YouTube Video Transcription
Overview
Use yt-transcribe to get the actual spoken content from YouTube videos. Web search and fetch tools cannot access video content - they only see metadata.
When to Use
Use this skill when:
- User shares a YouTube URL and asks what it says/contains
- User wants information that likely exists in a video
- User asks "what does this video talk about?"
- You need to extract spoken content from YouTube
Do NOT use:
- For video metadata only (title, description) - web search is faster
- When user explicitly wants just the link, not content
Quick Reference
| Flag | Purpose |
|---|---|
-q | Required for LLMs - clean stdout, no progress noise |
-m tiny | Faster transcription (less accurate) |
-m medium | More accurate (slower, larger model) |
-o file | Save to file instead of stdout |
-f srt/vtt | Include timestamps |
Core Pattern
# Standard usage for LLM consumption
yt-transcribe "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" -q
# Faster but less accurate
yt-transcribe "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" -q -m tiny
# With timestamps
yt-transcribe "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" -q -f srtAlways use -q flag - suppresses progress output, gives clean transcript to stdout.
Workflow
- User provides YouTube URL or asks about video content
- Run:
yt-transcribe "URL" -q - Read and summarize the transcript for the user
- Answer their specific question using the transcript content
Common Mistakes
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Trying WebFetch on YouTube URLs | YouTube blocks bots, use yt-transcribe |
Forgetting -q flag | Progress output pollutes response, always use -q |
| Web searching for "what does video say" | Search finds metadata, not content - transcribe instead |
| Using without setup | Run yt-transcribe --setup first if binaries missing (exit code 5) |
Exit Codes
0- Success5- Binary not found (run--setup)3- Network error4- Transcription error