Local-life-manager video-summarize

Summarize a single YouTube video and create a note. Use when user shares a video URL or asks to summarize a specific video. Triggers on "summarize this video", "video summary", YouTube URLs.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/TaylorHuston/local-life-manager

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

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/TaylorHuston/local-life-manager "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/.claude/skills/video-summarize" ~/.claude/skills/taylorhuston-local-life-manager-video-summarize && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: .claude/skills/video-summarize/SKILL.md

source content

Summarize a single YouTube video and create a note in my-vault.

Usage

/video-summarize <youtube-url> [folder]

```
youtube-url
```
: Full YouTube URL or video ID
```
folder
```
(optional): Subfolder under
```
Videos/
```
(e.g., "Atlassian", "Ali Abdaal"). If not specified, uses channel name.

Workflow

Extract video ID from URL (supports youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/, and bare IDs)

Fetch video metadata using the youtube-catchup helper script:

python3 .claude/skills/youtube-catchup/scripts/youtube_helper.py full <video_id>

Review the transcript and create a summary with:
- Bullet point summary of key concepts
- "Why Watch?" section with recommendation
Determine folder:
- Use provided folder if specified
- Otherwise use channel name from metadata
- Create folder if it doesn't exist

Create note at

my-vault/06 Knowledge Base/Capture/Videos/<folder>/<title>.md

Assign tags:
- Check
```
youtube-catchup/references/channels.json
```
  for channel's default tags
- If channel not in config, infer tags from the canonical list in
```
my-vault/09 System/Tag Index.md
```

Tagging

Use tags from the canonical list in

my-vault/09 System/Tag Index.md

Common channel → tag mappings are in

.claude/skills/youtube-catchup/references/channels.json

. If the channel exists there, use its

tags

array. Otherwise, infer appropriate tags based on content.

Format tags as:

tags: ["tag1", "tag2"]

Video Note Format

Use the exact template format:

---
class: Video
media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
publishDate: YYYY-MM-DD
status: Summarized
duration: Xm or Xh Ym
reviewFrequency:
lastReviewedDate:
review:
aliases:
tags: ["tag1", "tag2"]
cssclasses:
archived:
---
Related:

## Summary

- **Key point** - Details
- **Key point** - Details

## Why Watch?

<Brief recommendation on whether/why to watch, target audience, length note>

Summary Guidelines

Use bullet points with bold key concepts
Adjust detail level based on video length:
- < 5 min: 3-5 bullets
- 5-15 min: 5-8 bullets
- 15-30 min: 8-12 bullets
- 30+ min: Use sections/headers, 12+ bullets
Focus on actionable takeaways, not timestamps
"Why Watch?" should help user decide if they need to actually watch it

Duration Formatting

Under 60 min:
```
Xm
```
(e.g.,
```
23m
```
)
60+ min:
```
Xh Ym
```
(e.g.,
```
1h 15m
```
)

Title Sanitization

Remove or replace these characters for filenames:

```
:
```
→
```
 -
```
```
/
```
→
```
-
```
```
|
```
→
```
-
```
```
?
```
→ (remove)
```
"
```
→ (remove)
```
<
```
```
>
```
→ (remove)

Examples

/video-summarize https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123
/video-summarize abc123 "Tech Talks"
/video-summarize https://youtu.be/xyz789 Atlassian

Path Handling

CRITICAL - Never escape spaces with backslashes:

Use paths exactly as shown:
```
my-vault/06 Knowledge Base/...
```
(with literal spaces)
The Write tool handles spaces correctly - backslash escaping creates literal
```
\
```
characters in directory names
When using Bash commands, wrap paths in double quotes:
```
"my-vault/06 Knowledge Base/..."
```

Notes

Reuses
```
youtube_helper.py
```
from youtube-catchup skill (no duplicate code)
If transcript unavailable, note this in the summary and summarize from description/title only
Check if note already exists before creating (search by video ID in media field)