A comprehensive tool for local YouTube transcript extraction, timestamped navigation, and intelligent content searching.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install youtube-video-transcript
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-video-transcript 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 Video Transcript?
The YouTube Video Transcript skill offers a professional-grade solution for turning video content into structured, searchable text. By leveraging local extraction via yt-dlp, it avoids the pitfalls of paid APIs and privacy-invasive proxies. This skill is a core component of the Openclaw Skills ecosystem, designed to help developers and researchers digest hours of video in minutes by providing high-quality transcripts with preserved timestamps and automatic chapter detection.
Whether you are conducting deep-dive research or just prefer reading over watching, this skill ensures you never lose the connection between the text and the source video. It prioritizes manual, human-verified subtitles whenever available and falls back to auto-generated tracks only when necessary, ensuring the highest possible accuracy for your technical workflows.
YouTube Video Transcript Use Cases
- Extracting precise, timestamped quotes for research, documentation, or content creation.
- Performing semantic searches within long-form videos to find specific topics without manual scrubbing.
- Generating structured study notes or summaries from educational content and tutorials.
- Navigating complex video presentations through smart chapter detection and deep-linked timestamps.
How YouTube Video Transcript Works
- Fetches comprehensive video metadata including title, duration, and existing chapter markers using a local utility.
- Analyzes available subtitle tracks to identify the highest quality source, preferring manual uploads over auto-generated ones.
- Extracts and cleans the raw subtitle data, converting it into a clean Markdown format while strictly preserving all timestamp markers.
- Applies smart detection logic to identify chapters or topic shifts based on transcript patterns if official markers are missing.
- Indexes the content to allow for keyword searching and context-aware quote extraction with deep-link generation.
YouTube Video Transcript Setup
To utilize this skill within the Openclaw Skills framework, you must have yt-dlp installed on your local system. Use one of the following commands based on your environment:
# For macOS or Linux via Homebrew
brew install yt-dlp
# For any system with Python via pip
pip install yt-dlp
After installation, the skill will automatically detect the binary and handle transcript requests through your AI agent.
YouTube Video Transcript Data Schema & Taxonomy
All data processed by this skill is stored locally to maintain privacy. The organization follows a clear taxonomy within your home directory:
| Component | Location | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | ~/youtube-video-transcript/memory.md |
Tracks user preferences and processing history. |
| Cache | ~/youtube-video-transcript/videos/ |
Stores transcript files named by their unique YouTube Video ID. |
| Exports | ~/youtube-video-transcript/exports/ |
Contains generated files in formats like SRT, TXT, or JSON. |
YouTube Video Transcript Advanced Features
- Smart Chapter Detection: Automatically segments videos based on semantic shifts and speaker transitions.
- Contextual Search: Finds relevant video moments and returns the quote along with 10-15 seconds of surrounding context.
- Consent-Based Caching: Implements a strict privacy-first approach where data is only saved locally after user approval.
- Deep Link Generation: Creates clickable URLs that jump directly to the specific second where a topic is discussed.
- Multi-Format Exporting: Supports Markdown for notes, SRT for video editors, and JSON for programmatic analysis.
SKILL.md
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