youtube

name	youtube
description	Get YouTube video information, metadata, and transcripts/subtitles. Use when: user asks about a YouTube video, wants a video summary, needs a transcript, or asks to extract info from a YouTube URL. NOT for: downloading videos, live streams, or private/unlisted videos.
dependencies	yt-dlp, youtube-transcript-api
metadata	{"emoji":"▶️"}

YouTube Skill

Extract information and transcripts from YouTube videos via yt-dlp and youtube-transcript-api.

When to Use

✅ USE this skill when:

• "What's this video about? https://youtube.com/watch?v=xyz"
• "Get the transcript of this video"
• "Search YouTube for Python tutorials"
• "Video title, duration, and description"
• User provides a YouTube URL and wants metadata or transcript

When NOT to Use

❌ DON'T use this skill when:

• Downloading videos or audio → use yt-dlp directly with download opts
• Live streams → transcript availability may be limited
• Private or unlisted videos → access may be restricted

Usage/Commands

python {skill_path}/youtube_info.py URL [command] [options]

Commands:

• info (default) — video title, duration, views, description
• transcript — full transcript/subtitles
• search — search YouTube for videos (uses URL arg as search query)

Options:

• --lang en — transcript language (default: en)
• --format json — output as JSON
• --max 5 — max results for search (default: 5)

Examples

• "What's this video about? https://youtube.com/watch?v=xyz" → python {skill_path}/youtube_info.py <URL> info
• "Get the transcript of this video" → python {skill_path}/youtube_info.py <URL> transcript
• "Search YouTube for Python tutorials" → python {skill_path}/youtube_info.py "Python tutorials" search

Notes

• Install dependencies: pip install yt-dlp youtube-transcript-api
• Transcript availability depends on whether the video has captions