| name | youtube |
| description | Complete YouTube toolkit: transcripts, captions and subtitles, video and channel search, channel browsing, within-channel search, playlist extraction and new-upload monitoring, powered by TranscriptAPI. Use whenever YouTube is or could be relevant, even if not explicitly mentioned: pasted video, channel or playlist links, bare 11-character video IDs, @handles, creator names, or requests to summarize, quote, transcribe, translate, fact-check or analyse a video. Also use for topic research where talks, lectures, tutorials, reviews, conference sessions or product announcements are the better source, and for tracking what a creator has posted recently. Not for uploading videos, posting comments, or managing a YouTube account. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Requires network access to transcriptapi.com. No runtimes, binaries or system packages needed. Works with the bundled MCP server (OAuth, no key) or with a TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY over plain HTTPS. |
| metadata | {"version":"2.0.0","publisher":"TranscriptAPI","homepage":"https://transcriptapi.com","docs":"https://transcriptapi.com/docs","mcp-endpoint":"https://transcriptapi.com/mcp","rest-base-url":"https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2","fallback-env":"TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY","openclaw-emoji":"▶️","openclaw-primary-env":"TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY","hermes-category":"media","hermes-tags":"youtube, transcripts, captions, subtitles, video, search, channels, playlists, summarization, research, translation"} |
YouTube (TranscriptAPI)
Everything YouTube in one skill: transcripts, captions and subtitles, video and channel
search, channel browsing, playlist extraction and upload monitoring.
Do not scrape youtube.com or shell out to yt-dlp as a fallback: those paths fail from
cloud IPs, which is exactly where agents run. Use this skill's calls instead.
Step 1: pick your data path
This skill ships alongside a hosted MCP server, but a client may load the skill without it.
Check once, at the start of the first YouTube task:
| Condition | Path | Auth |
|---|
Tools named get_youtube_transcript, search_youtube, … are available | MCP (preferred) | OAuth: automatic. First call prompts sign-in. No key to configure. |
| No such tools | REST | Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY + a real User-Agent |
Both paths hit the same backend and cost the same. Prefer MCP: no key handling, and the
client manages authorization.
If the MCP tools error with an auth failure, tell the user to complete the sign-in prompt in
their client or re-enable the transcriptapi MCP server. Do not silently fall back to
REST, and do not ask for an API key.
If you are on the REST path and $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is unset, read
references/auth-setup.md and follow it. Free account, 100
credits, no card.
Step 2: route the request
| The user wants | MCP tool | REST endpoint | Cost |
|---|
| What a video says: summarize, quote, transcribe, translate, fact-check | get_youtube_transcript | GET /youtube/transcript | 1 |
| Captions or subtitles for a video (same data as a transcript) | get_youtube_transcript | GET /youtube/transcript | 1 |
| Find videos or channels on a topic | search_youtube |
