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PythonClaw youtube

Get YouTube video information, metadata, and transcripts/subtitles. Use when: user asks about a YouTube video, wants a video summary, needs a transcript, or asks to extract info from a YouTube URL. NOT for: downloading videos, live streams, or private/unlisted videos.

install
source · Clone the upstream repo
git clone https://github.com/ericwang915/PythonClaw
Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/
T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/ericwang915/PythonClaw "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/pythonclaw/templates/skills/data/youtube" ~/.claude/skills/ericwang915-pythonclaw-youtube && rm -rf "$T"
manifest: pythonclaw/templates/skills/data/youtube/SKILL.md
source content

YouTube Skill

Extract information and transcripts from YouTube videos via yt-dlp and youtube-transcript-api.

When to Use

✅ USE this skill when:

  • "What's this video about? https://youtube.com/watch?v=xyz"
  • "Get the transcript of this video"
  • "Search YouTube for Python tutorials"
  • "Video title, duration, and description"
  • User provides a YouTube URL and wants metadata or transcript

When NOT to Use

❌ DON'T use this skill when:

  • Downloading videos or audio → use yt-dlp directly with download opts
  • Live streams → transcript availability may be limited
  • Private or unlisted videos → access may be restricted

Usage/Commands

python {skill_path}/youtube_info.py URL [command] [options]

Commands:

  • info
    (default) — video title, duration, views, description
  • transcript
    — full transcript/subtitles
  • search
    — search YouTube for videos (uses URL arg as search query)

Options:

  • --lang en
    — transcript language (default: en)
  • --format json
    — output as JSON
  • --max 5
    — max results for search (default: 5)

Examples

  • "What's this video about? https://youtube.com/watch?v=xyz" → 
    python {skill_path}/youtube_info.py <URL> info
  • "Get the transcript of this video" → 
    python {skill_path}/youtube_info.py <URL> transcript
  • "Search YouTube for Python tutorials" → 
    python {skill_path}/youtube_info.py "Python tutorials" search

Notes

  • Install dependencies: 
    pip install yt-dlp youtube-transcript-api
  • Transcript availability depends on whether the video has captions