Youtube-skills subtitles

Get subtitles from YouTube videos for translation, language learning, or reading along. Use when the user asks for subtitles, subs, foreign language text, or wants to read video content. Supports multiple languages and timestamped output for sync'd reading.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/ZeroPointRepo/youtube-skills

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

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

manifest: clawhub/subtitles/SKILL.md

source content

Subtitles

Fetch YouTube video subtitles via TranscriptAPI.com.

Setup

$TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY

is not set, help the user create an account (100 free credits, no card):

Step 1 — Register: Ask user for their email.

node ./scripts/tapi-auth.js register --email USER_EMAIL

→ OTP sent to email. Ask user: "Check your email for a 6-digit verification code."

Step 2 — Verify: Once user provides the OTP:

node ./scripts/tapi-auth.js verify --token TOKEN_FROM_STEP_1 --otp CODE

API key saved to
~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
. See File Writes below for details. Existing file is backed up before modification.

Manual option: transcriptapi.com/signup → Dashboard → API Keys.

File Writes

The verify and save-key commands save the API key to

~/.openclaw/openclaw.json

(sets

skills.entries.transcriptapi.apiKey

and

enabled: true

). Existing file is backed up to
~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.bak
before modification.

To use the API key in terminal/CLI outside the agent, add to your shell profile manually:

export TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY=<your-key>

GET /api/v2/youtube/transcript

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_URL&format=text&include_timestamp=false&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Param	Values	Use case
`video_url`	YouTube URL or video ID	Required
`format`	`json` , `text`	`json` for sync'd subs with timing
`include_timestamp`	`true` , `false`	`false` for clean text for reading/translation
`send_metadata`	`true` , `false`	Include title, channel, description

For language learning — clean text without timestamps:

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_ID&format=text&include_timestamp=false" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

For translation — structured segments:

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_ID&format=json&include_timestamp=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Response (

format=json

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": [
    { "text": "We're no strangers to love", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 }
  ]
}

Response (

format=text

include_timestamp=false

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": "We're no strangers to love\nYou know the rules and so do I..."
}

Tips

Many videos have auto-generated subtitles in multiple languages.
Use
```
format=json
```
to get timing for each line (great for sync'd reading).
Use
```
include_timestamp=false
```
for clean text suitable for translation apps.

Errors

Code	Action
402	No credits — transcriptapi.com/billing
404	No subtitles available
408	Timeout — retry once after 2s

1 credit per request. Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min.