get-youtube-transcript

name	get-youtube-transcript
description	Extract the transcript from a YouTube video by URL or video ID. Use when the user shares a YouTube link and wants the transcript, captions, or text content of the video. Falls back automatically if the requested language isn't available.
allowed-tools	["Bash"]
user-invocable	true
argument-hint	<youtube-url-or-video-id>

Get YouTube Transcript

Extract a full transcript from any YouTube video using the local youtube-transcript-api (no rate limits, no API key required).

State Dependencies

Source	Location	Read	Write
Script	scripts/utilities/yt-transcript.sh	✓	-
Venv	scripts/utilities/yt_transcript_venv/	✓	-
YouTube	External (via youtube-transcript-api)	✓	-

Process

Step 1: Extract the transcript

Run the wrapper script with the URL or video ID the user provided:

$PROJECT_ROOT/scripts/utilities/yt-transcript.sh "<url-or-id>"

Options:

• -l <lang> — language code (default: en). If user specifies a language, pass it.
• -f text — plain text output (default, best for reading)
• -f json — structured output with timestamps (use when user needs timestamps)

Step 2: Handle errors

If the script fails:

1. Language not found — retry without -l flag (auto-selects any available language)
2. Video unavailable — inform user the video may be private, deleted, or region-restricted
3. No transcript available — inform user the video has no captions

Step 3: Present the transcript

Return the full transcript text to the user. If it's long (>500 lines), summarize what the video covers first, then provide the full text.

Example

User: "get me the transcript of https://youtu.be/abc123"

$PROJECT_ROOT/scripts/utilities/yt-transcript.sh "https://youtu.be/abc123"

Notes

• Uses youtube-transcript-api Python package — works locally with no quota
• Falls back to any available language if English isn't found
• The MCP youtube-transcript tool hits rate limits; always prefer this script