By name: video-transcript description: "Extract video transcripts: yt-dlp subtitles to clean paragraphs." user_invocable: false # default -- router-dispatched, not user-typed agent: python-general-engineer allowed-tools:
- Bash
- Read
routing:
triggers:
- "video transcript"
- "youtube transcript"
- "extract transcript"
- "download subtitles"
- "what does this video say" category: research pairs_with:
- research-pipeline
- wrestlejoy-external-research
Video Transcript
Pull a video's transcript as readable paragraphs. Two paths, in order:
Path 1 — uploader subtitles (accurate, prefer when present):
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-subs --sub-langs en --sub-format vtt \
-o '<work-dir>/%(id)s' '<URL>'
Path 2 — auto-generated captions (fallback when path 1 writes no file):
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-subs --sub-langs en --sub-format vtt \
-o '<work-dir>/%(id)s' '<URL>'
Then clean the VTT into paragraphs:
python3 skills/research/video-transcript/scripts/vtt_to_paragraph.py <work-dir>/<id>.en.vtt
Default output is plain paragraph text with [Music]-style cues stripped and the rolling duplicates of auto-captions deduplicated. Use --timestamps for [mm:ss] markers, --keep-brackets to keep cue tags, -o FILE to write to a file.
For other languages, change --sub-langs (e.g. de, en.*). List what a video offers with yt-dlp --list-subs '<URL>'.
Error handling
Both paths write no .vtt file
Cause: video has no subtitles or captions in the requested language.
Solution: run yt-dlp --list-subs '<URL>' and pick an available language; if none exist, report that and offer audio transcription via the markdown-converter skill on a downloaded audio file.
HTTP 429 / "Sign in to confirm"
Cause: platform rate-limiting the host.
Solution: wait and retry with --sleep-requests 2; keep request volume low.
Cleaner output repeats lines
Cause: VTT came from a third path (e.g. translated captions) with cue formats the dedupe misses.
Solution: rerun the cleaner; if repeats remain, file the sample VTT alongside a fix to vtt_to_paragraph.py.