youtube-transcript

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Extract transcripts from YouTube videos. Use when the user asks for a transcript, subtitles, or captions of a YouTube video and provides a YouTube URL (youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/, or similar). Supports output with or without timestamps.

⭐1stars🔀0forks📁View on GitHub🕐Updated Jan 5, 2026
[Summarization]

When & Why to Use This Skill

This Claude skill enables seamless extraction of transcripts, subtitles, and captions from YouTube videos. By converting video content into structured text with optional timestamps, it empowers users to quickly analyze, summarize, and repurpose video information, significantly enhancing research efficiency and content accessibility.

Use Cases

  • Content Summarization: Quickly extract the full text of long-form videos to generate concise summaries, saving time on manual watching.
  • Educational Note-taking: Convert academic lectures or tutorials into searchable text for creating study guides and structured notes.
  • Content Repurposing: Transform video scripts into blog posts, newsletters, or social media snippets to maximize content reach across platforms.
  • Research & Fact-Checking: Use timestamped transcripts to pinpoint specific quotes or data points within a video for accurate referencing and verification.
nameyoutube-transcript
descriptionExtract transcripts from YouTube videos. Use when the user asks for a transcript, subtitles, or captions of a YouTube video and provides a YouTube URL (youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/, or similar). Supports output with or without timestamps.

YouTube Transcript

Extract transcripts from YouTube videos using the youtube-transcript-api.

Usage

Run the script with a YouTube URL or video ID:

uv run scripts/get_transcript.py "VIDEO_URL_OR_ID"

With timestamps:

uv run scripts/get_transcript.py "VIDEO_URL_OR_ID" --timestamps

Defaults

  • Without timestamps (default): Plain text, one line per caption segment
  • With timestamps: [MM:SS] text format (or [HH:MM:SS] for longer videos)

Supported URL Formats

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
  • https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
  • https://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
  • Raw video ID (11 characters)

Output

  • CRITICAL: YOU MUST NEVER MODIFY THE RETURNED TRANSCRIPT
  • If the transcript is without timestamps, you SHOULD clean it up so that it is arranged by complete paragraphs and the lines don't cut in the middle of sentences.
  • If you were asked to save the transcript to a specific file, save it to the requested file.
  • If no output file was specified, use the YouTube video ID with a -transcript.txt suffix.

Notes

  • Fetches auto-generated or manually added captions (whichever is available)
  • Requires the video to have captions enabled
  • Falls back to auto-generated captions if manual ones aren't available