video-transcript-downloader

steipete's avatarfrom steipete

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.

⭐648stars🔀53forks📁View on GitHub🕐Updated Jan 1, 2026
[Web Automation]

When & Why to Use This Skill

The Video Transcript Downloader is a powerful Claude skill designed to bridge the gap between web-based video content and actionable text or media files. By leveraging the industry-standard yt-dlp and specialized transcript engines, it enables users to seamlessly download videos, extract high-quality audio, and generate clean, paragraph-style transcripts from YouTube and thousands of other supported platforms. This tool is optimized for efficiency, offering features like format selection, subtitle extraction, and automated troubleshooting for media processing workflows.

Use Cases

  • Content Repurposing: Extract clean, timestamp-free transcripts from videos to quickly transform webinars or interviews into blog posts, newsletters, or social media content.
  • Research and Analysis: Download educational lectures or market research videos and generate text versions for deep analysis, keyword searching, and easy citation.
  • Offline Media Management: Save high-quality video or audio files locally for offline viewing, archiving, or use in professional editing software.
  • Accessibility and Translation: Retrieve subtitles and transcripts to facilitate the creation of multi-language captions or to provide text-based alternatives for hearing-impaired audiences.
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 ~/Projects/agent-scripts/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