Summarize
Turn links, PDFs, and YouTube videos into quick summaries or transcripts so you can research and ship without reading everything end-to-end.
Overview
Summarize is an agent skill most often used in Idea (also Grow, Build) that runs the summarize.sh CLI to summarize or transcribe URLs, PDFs, and YouTube for solo builders.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/steipete/clawdis --skill summarizeWhat is this skill?
- Fast CLI for URLs, local PDFs, and YouTube with optional `--youtube auto` and `--extract` transcript modes
- Trigger phrases: summarize.sh, what's this link about, transcribe video (best-effort, no yt-dlp)
- Provider keys: OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, or GEMINI_API_KEY for model-backed summaries
- Homebrew install via steipete/tap/summarize; requires `summarize` on PATH
- Oversized transcripts: tight summary first, then expand by section or time range on request
- Best-effort YouTube transcript without yt-dlp
- 4 documented API key providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Google)
Adoption & trust: 17.4k installs on skills.sh; 378k GitHub stars; 2/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits); trending (+100% hot-view momentum).
What problem does it solve?
You are drowning in links, PDFs, and videos and need trustworthy short answers without manually reading or transcribing each one.
Who is it for?
Solo builders doing market research, digesting tutorials, or prepping launch content from long-form media.
Skip if: Teams that need guaranteed legal-grade transcription, offline-only workflows with no API keys, or batch media pipelines without the summarize binary installed.
When should I use this skill?
User asks to use summarize.sh, what's this link/video about, summarize URL/article, or transcribe YouTube/video.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get a CLI-backed summary or best-effort transcript you can cite in notes, specs, or content drafts without leaving the agent session.
- Text summary of URL, file, or video
- Best-effort transcript excerpt or section expansion
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Canonical shelf is Idea → research because solo builders most often install summarize to digest competitor pages, podcasts, and docs before committing to a build. Research subphase covers competitive intel and learning from URLs; summarize is the fast path from raw media to decisions.
Where it fits
Summarize three competitor blog posts before you narrow your MVP scope.
Pull a tight summary from a rival's pricing page URL during a positioning sweep.
Transcribe a long YouTube talk, summarize first, then expand only the section you will quote in a thread.
Summarize an internal PDF spec so your agent can draft implementation tasks without uploading the full file to chat.
How it compares
Use instead of pasting entire pages into chat when you want a repeatable CLI workflow with local files and YouTube URLs.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is summarize for?
Summarize is for solo and indie builders using AI coding agents who need fast summaries or transcripts from URLs, PDFs, and YouTube during research and content work.
When should I use summarize?
Use it in Idea/research to understand competitor articles and videos, in Grow/content when repurposing long sources, and in Build/docs when condensing reference PDFs—whenever trigger phrases like summarize this URL or transcribe this YouTube appear.
Is summarize safe to install?
Review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page and treat network plus API key usage as sensitive; only run summarize on sources you trust and keys you control.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Summarize
# Summarize Fast CLI to summarize URLs, local files, and YouTube links. ## When to use (trigger phrases) Use this skill immediately when the user asks any of: - "use summarize.sh" - "what's this link/video about?" - "summarize this URL/article" - "transcribe this YouTube/video" (best-effort transcript extraction; no `yt-dlp` needed) ## Quick start ```bash summarize "https://example.com" summarize "/path/to/file.pdf" summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto ``` ## YouTube: summary vs transcript Best-effort transcript (URLs only): ```bash summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto --extract ``` If the user asked for a transcript but it's huge, return a tight summary first, then ask which section/time range to expand. ## Model + keys Set the API key for your chosen provider: - OpenAI: `OPENAI_API_KEY` - Anthropic: `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` - xAI: `XAI_API_KEY` - Google: `GEMINI_API_KEY` (aliases: `GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY`, `GOOGLE_API_KEY`) Default model is `auto`; config may choose the provider/model. ## Useful flags - `--length short|medium|long|xl|xxl|<chars>` - `--max-output-tokens <count>` - `--extract` (print extracted content, no LLM summary) - `--json` (machine readable) - `--firecrawl auto|off|always` (fallback extraction) - `--youtube auto` (Apify fallback if `APIFY_API_TOKEN` set) ## Config Optional config file: `~/.summarize/config.json` ```json { "model": "openai/gpt-5.2" } ``` Optional services: - `FIRECRAWL_API_KEY` for blocked sites - `APIFY_API_TOKEN` for YouTube fallback