summarize

name: summarize description: Summarize or extract text and transcripts from URLs, podcasts, YouTube videos, and local files. Use when the user asks to summarize a link, article, or document, transcribe a YouTube video, or wants to know what a URL or video is about. requires: bins: - summarize

Fast CLI to summarize URLs, local files, and YouTube links.

Quick start

summarize "https://example.com" --model google/gemini-3-flash-preview
summarize "/path/to/file.pdf" --model google/gemini-3-flash-preview
summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto

YouTube: summary vs transcript

Best-effort transcript (URLs only):

summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto --extract-only

If the user asked for a transcript but it's huge, return a tight summary first, then ask which section/time range to expand.

Model + keys

Set the API key for your chosen provider:

OpenAI: OPENAI_API_KEY
Anthropic: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
xAI: XAI_API_KEY
Google: GEMINI_API_KEY (aliases: GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY, GOOGLE_API_KEY)

Default model is google/gemini-3-flash-preview if none is set.

Useful flags

--length short|medium|long|xl|xxl|<chars>
--max-output-tokens <count>
--extract-only (URLs only)
--json (machine readable)
--firecrawl auto|off|always (fallback extraction)
--youtube auto (Apify fallback if APIFY_API_TOKEN set)

Config

Optional config file: ~/.summarize/config.json

{ "model": "openai/gpt-5.2" }

Optional services:

FIRECRAWL_API_KEY for blocked sites
APIFY_API_TOKEN for YouTube fallback