video-transcript-downloader

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Download videos, audio, subtitles, and clean paragraph-style transcripts from YouTube and any other yt-dlp supported site. Use when asked to “download this video”, “save this clip”, “rip audio”, “get subtitles”, “get transcript”, or to troubleshoot yt-dlp/ffmpeg and formats/playlists.

⭐0stars🔀0forks📁View on GitHub🕐Updated Jan 9, 2026⬇️1downloads
[Web Automation]

When & Why to Use This Skill

The Video Transcript Downloader is a high-performance Claude skill designed to automate the extraction of media and text from YouTube and thousands of other websites. By leveraging powerful tools like yt-dlp and ffmpeg, it allows users to seamlessly download high-quality video, audio, and subtitles, while specializing in generating clean, paragraph-style transcripts optimized for reading and AI processing.

Use Cases

  • Content Repurposing: Quickly convert long-form YouTube videos into clean text transcripts to create blog posts, newsletters, or social media content without manual typing.
  • Research and Analysis: Download educational videos, interviews, or webinars for offline study and use the extracted text for deep-dive research and data mining.
  • Media Extraction: Save high-quality audio tracks from video platforms for podcasts or offline listening, and manage specific video formats/resolutions for professional editing.
  • Accessibility and Localization: Fetch and clean subtitles in various languages to improve content accessibility or to provide a base for translation projects.
  • Technical Media Troubleshooting: Use built-in support for yt-dlp and ffmpeg to diagnose format issues, list available streams, and handle complex playlist downloads.
namevideo-transcript-downloader
descriptionDownload videos, audio, subtitles, and clean paragraph-style transcripts from YouTube and any other yt-dlp supported site. Use when asked to “download this video”, “save this clip”, “rip audio”, “get subtitles”, “get transcript”, or to troubleshoot yt-dlp/ffmpeg and formats/playlists.

Video Transcript Downloader

./scripts/vtd.js can:

  • Print a transcript as a clean paragraph (timestamps optional).
  • Download video/audio/subtitles.

Transcript behavior:

  • YouTube: fetch via youtube-transcript-plus when possible.
  • Otherwise: pull subtitles via yt-dlp, then clean into a paragraph.

Setup

cd ~/git/agents/skills/video-transcript-downloader && npm ci

Transcript (default: clean paragraph)

./scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…'
./scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' --lang en
./scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' --timestamps
./scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' --keep-brackets

Download video / audio / subtitles

./scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads
./scripts/vtd.js audio --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads
./scripts/vtd.js subs --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads --lang en

Formats (list + choose)

List available formats (format ids, resolution, container, audio-only, etc):

./scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://…'

Download a specific format id (example):

./scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads -- --format 137+140

Prefer MP4 container without re-encoding (remux when possible):

./scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads -- --remux-video mp4

Notes

  • Default transcript output is a single paragraph. Use --timestamps only when asked.
  • Bracketed cues like [Music] are stripped by default; keep them via --keep-brackets.
  • Pass extra yt-dlp args after -- for transcript fallback, download, audio, subs, formats.
./scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://…' -- -v

Troubleshooting (only when needed)

  • Missing yt-dlp / ffmpeg:
brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg
  • Verify:
yt-dlp --version
ffmpeg -version | head -n 1