video-transcript-downloader - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: video-transcript-downloader description: This skill should be used when the user asks to "download this video", "get the transcript", "save this clip", "rip audio from", "get subtitles for", "transcribe this video", or mentions YouTube URLs, yt-dlp, or video/audio extraction. Use for any video downloading, transcript extraction, or format troubleshooting.

Video Transcript Downloader

Download videos, audio, subtitles, and clean paragraph-style transcripts from YouTube and any yt-dlp supported site.

Setup

Run once to install dependencies:

cd ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts && npm ci

Core Commands

All commands use ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js.

Transcript (Default: Clean Paragraph)

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://...'
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://...' --lang en
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://...' --timestamps
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://...' --keep-brackets

Transcript behavior:

YouTube: Fetches via youtube-transcript-plus when possible
Other sites: Pulls subtitles via yt-dlp, cleans into paragraph
Default output: Single paragraph, no timestamps
Bracketed cues like [Music] stripped by default

Download Video

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads

Download Audio Only

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js audio --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads

Download Subtitles

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js subs --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads --lang en

List Available Formats

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://...'

Advanced Options

Specific Format Selection

After listing formats, download specific format ID:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads -- --format 137+140

Prefer MP4 Container (Remux)

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads -- --remux-video mp4

Extra yt-dlp Arguments

Pass additional yt-dlp args after --:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://...' -- -v

Command Reference

Command	Purpose	Key Options
`transcript`	Extract text transcript	`--lang`, `--timestamps`, `--keep-brackets`
`download`	Download video	`--output-dir`
`audio`	Extract audio as MP3	`--output-dir`
`subs`	Download subtitle file	`--output-dir`, `--lang`
`formats`	List available formats	(none)

Prerequisites

Requires yt-dlp and ffmpeg:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S yt-dlp ffmpeg

# macOS
brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg

# Verify installation
yt-dlp --version
ffmpeg -version | head -n 1

Troubleshooting

"missing yt-dlp": Install yt-dlp and ensure it's on PATH

"missing ffmpeg": Required for audio extraction; install ffmpeg

Empty transcript: Site may not have subtitles; try different --lang value

Format issues: Use formats command to list available formats, then specify with --format