YouTube to Skill

Transform YouTube tutorials into AI agent skills that actually work.

The Problem

Video Knowledge is Trapped

YouTube contains millions of programming tutorials, but this knowledge is:

1. Inaccessible to AI assistants — AI agents cannot watch videos
2. Time-consuming to extract — A 10-minute video takes 10 minutes to watch
3. Often outdated — APIs change, libraries deprecate, best practices evolve
4. Not actionable — Narrative format ("so what we're gonna do...") ≠ executable instructions

The Skill Quality Problem

AI agent skills extend an agent's capabilities. However, creating effective skills requires understanding:

• How agents discover skills (via description matching)
• The difference between narrative and imperative content
• Current state of mentioned technologies

Without this knowledge, generated skills are often:
- Never activated (poor descriptions)
- Unusable (incomplete instructions)
- Harmful (outdated information)

The Solution

This skill automates the transformation pipeline:

┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│   EXTRACT   │────▶│  IDENTIFY   │────▶│   VERIFY    │────▶│  TRANSFORM  │────▶│  GENERATE   │
│  transcript │     │technologies │     │  up-to-date │     │   content   │     │    skill    │
└─────────────┘     └─────────────┘     └─────────────┘     └─────────────┘     └─────────────┘

1. Extract

Pulls transcripts from YouTube using captions API (with Whisper fallback):

python scripts/extract_youtube.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."

Output: JSON with metadata (title, channel, date) and full transcript.

2. Identify

Scans transcript for technologies:
- Languages and versions
- Frameworks and libraries
- APIs and services
- CLI tools

3. Verify

Videos get outdated. Skills must not.

Uses available tools to verify current state:

When outdated content is detected, the user is asked how to proceed:
- Update to current version
- Keep original with warnings
- Skip the section

4. Transform

Converts narrative video content to actionable skill instructions:

5. Generate

Produces a SKILL.md following the standard skill format:

---
name: lowercase-with-hyphens
description: Action verb + what + when to use (max 1024 chars)
---

File Structure

.claude/skills/youtube-to-skill/
├── SKILL.md                 # Main skill (174 lines)
│                            # - Workflow overview
│                            # - Tool integration (Context7, WebSearch)
│                            # - Quality checklist
│
├── reference.md             # Deep knowledge (289 lines)
│                            # - How agents discover skills
│                            # - Transformation patterns
│                            # - Common mistakes
│
├── templates/
│   └── skill_template.md    # Output template (94 lines)
│
├── scripts/
│   ├── extract_youtube.py   # Transcript extractor (337 lines)
│   └── requirements.txt     # Dependencies
│
└── examples/
    └── good_vs_bad.md       # Contrasting examples (354 lines)

Total: 1,250 lines of skill content

Installation

Option A: Project Skill

# Clone to your project
cp -r .claude/skills/youtube-to-skill /path/to/your/project/.claude/skills/

Available only in that project.

Option B: Personal Skill (Recommended)

# Symlink to personal skills
ln -sf /path/to/youtube-to-skill ~/.claude/skills/youtube-to-skill

# Install dependencies
pip install youtube-transcript-api yt-dlp

Available in all projects. Restart your AI agent to load.

Usage

Start a new session and request:

Create a skill from this YouTube video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=...

The agent will:
1. Extract the transcript
2. Identify technologies
3. Verify current state (ask about updates)
4. Ask about enrichment from official docs
5. Generate the skill
6. Ask where to save it

Dependencies

Limitations

• Requires captions: Videos without captions need Whisper (slower, requires GPU for speed)
• English-focused: Translation available but may reduce accuracy
• Single video or playlist: Does not process channel-wide content
• Verification depends on tools: Context7 coverage varies by library

References

[^1]: AI Agent Skills — Packaged expertise that agents can discover and invoke based on description matching.

[^2]: Context7 MCP — Library documentation retrieval tool providing up-to-date API references and code examples.

License: MIT