name	youtube-transcript
description	Extract transcripts from YouTube videos. Use when the user asks for a transcript, subtitles, or captions and provides a YouTube URL or 11-character video ID. Supports plain text, timestamped output, language selection, and writing directly to a file.

YouTube Transcript

Fetch auto-generated or manually-uploaded captions from a YouTube video via the youtube-transcript-api library (run via uv run --script).

Usage

# Plain transcript to stdout
scripts/get_transcript.py "<URL_OR_VIDEO_ID>"

# With timestamps
scripts/get_transcript.py "<URL_OR_VIDEO_ID>" --timestamps

# Specific language (falls back to default if unavailable)
scripts/get_transcript.py "<URL_OR_VIDEO_ID>" --lang en

# Write directly to a file
scripts/get_transcript.py "<URL_OR_VIDEO_ID>" -o transcript.txt

If the user doesn't specify a filename, either print to stdout or save as <VIDEO_ID>-transcript.txt using -o.

Supported URL Formats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
https://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
https://youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
Raw 11-character video ID

Output Format

Plain (default): one line per caption segment.
Timestamped (--timestamps): [MM:SS] text (or [HH:MM:SS] for long videos).

Handling the Transcript

Never modify the returned transcript content. Do not paraphrase, summarize, or correct. The raw transcript is the source of truth.
For plain output, you MAY reflow lines into paragraphs so sentences aren't cut mid-clause. This is cosmetic only — do not change words.
For timestamped output, preserve the one-segment-per-line structure; do not reflow.

When Captions Aren't Available

The script errors out when a video has no captions at all. Pass that error back to the user — do not fabricate a transcript.

Prerequisites

uv — installs the Python dependencies in an ephemeral venv at invocation time. Install with curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh or pip install uv.
Network access to youtube.com (the script calls the public timedtext endpoint directly).

YouTube Transcript

Fetch auto-generated or manually-uploaded captions from a YouTube video via the youtube-transcript-api library (run via uv run --script).

Usage

# Plain transcript to stdout scripts/get_transcript.py "<URL_OR_VIDEO_ID>" # With timestamps scripts/get_transcript.py "<URL_OR_VIDEO_ID>" --timestamps # Specific language (falls back to default if unavailable) scripts/get_transcript.py "<URL_OR_VIDEO_ID>" --lang en # Write directly to a file scripts/get_transcript.py "<URL_OR_VIDEO_ID>" -o transcript.txt

If the user doesn't specify a filename, either print to stdout or save as <VIDEO_ID>-transcript.txt using -o.

Supported URL Formats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID

https://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID

https://youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID

Raw 11-character video ID

Output Format

Plain (default): one line per caption segment.

Timestamped (--timestamps): [MM:SS] text (or [HH:MM:SS] for long videos).

Handling the Transcript

Never modify the returned transcript content. Do not paraphrase, summarize, or correct. The raw transcript is the source of truth.

For plain output, you MAY reflow lines into paragraphs so sentences aren't cut mid-clause. This is cosmetic only — do not change words.

For timestamped output, preserve the one-segment-per-line structure; do not reflow.

When Captions Aren't Available

The script errors out when a video has no captions at all. Pass that error back to the user — do not fabricate a transcript.

Prerequisites

uv — installs the Python dependencies in an ephemeral venv at invocation time. Install with curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh or pip install uv.

Network access to youtube.com (the script calls the public timedtext endpoint directly).

youtube-transcript