youtube-transcript
Fetches a YouTube video's transcript as plain text (optional [mm:ss] timestamps) with a stdlib-only Python script that works from cloud IPs where yt-dlp and youtube-transcript-api are blocked. Use before summarising or quoting a video; triggers on a youtube.com / youtu.be link plus "transcript", "summarise this video", or "/youtube-transcript".
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YouTube Transcript
Gets a YouTube video's captions as text in one command.
Why the script takes this route, and what fails instead: references/why-innertube.md.
Procedure
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Run the script with the URL or the 11-character video id:
python3 -I <skill_dir>/scripts/yt_transcript.py "<url-or-id>" > transcript.txt--lang <code>picks the caption language (defaulten). It prefers a human-made track and falls back to an auto-generated (asr) one, then to any track.--timestampsemits one[mm:ss] textline per caption instead of one paragraph.- stderr carries
# <title> [<lang>, <manual|asr>]; stdout carries only the transcript.
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Read
transcript.txtfrom disk. Never paste a long transcript back to the user verbatim: summarise or quote short passages. -
Tell the user when the track is
asr: auto-captions mishear names and jargon, so quote them with that caveat.
# ✓ Right — one call, output to a file
python3 -I scripts/yt_transcript.py "https://youtu.be/J9NQTYUP6k0" --timestamps > transcript.txt
# ✗ Wrong — these are bot-blocked from cloud IPs; do not try them first
pip install youtube-transcript-api && youtube_transcript_api J9NQTYUP6k0
yt-dlp --write-auto-subs --skip-download "https://youtu.be/J9NQTYUP6k0"When it fails
| Exit message contains | Do this |
|---|---|
LOGIN_REQUIRED / not a bot on both clients | Bump clientVersion and the matching User-Agent for ANDROID and IOS in CLIENTS to the current app versions, then retry once |
HTTP 429 | Wait a minute and retry once; the IP is rate-limited |
any other HTTP <code> or network error | Retry once; if it repeats, the host is unreachable from this session — report it verbatim |
unreadable caption track or unexpected response | Retry once; if it repeats, YouTube is serving a block page to this IP — treat it as unobtainable (below). The video may still have captions, so never say it has none |
UNPLAYABLE / ERROR with a reason | The video is private, removed, or age/region-restricted; report the reason to the user |
no captions | The video has no caption tracks; say so — do not invent content |
If it still fails, tell the user the transcript is unobtainable from this IP.
Offer three ways forward: run the script on a residential IP (a local machine), set a proxy, or paste the transcript from YouTube's "Show transcript" panel.
The video title is always available without a block from https://www.youtube.com/oembed?url=<url>&format=json.
- Repository
mthines/agent-skills
- Revision
d444d53
- Last updated
- First committed
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