youtube-apify-transcript

# youtube-apify-transcript Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API (works from cloud IPs, bypasses YouTube bot detection). ## Why APIFY? YouTube blocks transcript requests from cloud IPs (AWS, GCP, etc.). APIFY runs the request through residential proxies, bypassing bot detection reliably. ## Free Tier - **$5/month free credits** (~714 videos) - No credit card required - Perfect for personal use ## Cost - **$0.007 per video** (less than 1 cent!) - Track usage at: https://console.apify.com/billing ## Links - 🔗 [APIFY Pricing](https://apify.com/pricing) - 🔑 [Get API Key](https://console.apify.com/account/integrations) - 🎬 [YouTube Transcripts Actor](https://apify.com/topaz_sharingan/Youtube-Transcript-Scraper-1) ## Setup 1. Create free APIFY account: https://apify.com/ 2. Get your API token: https://console.apify.com/account/integrations 3. Set environment variable: ```bash # Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc export APIFY_API_TOKEN="apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE" # Install Python dependency pip install requests # Or use .env file (never commit this!) echo 'APIFY_API_TOKEN=apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE' >> .env ``` ## Usage ### Basic Usage ```bash # Get transcript as text (uses cache by default) python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" # Short URL also works python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID" ``` ### Options ```bash # Output to file python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --output transcript.txt # JSON format (includes timestamps) python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --json # Both: JSON to file python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --json --output transcript.json # Specify language preference python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --lang de ``` ### Caching (saves money!) Transcripts are cached locally by default. Repeat requests for the same video cost $0. ```bash # First request: fetches from APIFY ($0.007) python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" # Second request: uses cache (FREE!) python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" # Output: [cached] Transcript for: VIDEO_ID # Bypass cache (force fresh fetch) python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --no-cache # View cache stats python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --cache-stats # Clear all cached transcripts python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --clear-cache ``` Cache location: `.cache/` in skill directory (override with `YT_TRANSCRIPT_CACHE_DIR` env var) ### Batch Mode Process multiple videos at once: ```bash # Create a file with URLs (one per line) cat > urls.txt << EOF https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO1 https://youtu.be/VIDEO2 https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO3 EOF # Process all URLs python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --batch urls.txt # Output: # [1/3] Fetching VIDEO1... # [2/3] [cached] VIDEO2 # [3/3] Fetching VIDEO3... # Batch complete: 2 fetched, 1 cached, 0 failed # [Cost: ~$0.014 for 2 API call(s)] # Batch with JSON output to file python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --batch urls.txt --json --output all_transcripts.json ``` ### Output Formats **Text (default):** ``` Hello and welcome to this video. Today we're going to talk about... ``` **JSON (--json):** ```json { "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "title": "Video Title", "transcript": [ {"start": 0.0, "duration": 2.5, "text": "Hello and welcome"}, {"start": 2.5, "duration": 3.0, "text": "to this video"} ], "full_text": "Hello and welcome to this video..." } ``` ## Agent Instructions When the user asks to summarize a YouTube video, first fetch the transcript using the script, then summarize the transcript text directly using your own model capabilities. Do NOT use --summarize flag. ## Error Handling The script handles common errors: - Invalid YouTube URL - Video has no transcript - API quota exceeded - Network errors ## Metadata ```yaml metadata: clawdbot: emoji: "📹" requires: env: ["APIFY_API_TOKEN"] bins: ["python3"] python: packages: ["requests"] ```