YouTube SkillForge

Turn YouTube videos into structured, reusable skill files that make any AI agent smarter. Forge, compound, and recall creator-attributed knowledge.

SkillForge

Turn YouTube videos into structured, reusable skill files that make any AI agent smarter.

Credential Requirements

SkillForge requires no API keys or credentials of its own. It produces structured skill files from YouTube transcripts; transcript synthesis uses whatever LLM the user's OpenClaw agent is already configured with (e.g. Claude via ANTHROPIC_API_KEY). SkillForge never stores, proxies, or manages provider credentials.

File System Behavior

SkillForge writes to ~/.skillforge/ on first use. Before creating this directory, the CLI prompts for explicit user consent.

Contents of ~/.skillforge/:

• library/ — Skill files organized by creator slug and topic (e.g. library/alex-hormozi/lead-magnets/SKILL.md)
• config.json — User preferences (trusted creators list, consent flag)
• proposals/ — Saved scan proposals for deferred builds
• skills.db — SQLite full-text search index used by the MCP server and recall command

SkillForge does not write outside ~/.skillforge/ unless the user provides an explicit --output path.

MCP Server Behavior

The skillforge serve command starts an MCP server using stdio transport (StdioServerTransport from @modelcontextprotocol/sdk). It communicates via stdin/stdout as a subprocess — there is no HTTP server, no port binding, and no network exposure. The host agent (e.g. Claude Desktop) launches SkillForge as a child process and exchanges JSON-RPC messages over the stdio pipe.

The server exposes two tools:

• skillforge_recall — Full-text search across indexed skills
• skillforge_list — List all skills grouped by creator

On startup, the server rebuilds the SQLite index at ~/.skillforge/skills.db from skill files on disk.

Commands

Command	Writes to ~/.skillforge/	Description
watch <url>	Yes	Build a skill from a single YouTube video
build [url]	Yes	Build from URL, channel, topic, or proposal
scan <url>	Yes	Score videos by relevance and save a proposal
serve	Yes	Start the MCP server (stdio transport)
forge	Yes	Alias for build
trust add/remove	Yes	Manage trusted creators
recall	No	Search the skill library by intent
list	No	List all saved skills
check	No	Check if a skill exists for an intent
suggest	No	Search YouTube for channels by topic
share	No	Export a skill with attribution
check-auth	No	Verify provider authentication