youtube-transcribe-skill
# YouTube Transcript Extraction
Extract subtitles/transcripts from a YouTube video URL and save them as a local file.
Input YouTube URL: $ARGUMENTS
## Step 1: Verify URL and Get Video Information
1. **Verify URL Format**: Confirm the input is a valid YouTube URL (supports `youtube.com/watch?v=` or `youtu.be/` formats).
2. **Get Video Information**: Use WebFetch or firecrawl to fetch the page and extract the video title for subsequent file naming.
## Step 2: CLI Quick Extraction (Priority Attempt)
Use command-line tools to quickly extract subtitles.
1. **Check Tool Availability**:
Execute `which yt-dlp`.
- If `yt-dlp` is **found**, proceed to subtitle download.
- If `yt-dlp` is **NOT found**, skip immediately to **Step 3**.
2. **Execute Subtitle Download** (Only if `yt-dlp` is found):
- **Tip**: Always add `--cookies-from-browser` to avoid sign-in restrictions. Default to `chrome`.
- **Retry Logic**: If `yt-dlp` fails with a browser error (e.g., "Could not open Chrome"), ask the user to specify their available browser (e.g., `firefox`, `safari`, `edge`) and retry.
```bash
# Get the title first (try chrome first)
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser=chrome --get-title "[VIDEO_URL]"
# Download subtitles
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser=chrome --write-auto-sub --write-sub --sub-lang zh-Hans,zh-Hant,en --skip-download --output "<Video Title>.%(ext)s" "[VIDEO_URL]"
```
3. **Verify Results**:
- Check the command exit code.
- **Exit code 0 (Success)**: Subtitles have been saved locally, task complete.
- **Exit code non-0 (Failure)**:
- If error is related to browser/cookies, ask user for correct browser and retry Step 2.
- If other errors (e.g., video unavailable), proceed to **Step 3**.
## Step 3: Browser Automation (Fallback)
When the CLI method fails or `yt-dlp` is missing, use browser UI automation to extract subtitles.
1. **Check Tool Availability**:
- Check if `chrome-devtools-mcp` tools (specifically `mcp__plugin_claude-code-settings_chrome__new_page`) are available.
- **CRITICAL CHECK**: If `chrome-devtools-mcp` is **NOT** available AND `yt-dlp` was **NOT** found in Step 2:
- **STOP** execution.
- **Notify the User**: "Unable to proceed. Please either install `yt-dlp` (for fast CLI extraction) OR configure `chrome-devtools-mcp` (for browser automation)."
2. **Initialize Browser Session** (If tools are available):
Call `mcp__plugin_claude-code-settings_chrome__new_page` to open the video URL.
### 3.2 Analyze Page State
Call `mcp__plugin_claude-code-settings_chrome__take_snapshot` to read the page accessibility tree.
### 3.3 Expand Video Description
_Reason: The "Show transcript" button is usually hidden within the collapsed description area._
1. Search the snapshot for a button labeled **"...more"**, **"...更多"**, or **"Show more"** (usually located in the description block below the video title).
2. Call `mcp__plugin_claude-code-settings_chrome__click` to click that button.
### 3.4 Open Transcript Panel
1. Call `mcp__plugin_claude-code-settings_chrome__take_snapshot` to get the updated UI snapshot.
2. Search for a button labeled **"Show transcript"**, **"显示转录稿"**, or **"内容转文字"**.
3. Call `mcp__plugin_claude-code-settings_chrome__click` to click that button.
### 3.5 Extract Content via DOM
_Reason: Directly reading the accessibility tree for long lists is slow and consumes many tokens; DOM injection is more efficient._
Call `mcp__plugin_claude-code-settings_chrome__evaluate_script` to execute the following JavaScript:
```javascript
() => {
// Select all transcript segment containers
const segments = document.querySelectorAll("ytd-transcript-segment-renderer");
if (!segments.length) return "BUFFERING"; // Retry if empty
// Iterate and format as "timestamp text"
return Array.from(segments)
.map((seg) => {
const time = seg.querySelector(".segment-timestamp")?.innerText.trim();
const text = seg.querySelector(".segment-text")?.innerText.trim();
return `${time} ${text}`;
})
.join("\n");
};
```
If it returns "BUFFERING", wait a few seconds and retry.
### 3.6 Save and Cleanup
1. Use the Write tool to save the extracted text as a local file (e.g., `<Video Title>.txt`).
2. Call `mcp__plugin_claude-code-settings_chrome__close_page` to release resources.
## Output Requirements
- Save the subtitle file to the current working directory.
- Filename format: `<Video Title>.txt`
- File content format: Each line should be `Timestamp Subtitle Text`.
- Report upon completion: File path, subtitle language, total number of lines.
标签
skill
ai
