YouTube Transcript Generator
by @floriandarroman
Download and generate clean, readable transcripts from any YouTube video. Extracts subtitles (auto-generated or manual), removes timestamps and formatting, a...
clawhub install youtube-transcript-generatorπ About This Skill
name: youtube-transcript-generator description: Download and generate clean, readable transcripts from any YouTube video. Extracts subtitles (auto-generated or manual), removes timestamps and formatting, and outputs a clean paragraph-style transcript. Use when asked to transcribe, get transcript, or extract text from a YouTube video.
YouTube Transcript Generator
Download clean transcripts from any YouTube video URL.
Requirements
yt-dlp must be installed (brew install yt-dlp or pip install yt-dlp)Usage
Run the bundled script with a YouTube URL:
bash scripts/get_transcript.sh "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"
The script will:
1. Try to download English manual subtitles first
2. Fall back to auto-generated English subtitles
3. Try all available languages if English is unavailable
4. Clean the raw subtitle file into readable paragraphs
5. Output the transcript to stdout and save to transcript_VIDEO_ID.txt
Options
# Save to a specific file
bash scripts/get_transcript.sh "URL" output.txtGet transcript WITH timestamps (default: without)
bash scripts/get_transcript.sh "URL" output.txt en timestampsGet transcript in a specific language
bash scripts/get_transcript.sh "URL" output.txt fr
How It Works
1. yt-dlp downloads the subtitle track (VTT/SRT format)
2. The script strips HTML tags and duplicate lines
3. Without timestamps (default): merges into clean, readable paragraphs
4. With timestamps: preserves [HH:MM:SS] markers before each line for easy reference
Example Output
Input: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMTxOecbyPg
Output:
How OpenClaw Runs My Entire Business. I record a podcast episode and that is
literally the only thing I do. Everything else is handled by 13 AI agents
running on a Mac Mini in my office...
Troubleshooting
brew install yt-dlp (macOS) or pip install yt-dlp.Links
π‘ Examples
Run the bundled script with a YouTube URL:
bash scripts/get_transcript.sh "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"
The script will:
1. Try to download English manual subtitles first
2. Fall back to auto-generated English subtitles
3. Try all available languages if English is unavailable
4. Clean the raw subtitle file into readable paragraphs
5. Output the transcript to stdout and save to transcript_VIDEO_ID.txt
βοΈ Configuration
# Save to a specific file
bash scripts/get_transcript.sh "URL" output.txtGet transcript WITH timestamps (default: without)
bash scripts/get_transcript.sh "URL" output.txt en timestampsGet transcript in a specific language
bash scripts/get_transcript.sh "URL" output.txt fr
π Tips & Best Practices
brew install yt-dlp (macOS) or pip install yt-dlp.