A specialized tool for extracting, cleaning, and saving YouTube transcripts while bypassing IP-based restrictions through a Tor proxy.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install youtube-transcript-tor
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-transcript-tor 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 Transcript Downloader?
The YouTube Transcript Downloader is a robust utility designed to handle the complexities of scraping video dialogue from cloud environments. Since many video platforms block requests from standard data center IP ranges, this skill integrates Tor to provide a rotating SOCKS5 proxy, ensuring reliable access to content. It is a vital component for developers building Openclaw Skills that require automated video data ingestion.
The skill intelligently manages subtitle selection by prioritizing manual uploads, which typically offer higher accuracy, and falling back to auto-generated tracks only when necessary. Beyond just downloading, it includes a sophisticated cleanup process that transforms raw VTT files into sanitized, human-readable text by stripping timestamps, HTML metadata, and duplicate lines.
YouTube Transcript Downloader Use Cases
- Gathering high-quality text data for training or fine-tuning Large Language Models.
- Automating the research phase for content creators and video synthesizers.
- Extracting dialogue for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems without manual copy-pasting.
- Bypassing IP-based bot detection in headless environments or cloud servers.
How YouTube Transcript Downloader Works
- Establishes a secure connection to the Tor network to route traffic through a SOCKS5 proxy at 127.0.0.1:9050.
- Uses yt-dlp to query the YouTube video for available subtitle tracks, specifically checking for manual uploads first.
- Downloads the subtitle file in VTT format, utilizing the rotating IP provided by Tor to prevent blocking.
- Runs a Python-based cleanup script to parse the VTT file and remove timestamps, formatting tags, and redundant entries.
- Saves the final processed transcript to a dedicated workspace folder for agent use.
YouTube Transcript Downloader Setup
Prerequisites
Ensure Tor and yt-dlp are installed on your system:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y tor
sudo systemctl start tor
sudo systemctl enable tor
sudo wget -q https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
Running the Skill
Execute the transcript script by passing a YouTube URL or Video ID:
./scripts/youtube-transcript.sh <video_url_or_id> [language]
YouTube Transcript Downloader Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill organizes downloaded data within the Openclaw Skills workspace directory. It generates two primary file types:
| File Name | Description | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
{title}.vtt |
Raw subtitle file | Contains original timestamps and formatting tags. |
{title}_clean.txt |
Sanitized transcript | Clean text optimized for reading and LLM processing. |
Default Output Path: /home/ubuntu/.openclaw/workspace/tmp/
YouTube Transcript Downloader Advanced Features
- Intelligent prioritization logic that favors manual subtitles over auto-generated versions.
- Integrated Tor proxy support to bypass common IP blocking issues in VPS environments.
- Automated VTT-to-Text conversion including the removal of complex HTML-like tags and duplicate lines.
- Configurable language settings allowing users to specify desired transcript locales.
- Seamless integration with agent-specific environments via the AGENT_ID and OUTPUT_DIR variables.
SKILL.md
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