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YouTube Transcript Downloader

Download YouTube transcripts, subtitles, and cover images as cached Markdown or SRT files

Source Download skill
Repository
JimLiu/baoyu-skills
Stars
27,191
Licence
MIT
Files
9 files

What it does

Once installed, the agent can take a YouTube link or video ID, fetch the spoken-word transcript (manual or auto-generated captions) and the video's cover image, and save them as a Markdown file with timestamps or as an SRT subtitle file. It can also list available caption languages, translate the transcript, split it into chapters from the video description, and prepare raw data for speaker labelling. Results are cached locally so re-formatting does not need to hit YouTube again.

Great for

  • Students or researchers who want a searchable text version of a lecture or talk
  • Creators who need subtitle files or a cover image from a video they can access
  • Developers building workflows that summarise or analyse YouTube content

Skip it if

  • Copying or redistributing transcripts of videos you do not have rights to, since the content belongs to its creators (copyright risk)
  • Videos with no captions in any language, because there is no text to extract; the tool does not transcribe audio
  • Environments that block outbound internet access, because the skill needs to reach YouTube

Try asking

  • “Get the transcript for 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ' in English and save it as Markdown with timestamps”
  • “Download the Chinese and English subtitles for this video as an SRT file”
  • “List the available caption languages for this YouTube link before downloading”
  • “Save the cover image of this YouTube video”
Step-by-step guide: how to use YouTube Transcript DownloaderInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 9 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    baoyu-youtube-transcript.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip baoyu-youtube-transcript.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip baoyu-youtube-transcript.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Give the language priority list explicitly, for example --languages zh,en, so you get the caption track you want
  • Use --list first to see which captions exist before fetching; the skill recommends this when no language is given
  • Only enable the browser-cookies option if you understand that it lets yt-dlp use your logged-in session; remove it when no longer needed

What's inside

  • prompts/speaker-transcript.md
  • scripts/main.test.ts
  • scripts/main.ts
  • scripts/shared.ts
  • scripts/storage.ts
  • scripts/transcript.ts
  • scripts/types.ts
  • scripts/youtube.ts
  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from JimLiu/baoyu-skills under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.