```powershell & "$env:USERPROFILE\.youtube-transcript-api\venv\Scripts\python.exe" scripts\fetch_english_transcript.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" & "$env:USERPROFILE\.youtube-transcript-api\venv\Scripts\python.exe" scripts\fetch_english_transcript.py VIDEO_ID --format json --output transcript.json & "$env:USERPROFILE\.youtube-transcript-api\venv\Scripts\python.exe" scripts\fetch_english_transcript.py VIDEO_ID --format srt --output transcript.srt & "$env:USERPROFILE\.youtube-transcript-api\venv\Scripts\python.exe" scripts\fetch_english_transcript.py VIDEO_ID --ai-model gpt-4o-mini ``` Equivalent direct command: ```powershell & "$env:USERPROFILE\.youtube-transcript-api\bin\youtube-transcript-english.cmd" VIDEO_ID --format text ``` Use the upstream CLI when exact upstream behavior is needed: ```powershell & "$env:USERPROFILE\.youtube-transcript-api\venv\Scripts\youtube_transcript_api.exe" VIDEO_ID --languages en --format json & "$env:USERPROFILE\.youtube-transcript-api\venv\Scripts\youtube_transcript_api.exe" --list-transcripts VIDEO_ID ``` ## English Output Policy 1. Request direct English captions first. 2. If direct English is unavailable, inspect available transcripts. 3. If a transcript is translatable to English, translate it to English. 4. If YouTube cannot provide English, fetch the best available source transcript and translate caption segments to English with an OpenAI-compatible model. 5. If no transcript exists or AI translation is required but `OPENAI_API_KEY` is not set, fail clearly instead of returning a non-English transcript. Add `--no-translate` to require direct English captions only. Add `--no-ai-translate` to allow YouTube translation but disable AI translation fallback. AI translation settings: - `OPENAI_API_KEY` is required only when AI translation fallback is needed. - `OPENAI_TRANSLATION_MODEL` or `AI_TRANSLATION_MODEL` can override the default model. - `OPENAI_BASE_URL` can point at an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. - `--ai-chunk-size` controls how many caption segments are translated per request. ## References - `references/source-readme.md` contains the full upstream README. - `references/requirements-lock.txt` documents installed dependencies. - `references/source-metadata.json` records the integrated commit and local paths. ## Reliability Notes - YouTube can block requests from some IPs. The upstream README documents `RequestBlocked` and `IpBlocked` behavior and proxy options. - The library uses an undocumented YouTube web-client API, so live behavior can change. - For bulk or repeated fetching, respect rate limits and avoid unnecessary retries.