name: youtube-content

description: >

Fetch YouTube video transcripts and transform them into structured content

(chapters, summaries, threads, blog posts). Use when the user shares a YouTube

URL or video link, asks to summarize a video, requests a transcript, or wants

to extract and reformat content from any YouTube video.

YouTube Content Tool

Extract transcripts from YouTube videos and convert them into useful formats.

Setup

`bash

pip install youtube-transcript-api

`

Helper Script

SKILL_DIR is the directory containing this SKILL.md file. The script accepts any standard YouTube URL format, short links (youtu.be), shorts, embeds, live links, or a raw 11-character video ID.

`bash

JSON output with metadata

python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

Plain text (good for piping into further processing)

python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --text-only

With timestamps

python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --timestamps

Specific language with fallback chain

python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --language tr,en

`

Output Formats

After fetching the transcript, format it based on what the user asks for:

• - Chapters: Group by topic shifts, output timestamped chapter list
• - Summary: Concise 5-10 sentence overview of the entire video
• - Chapter summaries: Chapters with a short paragraph summary for each
• - Thread: Twitter/X thread format — numbered posts, each under 280 chars
• - Blog post: Full article with title, sections, and key takeaways
• - Quotes: Notable quotes with timestamps

Example — Chapters Output

`

00:00 Introduction — host opens with the problem statement

03:45 Background — prior work and why existing solutions fall short

12:20 Core method — walkthrough of the proposed approach

24:10 Results — benchmark comparisons and key takeaways

31:55 Q&A — audience questions on scalability and next steps

`

Workflow

1. Fetch the transcript using the helper script with --text-only --timestamps.

2. Validate: confirm the output is non-empty and in the expected language. If empty, retry without --language to get any available transcript. If still empty, tell the user the video likely has transcripts disabled.

3. Chunk if needed: if the transcript exceeds ~50K characters, split into overlapping chunks (~40K with 2K overlap) and summarize each chunk before merging.

4. Transform into the requested output format. If the user did not specify a format, default to a summary.

5. Verify: re-read the transformed output to check for coherence, correct timestamps, and completeness before presenting.

Error Handling

• - Transcript disabled: tell the user; suggest they check if subtitles are available on the video page.
• - Private/unavailable video: relay the error and ask the user to verify the URL.
• - No matching language: retry without --language to fetch any available transcript, then note the actual language to the user.
• - Dependency missing: run pip install youtube-transcript-api and retry.