Youtube Transcribe Skill

YouTube Transcript Extraction

Use the bundled scripts/transcribe_youtube.py wrapper for the primary workflow. It downloads subtitles with yt-dlp, selects the preferred language, converts WebVTT cues into timestamped plain text, and reports the output path and line count.

Requirements

• Install yt-dlp and confirm yt-dlp --version succeeds.
• Resolve the absolute directory containing this SKILL.md; refer to it as <skill-dir>.
• Keep the output in the user's current working directory unless they request another location.

The Python wrapper itself uses only the standard library. It can display --help without yt-dlp being installed.

Primary workflow

Run without browser cookies first:

python3 "<skill-dir>/scripts/transcribe_youtube.py" \
  "<youtube-url>" \
  --output-dir "$PWD"

The default language preference is Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, other Chinese variants, then English. Override it when the user requests another language:

python3 "<skill-dir>/scripts/transcribe_youtube.py" \
  "<youtube-url>" \
  --languages "ja.*,en.*" \
  --output-dir "$PWD"

The wrapper supports normal watch URLs plus youtu.be, Shorts, live, and embed URLs. A successful run writes one .txt file whose non-empty lines use this shape:

00:03 Subtitle text
00:08 Next subtitle text

Cookie retry

Do not read browser cookies by default. If the initial command fails specifically because the video requires sign-in, age verification, membership, or another authenticated session:

• Explain that the retry will let yt-dlp read YouTube cookies from a local browser profile.
• Ask the user which browser profile they approve using.
• Retry only after approval:

python3 "<skill-dir>/scripts/transcribe_youtube.py" \
  "<youtube-url>" \
  --cookies-from-browser chrome \
  --output-dir "$PWD"

Never print, copy, or persist browser cookies in the transcript or logs.

Browser fallback

Use browser automation only when yt-dlp is unavailable or cannot obtain subtitles and an appropriate browser-control capability is available.

• Inspect the tools available in the current session; do not assume fixed MCP server or tool names.
• Open the video, reveal the transcript panel, and extract visible timestamp/text pairs.
• Save the result as <sanitized-video-title>.txt in the requested directory.
• Close pages or sessions opened solely for this task.

If neither CLI extraction nor browser automation is available, report the missing capability instead of claiming success.

Completion report

Return:

• Absolute transcript path
• Selected subtitle language
• Number of transcript lines
• Whether browser cookies or browser automation were used