Youtube-skills transcriptapi

Full TranscriptAPI toolkit — fetch YouTube transcripts, search videos and channels, browse channel uploads, get latest videos, and explore playlists. Use when the user wants to work with YouTube content programmatically, get transcripts for summarization or analysis, find videos, or monitor channels. Triggers on YouTube URLs, "transcript", "transcriptapi", "video summary", "what did they say", "find videos about", "search youtube".

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 "$T/skills/transcriptapi" ~/.claude/skills/zeropointrepo-youtube-skills-transcriptapi-461027 && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/transcriptapi/SKILL.md

source content

TranscriptAPI

Full YouTube data toolkit via TranscriptAPI.com. Transcripts, search, channels, playlists — one API key.

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 your shell profile and agent config. Ready to use.

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

API Reference

Full OpenAPI spec: transcriptapi.com/openapi.json — consult this for the latest parameters and schemas.

Auth

All requests:

-H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Endpoints

Channel endpoints accept

channel

— an

@handle

, channel URL, or

UC...

ID. No need to resolve first. Playlist endpoints accept

playlist

— a playlist URL or ID.

GET /api/v2/youtube/transcript — 1 credit

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

Param	Required	Default	Validation
`video_url`	yes	—	YouTube URL or 11-char video ID
`format`	no	`json`	`json` or `text`
`include_timestamp`	no	`true`	`true` or `false`
`send_metadata`	no	`false`	`true` or `false`

Accepts:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ID

https://youtu.be/ID

youtube.com/shorts/ID

, or bare

ID

Response (

format=json

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": [
    { "text": "We're no strangers...", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 }
  ],
  "metadata": { "title": "...", "author_name": "...", "author_url": "..." }
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/search — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Param Required Default Validation

yes

—

1-200 chars (trimmed)

type

video

video

channel

limit

1-50

Response (

type=video

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "video",
      "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
      "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "channelTitle": "Rick Astley",
      "channelHandle": "@RickAstley",
      "channelVerified": true,
      "lengthText": "3:33",
      "viewCountText": "1.5B views",
      "publishedTimeText": "14 years ago",
      "hasCaptions": true,
      "thumbnails": [{ "url": "...", "width": 120, "height": 90 }]
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 20
}

Response (

type=channel

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "channel",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "title": "Rick Astley",
      "handle": "@RickAstley",
      "subscriberCount": "4.2M subscribers",
      "verified": true,
      "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC..."
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 5
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve — FREE (0 credits)

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve?input=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Param	Required	Validation
`input`	yes	1-200 chars — @handle, URL, or UC... ID

Response:

{ "channel_id": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q", "resolved_from": "@TED" }

If input is already a valid

UC[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{22}

ID, returns immediately without lookup.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/videos — 1 credit/page

# First page (100 videos)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?continuation=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Param Required Validation

channel

conditional

@handle

, channel URL, or

UC...

continuation

conditional

non-empty string (next pages)

Provide exactly one of

channel

continuation

Response:

{
  "results": [{
    "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
    "title": "Latest Video",
    "channelId": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
    "channelTitle": "TED",
    "channelHandle": "@TED",
    "lengthText": "15:22",
    "viewCountText": "3.2M views",
    "thumbnails": [...],
    "index": "0"
  }],
  "playlist_info": {"title": "Uploads from TED", "numVideos": "5000"},
  "continuation_token": "4qmFsgKlARIYVVV1...",
  "has_more": true
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/latest — FREE (0 credits)

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Param Required Validation

channel

yes

@handle

, channel URL, or

UC...

Returns last 15 videos via RSS with exact view counts and ISO timestamps.

Response:

{
  "channel": {
    "channelId": "...",
    "title": "TED",
    "author": "TED",
    "url": "..."
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
      "title": "Latest Video",
      "published": "2026-01-30T16:00:00Z",
      "viewCount": "2287630",
      "description": "Full description...",
      "thumbnail": { "url": "...", "width": "480", "height": "360" }
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 15
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/search — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search\
?channel=@TED&q=climate+change&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Param Required Validation

channel

yes

@handle

, channel URL, or

UC...

yes

1-200 chars

limit

1-50 (default 30)

GET /api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos — 1 credit/page

# First page
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?playlist=PL_PLAYLIST_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?continuation=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Param Required Validation

playlist

conditional

Playlist URL or ID (

PL

UU

LL

FL

OL

prefix)

continuation

conditional

non-empty string

Credit Costs

Endpoint	Cost
transcript	1
search	1
channel/resolve	free
channel/search	1
channel/videos	1/page
channel/latest	free
playlist/videos	1/page

Errors

Code	Meaning	Action
401	Bad API key	Check key, re-run setup
402	No credits	Top up at transcriptapi.com/billing
404	Not found	Video/channel/playlist doesn't exist or no captions
408	Timeout/retryable	Retry once after 2s
422	Validation error	Check param format
429	Rate limited	Wait, respect Retry-After

Tips

When user shares YouTube URL with no instruction, fetch transcript and summarize key points.
Use
```
channel/latest
```
(free) to check for new uploads before fetching transcripts — pass @handle directly.
For research: search → pick videos → fetch transcripts.
Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min. Starter ($5/mo): 1,000 credits, 300 req/min.