YouTube transcripts

Use the bundled helper from this skill's directory:

uv run --with youtube-transcript-api==1.2.4 python scripts/fetch_transcript.py VIDEO_URL --out-dir OUTPUT_DIR

Resolve the script path relative to the installed skill, not the current project. Choose an output directory in the user's project; keep full third-party transcripts outside tracked source unless intentionally requested. An existing Python with youtube-transcript-api 1.2.4 can run the script directly. No API key is needed. Use --languages en or a comma-separated preference list for another language.

The helper writes plain text, timestamps and JSON with caption provenance. It reports segment count, word count and last caption end, which may differ from video duration. The library prefers manual captions when available for the requested language; generated captions are labeled. No translation is implicit.