/youtube-content

name: youtube-content
description: Fetch YouTube video transcripts and transform them into structured content (chapters, summaries, threads, blog posts).

YouTube Content Tool

Extract transcripts from YouTube videos and convert them into useful formats.

Setup

pip install youtube-transcript-api

Helper script

This skill includes `fetch_transcript.py` — use it to fetch transcripts quickly:

# JSON output with metadata
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

# With timestamps
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --timestamps

# Plain text output (good for piping into further processing)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --text-only

# Specific language with fallback
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --language tr,en

# Timestamped plain text
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --text-only --timestamps

`SKILL_DIR` is the directory containing this SKILL.md file.

URL formats supported

The script accepts any of these formats (or a raw 11-character video ID):

• `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID`
• `https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID`
• `https://youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID`
• `https://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID`
• `https://youtube.com/live/VIDEO_ID`

Output formats

After fetching the transcript, format it based on what the user asks for:

• **Chapters**: Group by topic shifts, output timestamped chapter list (`00:00 Introduction`, `03:45 Main Topic`, etc.)
• **Summary**: Concise 5-10 sentence overview of the entire video
• **Chapter summaries**: Chapters with a short paragraph summary for each
• **Thread**: Twitter/X thread format — numbered posts, each under 280 chars
• **Blog post**: Full article with title, sections, and key takeaways
• **Quotes**: Notable quotes with timestamps

Workflow

1. Fetch the transcript using the helper script 2. If the transcript is very long (>50K chars), summarize in chunks 3. Transform into the requested output format using your own reasoning

Error handling

• **Transcript disabled**: Some videos have transcripts turned off — tell the user
• **Private/unavailable**: The API will raise an error — relay it clearly
• **No matching language**: Try without specifying a language to get whatever's available
• **Dependency missing**: Run `pip install youtube-transcript-api` first