mcpbeat

Transcriptapi

zeropointrepo/transcriptapi

Use when YouTube is or could be relevant — even if not mentioned: pasted video/channel/playlist links, video IDs, @handles, creator lookups, video summaries, quotes, translations, topic research, tutorials, talks, lectures, expert discussions, product reviews, how-to guides, new product announcements, or anything where video content is fresher or richer than text search. Covers transcripts, video/channel search, channel browsing, playlists, and within-channel search. Not for uploads, account management, or written-source-only research.

5k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
2
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
484
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository 
npx skills add https://github.com/ZeroPointRepo/youtube-skills --skill transcriptapi

The instruction itself

16 sections, as written by the author

TranscriptAPI

Full YouTube data toolkit via TranscriptAPI.com. Transcripts, search, channels, playlists — one API key.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, read references/auth-setup.md and follow the instructions there to get and store the key.

Required Headers

Every request needs two headers:

  • Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
  • User-Agent: your agent's name and version if known (e.g. HermesAgent/0.11.0, ClaudeCode/1.0). Version is optional — agent name alone is fine. Do not omit this header or send a bare default — Cloudflare will return a 403 (error code 1010) and block the request.

API Reference

Full OpenAPI spec: transcriptapi.com/openapi.json — consult this for the latest parameters and schemas.

Auth

All requests: -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Endpoints

Channel endpoints accept channel — an @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID. No need to resolve first. Playlist endpoints accept playlist — a playlist URL or ID.

GET /api/v2/youtube/transcript — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_URL&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

| Param | Required | Default | Validation |

| ------------------- | -------- | ------- | ------------------------------- |

| video_url | yes | — | YouTube URL or 11-char video ID |

| format | no | json | json or text |

| include_timestamp | no | true | true or false |

| send_metadata | no | false | true or false |

Accepts: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ID, https://youtu.be/ID, youtube.com/shorts/ID, or bare ID.

Response (format=json):

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": [
    { "text": "We're no strangers...", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 }
  ],
  "metadata": { "title": "...", "author_name": "...", "author_url": "..." }
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/search — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

| Param | Required | Default | Validation |

| ------- | -------- | ------- | --------------------- |

| q | yes | — | 1-200 chars (trimmed) |

| type | no | video | video or channel |

| limit | no | 20 | 1-50 |

Response (type=video):

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "video",
      "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
      "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "channelTitle": "Rick Astley",
      "channelHandle": "@RickAstley",
      "channelVerified": true,
      "lengthText": "3:33",
      "viewCountText": "1.5B views",
      "publishedTimeText": "14 years ago",
      "hasCaptions": true,
      "thumbnails": [{ "url": "...", "width": 120, "height": 90 }]
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 20
}

Response (type=channel):

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "channel",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "title": "Rick Astley",
      "handle": "@RickAstley",
      "subscriberCount": "4.2M subscribers",
      "verified": true,
      "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC..."
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 5
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve — FREE (0 credits)

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve?input=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

| Param | Required | Validation |

| ------- | -------- | --------------------------------------- |

| input | yes | 1-200 chars — @handle, URL, or UC... ID |

Response:

{ "channel_id": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q", "resolved_from": "@TED" }

If input is already a valid UC[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{22} ID, returns immediately without lookup.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/videos — 1 credit/page

# First page (100 videos)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?continuation=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

| Param | Required | Validation |

| -------------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------------- |

| channel | conditional | @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID |

| continuation | conditional | non-empty string (next pages) |

Provide exactly one of channel or continuation.

Response:

{
  "results": [{
    "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
    "title": "Latest Video",
    "channelId": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
    "channelTitle": "TED",
    "channelHandle": "@TED",
    "lengthText": "15:22",
    "viewCountText": "3.2M views",
    "thumbnails": [...],
    "index": "0"
  }],
  "playlist_info": {"title": "Uploads from TED", "numVideos": "5000"},
  "continuation_token": "4qmFsgKlARIYVVV1...",
  "has_more": true
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/latest — FREE (0 credits)

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

| Param | Required | Validation |

| --------- | -------- | ----------------------------------------- |

| channel | yes | @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID |

Returns last 15 videos via RSS with exact view counts and ISO timestamps.

Response:

{
  "channel": {
    "channelId": "...",
    "title": "TED",
    "author": "TED",
    "url": "..."
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
      "title": "Latest Video",
      "published": "2026-01-30T16:00:00Z",
      "viewCount": "2287630",
      "description": "Full description...",
      "thumbnail": { "url": "...", "width": "480", "height": "360" }
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 15
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/search — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search\
?channel=@TED&q=climate+change&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

| Param | Required | Validation |

| --------- | -------- | ----------------------------------------- |

| channel | yes | @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID |

| q | yes | 1-200 chars |

| limit | no | 1-50 (default 30) |

GET /api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos — 1 credit/page

# First page
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?playlist=PL_PLAYLIST_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?continuation=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

| Param | Required | Validation |

| -------------- | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |

| playlist | conditional | Playlist URL or ID (PL/UU/LL/FL/OL prefix) |

| continuation | conditional | non-empty string |

Credit Costs

| Endpoint | Cost |

| --------------- | -------- |

| transcript | 1 |

| search | 1 |

| channel/resolve | free |

| channel/search | 1 |

| channel/videos | 1/page |

| channel/latest | free |

| playlist/videos | 1/page |

Errors

| Code | Meaning | Action |

| -------- | ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |

| 401 | Bad API key | Check key, re-run setup |

| 402 | No credits | Top up at transcriptapi.com/billing |

| 403/1010 | Cloudflare block | Add or fix User-Agent header |

| 404 | Not found | Video/channel/playlist doesn't exist or no captions |

| 408 | Timeout/retryable | Retry once after 2s |

| 422 | Validation error | Check param format |

| 429 | Rate limited | Wait, respect Retry-After |

Tips

  • When user shares YouTube URL with no instruction, fetch transcript and summarize key points.
  • Use channel/latest (free) to check for new uploads before fetching transcripts — pass @handle directly.
  • For research: search → pick videos → fetch transcripts.
  • Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min. Starter ($5/mo): 1,000 credits, 300 req/min.

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take zeropointrepo/transcriptapi from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.