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Youtube Transcript

  • 11 installs
  • 3 repo stars
  • Updated February 28, 2026
  • fabriqaai/fabriqaai-youtube-transcript

Helps with ai & agent building tasks.

About

youtube-transcript is a Claude Code skill for ai & agent building. It helps solo builders move faster with AI-assisted development.

  • youtube-transcript
  • AI & Agent Building
  • AI-coding skill

Youtube Transcript by the numbers

  • 11 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Ranked #11,740 of 16,546 AI & Agent Building skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Data as of Jul 31, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/fabriqaai/fabriqaai-youtube-transcript --skill youtube-transcript

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs11
repo stars3
Last updatedFebruary 28, 2026
Repositoryfabriqaai/fabriqaai-youtube-transcript

What it does

Helps with ai & agent building tasks.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

YouTube Transcript Skill

Use this skill to fetch transcripts and transcript languages with a standalone Python CLI tool (no MCP server).

Prerequisites

Install dependency:

python3 -m pip install youtube-transcript-api

Package Knowledge: youtube-transcript-api

Teach and apply these package facts when reasoning about failures or writing code:

  • Package role:
  • fetch transcript text for a YouTube video
  • list available transcript languages
  • detect generated vs manual captions
  • Common API patterns across versions:
  • static-style: YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id, languages=[...])
  • class list: YouTubeTranscriptApi.list_transcripts(video_id)
  • instance-style (newer variants): api = YouTubeTranscriptApi(); api.list(video_id); api.fetch(video_id, languages=[...])
  • Typical transcript item fields:
  • text
  • start
  • duration
  • Typical language fields:
  • language_code
  • language
  • is_generated
  • Common exception names you should expect and map:
  • InvalidVideoId
  • TranscriptsDisabled
  • NoTranscriptFound
  • VideoUnavailable
  • TooManyRequests
  • CouldNotRetrieveTranscript
  • Reliability guidance:
  • try requested language first, then fallback to first available language
  • for AI summary workflows, prefer transcript retrieval with --include-timestamps false
  • keep tool output structured JSON so downstream AI agents can parse reliably

Core Contract

This skill provides transcript retrieval. Summary and analysis must be done by AI.

  • Use the CLI for data retrieval (transcript, languages).
  • Do summary/key points/quotes using an AI agent.
  • Prefer sub-agent summarization when available to preserve main-context space.

Workflow

1. Extract a YouTube URL or 11-character video ID. 2. Decide output type:

  • Full transcript requested: fetch transcript and return it.
  • Summary requested: fetch transcript first, then summarize with AI.

3. Context-saving rule for summary:

  • If sub-agents are available, run transcript retrieval + summarization in a sub-agent.
  • If sub-agents are unavailable, summarize in the current agent after retrieval.

4. For long videos, prefer transcript fetch with --include-timestamps false unless timestamps are explicitly requested.

Sub-Agent Guidance

When available, use this flow:

1. Sub-agent runs transcript fetch command. 2. Sub-agent summarizes transcript based on user intent. 3. Sub-agent returns concise summary (and optional key quotes). 4. Main agent returns the synthesized result without dumping full raw transcript unless the user asks.

Commands

Get transcript with timestamps:

python3 youtube_transcript_tool.py \
  --mode transcript \
  --url "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" \
  --lang en \
  --include-timestamps true

Get transcript as plain text (recommended for summarization):

python3 youtube_transcript_tool.py \
  --mode transcript \
  --url "VIDEO_ID" \
  --include-timestamps false

List available transcript languages:

python3 youtube_transcript_tool.py \
  --mode languages \
  --url "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID"

Output Contract

Default output is JSON (--json true).

Success payload:

  • ok: true
  • includes mode, video_id, and mode-specific payload

Error payload:

  • ok: false
  • error.code
  • error.message
  • error.hint

Use --json false for readable text output.

Error Handling Guidance

When the tool fails, surface the hint directly and suggest one practical next step:

  • invalid_video_id: check URL format or use raw 11-char ID
  • transcripts_disabled: captions disabled by publisher
  • no_transcript: try another language or auto-generated captions
  • video_unavailable: video is private/deleted/restricted
  • rate_limited: retry later or from a different network
  • dependency_missing: install youtube-transcript-api

Defaults

  • --lang en
  • --include-timestamps true
  • --json true

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