name: youtube-transcript
description: Fetch transcripts from YouTube videos using yt-dlp. Supports any language with auto-generated or manual captions. Use for summarization, analysis, or translation tasks.

YouTube Transcript

Fetch transcripts from YouTube videos using yt-dlp.

Requirements

brew install yt-dlp jq

Usage

{baseDir}/transcript.sh <video-url-or-id> [language]

Examples

# English (default)
{baseDir}/transcript.sh "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ"

# Polish
{baseDir}/transcript.sh "https://youtu.be/ksWAT3uqlWA" pl

# German
{baseDir}/transcript.sh "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" de

# Just video ID works too
{baseDir}/transcript.sh dQw4w9WgXcQ

Output

Timestamped transcript:

[0:00] [Music]
[0:18] We're no strangers to
[0:21] love. You know the rules...
[1:23] Never gonna give you up

Supported Languages

Any language code: en, pl, de, es, ja, pt, fr, it, etc.

Use yt-dlp --list-subs <url> to see available languages for a video.

Notes

• Works with auto-generated and manual captions
• Falls back to auto-subs if manual not available
• No npm/node required - just yt-dlp and jq