youtube-clip-crop

name	youtube-clip-crop
description	Downloads YouTube audio and crops one or more timestamp ranges to m4a files only — no transcription, normalisation, or articles. Use when the user gives a YouTube URL with start/end times, asks to crop clips, extract audio segments, or says they only want cropped audio.

YouTube clip crop (audio only)

Run every step on the user's Mac. Do not stop at instructions.

Scope: download + crop + deliver m4a files. Do not transcribe, extract text, normalise volume, merge clips, or create articles unless the user explicitly asks.

For the full pipeline (normalise → transcribe → pack), use youtube-clip-transcribe.

Prerequisites

Tool	Check
ffmpeg / ffprobe	ffmpeg -version
yt-dlp	conda python3 -m yt_dlp (homebrew yt-dlp often returns 403)
Output dir	~/praisonai-audio-editor

Parse user input

1. YouTube URL → extract {VIDEO_ID} from watch?v= or youtu.be/
2. One or more ranges — each START → END pair (accept M:SS, H:MM:SS, 1:8:53 = 1:08:53)
3. -to is absolute on the full video timeline (not relative duration)
4. "till the end" — -ss START only (omit -to)
5. Multiple URLs — repeat download + crop per video

Paths and naming

Artifact	Path
Full download	~/Downloads/{VIDEO_ID}_full.m4a
Cropped clip	~/praisonai-audio-editor/{VIDEO_ID}_clip{N}_{START}-{END}.m4a

Compact timestamp in filename — strip colons, zero-pad minutes/seconds to 2 digits:

• 0:50 → 0050, 25:50 → 2550 → 0050-2550
• 1:08:53 → 6853, 11:43 → 1143
• Clip index {N}: 1, 2, 3… per video, in user order

Example: f0cDrN8ZwVc_clip1_0050-2550.m4a

Checklist

- [ ] Skip download if ~/Downloads/{VIDEO_ID}_full.m4a exists
- [ ] Download (conda yt-dlp) if missing
- [ ] Crop each range (ffmpeg stream copy)
- [ ] ffprobe duration check per clip
- [ ] Reply with reference table

Step 1 — Download

Skip if ~/Downloads/{VIDEO_ID}_full.m4a already exists.

zsh -c "source $(conda info --base)/etc/profile.d/conda.sh && conda activate test && \
  python3 -m yt_dlp -f 'ba/b' --no-playlist --concurrent-fragments 8 --no-part \
  -x --audio-format m4a \
  -o '/Users/praison/Downloads/{VIDEO_ID}_full.%(ext)s' 'URL'"

403 → pip install -U yt-dlp + --extractor-args 'youtube:player_client=android,web'.
No --print on download — it can skip writing the file.

Step 2 — Crop

One ffmpeg call per range:

FULL="$HOME/Downloads/{VIDEO_ID}_full.m4a"
OUT="$HOME/praisonai-audio-editor"

ffmpeg -y -nostdin -i "$FULL" -ss START -to END -map 0:a:0 -c copy \
  "$OUT/{VIDEO_ID}_clip{N}_{START}-{END}.m4a"

End of video: omit -to.

Step 3 — Verify

ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 CLIP.m4a

Expected duration ≈ END − START. Report H:MM:SS in the reference table.

Step 4 — Reference table (always)

End every run with this table for all clips produced:

File name	URL	From	To	Duration
{VIDEO_ID}_clip1_….m4a	full YouTube URL	start	end	H:MM:SS

Include full paths in a follow-up line or separate column if helpful: ~/praisonai-audio-editor/…

Do not use

• Homebrew yt-dlp alone (403)
• --download-sections on long clips
• Transcription / praisonai_editor transcribe (unless user asks)
• Volume normalisation (unless user asks)
• Merging clips (unless user asks)

Optional follow-ups (only if requested)

Request	Action
Merge clips	ffmpeg concat → single m4a
Normalise volume	python3 -m praisonai_editor normalize or youtube-clip-transcribe
Transcribe	youtube-clip-transcribe or sermon-transcribe

Examples

See examples.md.