A powerful utility to archive YouTube playlists into local Markdown notes enhanced with transcripts, tags, and AI-generated summaries.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install youtube-archiver
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install youtube-archiver using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is YouTube Archiver?
The YouTube Archiver is a sophisticated tool designed for developers, researchers, and students who want to bridge the gap between video content and local knowledge management. By utilizing this Openclaw Skills contribution, users can transform ephemeral video playlists into permanent, searchable documentation. It handles everything from metadata extraction to AI-driven analysis, making it an essential part of a modern technical workflow.
This skill automates the tedious process of manual note-taking by fetching video transcripts and passing them through advanced LLMs to produce concise summaries. It ensures that your personal knowledge base remains up-to-date with your latest learning materials from YouTube while maintaining full control over your data in a clean, Markdown-based format.
YouTube Archiver Use Cases
- Archiving Liked Videos or Watch Later playlists into a structured local library.
- Generating AI-powered summaries and key takeaways for long technical tutorials.
- Building a searchable offline archive of video transcripts for research purposes.
- Automating recurring sync jobs to keep Markdown notes in sync with active YouTube playlists.
- Enriching existing video notes with automated tagging and metadata for better organization.
How YouTube Archiver Works
- Run the interactive initialization to configure storage paths, target playlists, and authentication methods.
- Execute the import script which uses yt-dlp to extract video metadata, transcripts, and basic info.
- Create individual Markdown files for each video, using unique video IDs to ensure idempotency and prevent duplicates.
- (Optional) Run the enrichment script to connect with AI providers like OpenAI or Anthropic for summary and tag generation.
- Optionally schedule the process via cron to automatically archive new additions to your playlists daily or weekly.
YouTube Archiver Setup
Ensure you have Python 3.7+ and yt-dlp installed on your system. For private playlists, ensure your browser is signed into YouTube.
# Install yt-dlp dependency
pip install yt-dlp
# Initialize the skill configuration
python3 scripts/yt-import.py --output ./YouTube-Archive --init
# Run the manual import
python3 scripts/yt-import.py --output ./YouTube-Archive
# Run AI enrichment for the first 10 notes
python3 scripts/yt-enrich.py --output ./YouTube-Archive --limit 10
YouTube Archiver Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill organizes its output into a flat directory structure with a hidden configuration and lock system to maintain data integrity.
| Component | Detail |
|---|---|
| Note Files | Named as Title [video_id].md containing frontmatter and transcript. |
| Config | .config.json stores playlist IDs, API keys, and provider settings. |
| Lockfile | .yt-archiver.lock prevents multiple agents from writing to the directory simultaneously. |
Note Metadata (YAML Frontmatter):
video_id: Unique YouTube identifier.enriched: A boolean flag indicating if AI summaries have been applied.tags: An array of AI-generated or custom-defined categories.
YouTube Archiver Advanced Features
- Support for multiple AI providers including OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic, OpenRouter, and Ollama.
- Multi-platform authentication handling via browser cookies for private playlist access.
- Idempotent execution logic that skips already archived and enriched videos to save API costs.
- Dry-run capabilities to test configuration and authentication without writing files.
- Built-in support for cron automation to facilitate hands-free Openclaw Skills workflows.
SKILL.md
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