YouTube Transcript (yt-dlp captions)

Extract YouTube video transcripts from existing captions (manual or auto-generated) using yt-dlp, with optional timestamps and local SQLite caching. Use when the user asks for a YouTube transcript, captions, subtitles, or wants to turn a YouTube link into text for summarization/search.

YouTube Transcript (Captions-Only)

This skill extracts transcripts from existing YouTube captions.

Primary behavior

• Prefer manual subtitles when available.
• Fall back to auto-generated captions.
• Output either:
  • JSON segments (default) or
  • plain text (--text)
• Cache results locally in SQLite for speed.

Reliability behavior

• If YouTube blocks anonymous access (bot-check), provide cookies.txt.
• If yt-dlp reports no captions for a video, the script tries a fallback:
  1. YouTube’s transcript panel (youtubei get_transcript) when accessible

This published version intentionally does not call third-party transcript providers.

Privacy note: This published version only contacts YouTube directly (via yt-dlp and the transcript panel fallback). It does not send video IDs/URLs to third-party transcript providers.

Cookies: Cookies are treated as secrets.

• The script supports --cookies / YT_TRANSCRIPT_COOKIES, but does not auto-load cookies from inside the skill directory.
• Store cookies under ~/.config/yt-transcript/.

Path safety: This skill restricts --cookies and --cache paths to approved directories.

• cookies allowed under: ~/.config/yt-transcript/
• cache allowed under: {baseDir}/cache/ and ~/.config/yt-transcript/

How to run

Script path:

• {baseDir}/scripts/yt_transcript.py

Typical usage:

• python3 {baseDir}/scripts/yt_transcript.py <youtube_url_or_id>
• python3 {baseDir}/scripts/yt_transcript.py <url> --lang en
• python3 {baseDir}/scripts/yt_transcript.py <url> --text
• python3 {baseDir}/scripts/yt_transcript.py <url> --no-ts

Cookies (optional, but often required on VPS IPs):

• python3 {baseDir}/scripts/yt_transcript.py <url> --cookies /path/to/youtube-cookies.txt
• or set env var: YT_TRANSCRIPT_COOKIES=/path/to/youtube-cookies.txt

Publishing safety note: Cookies are optional, so YT_TRANSCRIPT_COOKIES is intentionally not required by skill metadata. Only set it if you need authenticated access.

Best practice: store cookies outside the skill folder (so you never accidentally publish them), e.g. ~/.config/yt-transcript/youtube-cookies.txt, and point to it via --cookies or YT_TRANSCRIPT_COOKIES.

What the script returns

JSON mode (default)

A JSON object:

• video_id: 11-char id
• lang: chosen language
• source: manual | auto | panel
• segments: list of { start, duration, text } (or text-only when --no-ts)

Text mode (--text)

A newline-separated transcript.

• By default timestamps are included as [12.34s].
• Use --no-ts to output only the text lines.

Caching

Default cache DB:

• {baseDir}/cache/transcripts.sqlite

Cache key includes:

• video_id, lang, source, include_timestamp, format

Cookie handling (important)

• Cookies must be in Netscape cookies.txt format.
• Treat cookies as secrets.
• Never commit / publish cookies to ClawHub.

Recommended local path (ignored by git/publish):

• {baseDir}/cache/youtube-cookies.txt (chmod 600)

Notes (safety + reliability)

• Only accept a YouTube URL or an 11-character video ID.
• Do not forward arbitrary user-provided flags into the command.
• If yt-dlp is missing, instruct the user to install it (recommended):
  • install pipx
  • pipx install yt-dlp
  • ensure yt-dlp is on PATH