| name | youtube-transcript |
| description | Extract transcripts from YouTube videos, local audio/video files, and summarize transcript files. Use when the user asks to download, fetch, extract, transcribe, caption, or summarize a YouTube video, a YouTube URL, a video ID, a local media file such as .mp4/.mov/.mp3/.m4a/.wav, or an existing transcript/text file. Supports captions-only, chunked local media transcription through OpenAI, YouTube audio fallback through OpenAI, and summaries through OpenAI or opt-in Ollama. |
YouTube Transcript
Use the bundled script for deterministic transcript work instead of recreating the workflow.
Quick Start
Run from the skill directory or call the script by absolute path:
python scripts\yt_transcribe.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"
Default behavior for YouTube input:
- Try YouTube captions first with
youtube-transcript-api.
- If captions fail, download audio with
yt-dlp and transcribe with OpenAI.
- Write
.transcript.md and .metadata.json into ~/Documents/YouTube Transcripts.
- Do not summarize unless
--summary is supplied.
- Use
--output-dir "path\to\folder" when the user asks for a specific output folder. Prefer a user data folder, not a git repo checkout.
For local audio/video files, pass the file path directly. The script extracts audio with ffmpeg, using bundled imageio-ffmpeg if no system ffmpeg is installed, chunks it, and transcribes each chunk with OpenAI.
Common Tasks
Captions only, no audio fallback:
python scripts\yt_transcribe.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --captions-only
Custom output folder:
python scripts\yt_transcribe.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --output-dir "C:\Users\me\Documents\Transcripts"
Transcript plus OpenAI summary:
python scripts\yt_transcribe.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --summary
Summarize an existing transcript/text file:
python scripts\yt_transcribe.py --file "path\to\transcript.md" --summary
Force audio transcription:
python scripts\yt_transcribe.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --audio-only
Transcribe a local video or audio file:
python scripts\yt_transcribe.py "C:\Users\me\Downloads\talk.mp4"
API Keys
Prefer a .env file in the current working directory:
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
The script also accepts OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_KEY, OPENAI_API_TOKEN, or --openai-api-key. Avoid putting keys in shell history unless the user explicitly chooses that.
Notes
- Use
--captions-only for long videos when the user wants the fast/simple path.
- OpenAI is the default summarizer. Use
--summarizer ollama only when the user explicitly wants local Ollama.
- The script self-installs missing Python packages with
pip install --upgrade: youtube-transcript-api, yt-dlp, openai, requests, and imageio-ffmpeg.
- For large transcripts, OpenAI summaries are chunked automatically.
