summarize

Summarize or transcribe URLs, YouTube/videos, podcasts, articles, transcripts, PDFs, and local files.

Fast CLI to summarize URLs, local files, and YouTube links.

When to use (trigger phrases)

Use this skill immediately when the user asks any of:

• "use summarize.sh"
• "what's this link/video about?"
• "summarize this URL/article"
• "transcribe this YouTube/video" (best-effort transcript extraction; no yt-dlp needed)

Quick start

bash

summarize "https://example.com"
summarize "/path/to/file.pdf"
summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto

YouTube: summary vs transcript

Best-effort transcript (URLs only):

bash

summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto --extract

If the user asked for a transcript but it's huge, return a tight summary first, then ask which section/time range to expand.

Model + keys

Set the API key for your chosen provider:

• OpenAI: OPENAI_API_KEY
• Anthropic: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
• xAI: XAI_API_KEY
• Google: GEMINI_API_KEY (aliases: GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY, GOOGLE_API_KEY)

Default model is auto; config may choose the provider/model.

Useful flags

• --length short|medium|long|xl|xxl|<chars>
• --max-output-tokens <count>
• --extract (print extracted content, no LLM summary)
• --json (machine readable)
• --firecrawl auto|off|always (fallback extraction)
• --youtube auto (Apify fallback if APIFY_API_TOKEN set)

Config

Optional config file: ~/.summarize/config.json

json

{ "model": "openai/gpt-5.2" }

Optional services:

• FIRECRAWL_API_KEY for blocked sites
• APIFY_API_TOKEN for YouTube fallback