download-transcripts

name	download-transcripts
description	Download YouTube transcripts for videos tracked in a CSV file. Use when you need to download transcripts in bulk with progress tracking, fetching transcripts overnight, processing video libraries, or when the user mentions "get transcripts", "download captions", or "bulk transcript download".

Download Transcripts from CSV

Why? Manually downloading transcripts one-by-one is tedious and error-prone. This skill automates bulk transcript downloads with rate limiting, progress tracking, and resume capability.

Quick Start

# Standard usage (recommended)
ytscriber download --folder <channel-name> --delay 60

# Single video (adds to default collection and downloads)
ytscriber add "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --folder random

---

Workflow

1. Verify Prerequisites

Ensure you have a CSV file with video URLs:

• Created by extract-videos skill, OR
• Manually curated with url column

# Check CSV exists and has videos
head -5 ~/Documents/YTScriber/<channel-name>/videos.csv

[!TIP] If you don't have a CSV yet, run extract-videos first to build your video list from a YouTube channel.

2. Run Download Command

ytscriber download --folder <folder-name> --delay 60

Option	Description	Default	Notes
--folder	Folder name containing videos.csv	Required	Uses platformdirs data path
--delay	Seconds between requests	60	Minimum 30, recommended 60+
--verbose, -v	Enable verbose output	False	Shows download progress

[!CAUTION] NEVER set --delay below 30 seconds. YouTube will block your IP if you make requests too quickly. The default of 60 seconds exists for a reason. You WILL get banned and may wait hours before downloading again.

3. Validate Downloads

After the command completes:

# Check how many transcripts downloaded
ls -la ~/Documents/YTScriber/<folder-name>/transcripts/*.md | wc -l

# Verify CSV status updated
grep -c "success" ~/Documents/YTScriber/<folder-name>/videos.csv

The command automatically:

• Downloads transcripts as markdown with YAML frontmatter
• Updates CSV transcript_downloaded column with success/error/empty
• Skips already-downloaded videos on re-run

---

Output Format

Transcripts are saved as markdown with YAML frontmatter:

---
video_id: dQw4w9WgXcQ
video_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
title: Building Resilient Microservices at Scale
author: Jane Smith
published_date: 2025-03-15
length_minutes: 42.5
views: 15234
description: "Video description..."
is_generated: True
---

[Transcript text as continuous paragraph]

---

Examples

Overnight Batch Processing

# Large channel - run overnight with safe delay
ytscriber download --folder aws-reinvent-2025 --delay 90 --verbose

Conference Playlist

# Smaller collection - minimum safe delay
ytscriber download --folder pycon-2024 --delay 30

---

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Solution
"No transcript found"	Video lacks captions	Some videos have no captions available
IP blocked / 403 errors	Too many requests too quickly	Wait 30-60 minutes, then retry with --delay 120
Script interrupted mid-run	Network issue or Ctrl+C	Re-run the exact same command; it skips completed videos
Empty transcript files	Auto-captions unavailable or video is live	Check if video has captions on YouTube; skip if not
"Folder not found"	Wrong folder name	Verify folder with ls ~/Documents/YTScriber/
Slow downloads	Rate limiting working correctly	This is expected; 100 videos at 60s delay = ~2 hours

---

Common Mistakes

1. Reducing delay to "speed up" - Do not set delay below 30 seconds. You will get IP banned. Use overnight runs for large batches.

2. Running without checking CSV first - Always verify your CSV exists and has videos before running. Empty CSVs waste time.

3. Not using resume capability - If interrupted, don't start over. Re-run the same command to resume from where you left off.

---

Quality Checklist

Before running:

• CSV file exists and has url column
• Folder name is correct
• Delay is 30+ seconds (60+ recommended)
• Sufficient time allocated (1 min per video minimum)

After running:

• Transcript count matches expected videos
• CSV transcript_downloaded column updated
• Spot-check 2-3 transcripts for valid content
• No empty or malformed markdown files