Skills youtube-digest

Name: youtube-digest
Author: openclaw

Understand, summarize, translate, and extract key points from YouTube videos. Use when a user provides a YouTube URL and wants: (1) a Chinese summary, (2) a transcript or subtitle extraction, (3) translation of spoken content, (4) timestamps / chapter notes, (5) visual understanding via key frames, or (6) question answering about a video. Prefer this skill for transcript-first workflows.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/benheee/youtube-digest" ~/.claude/skills/openclaw-skills-youtube-digest && rm -rf "$T"

OpenClaw · Install into ~/.openclaw/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/benheee/youtube-digest" ~/.openclaw/skills/openclaw-skills-youtube-digest && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/benheee/youtube-digest/SKILL.md

YouTube Digest

Use a transcript-first workflow.

Quick workflow

Run

scripts/fetch_youtube.py <url> --out <dir>

to collect metadata and subtitles. If behind a proxy, add

--proxy <proxy-url>

If subtitles exist, read
```
summary.json
```
and the generated transcript file first.
If the user only wants a quick answer, summarize directly from the transcript.
If the user needs stronger visual grounding, extract key frames with ffmpeg after downloading the video or by using an existing local video file.
If no subtitles are available, report that transcript extraction needs
```
yt-dlp
```
+ a speech-to-text path (for example Whisper) before promising a result.

Default behavior

Prefer manual subtitles over auto subtitles.
Prefer Chinese subtitles when available; otherwise use English auto/manual subtitles.
Keep downloads minimal: subtitles + metadata first, full video only when visual analysis is necessary.
For long videos, produce:
- 3-line executive summary
- bullet timeline with timestamps
- key insights / actionable points
- open questions or uncertainties

Outputs

For normal requests, return:

Video topic
Summary (in user's language)
Key timestamps
Notable quotes / insights
If confidence is limited, say whether the result came from manual subtitles, auto subtitles, or partial metadata only.

Files produced by the script

The fetch script writes an output directory containing:

```
summary.json
```
— chosen subtitle file, title, uploader, duration, and extraction status
```
transcript.txt
```
— plain text transcript when subtitles are available
raw subtitle files from
```
yt-dlp
```
(VTT/SRT)

Read

summary.json

first to decide what to do next.

Required runtime tools

```
yt-dlp
```
for metadata + subtitle extraction
```
deno
```
as JS runtime (required by yt-dlp 2026+)
```
ffmpeg
```
for media conversion / optional frame extraction (optional)

Key commands

Basic extraction:

python3 scripts/fetch_youtube.py "<youtube-url>" --out /tmp/youtube-digest

With proxy:

python3 scripts/fetch_youtube.py "<youtube-url>" --proxy http://your-proxy:port --out /tmp/youtube-digest

Prefer specific subtitle languages:

python3 scripts/fetch_youtube.py "<youtube-url>" --langs zh.*,en.* --out /tmp/youtube-digest

Failure handling

If
```
yt-dlp
```
is missing, stop and install it instead of improvising.
If YouTube blocks the request (429 or bot detection), try using a proxy or report the limitation.
If only metadata is available, do not pretend you understood the full video.
If subtitles are auto-generated, mention that wording may be noisy.

References

Read
```
references/install-and-deploy.md
```
for deployment instructions.
Read
```
references/usage-patterns.md
```
for output templates for summaries, translations, or Q&A.