youtube-full

name youtube-full description Use when the user needs YouTube transcripts, video search, channel browsing, playlist extraction, or content monitoring. Trigger phrases: 'get the transcript for', 'search YouTube for', 'what are the latest videos on', 'list this playlist', 'monitor this channel', or any request involving a YouTube URL, video ID, or @handle. Do NOT use for downloading video or audio files, YouTube engagement data (likes, comments), or private/age-restricted videos. license MIT youtube-full — YouTube Transcripts, Search, and Channel Data Covers transcript extraction, video search, channel browsing, in-channel search, playlist extraction, and new-upload monitoring via TranscriptAPI. Source: Ported from ZeroPointRepo/youtube-skills (MIT). Original skill authored by ZeroPointRepo contributors. Adapted for the claude-skills format. BYOK / free-tier note: TranscriptAPI is a commercial service (BYOK — you bring your own key; 100 free credits included, no card required). For local/self-hosted extraction without an API key, use youtube-transcript-api (Python) or yt-dlp as OSS fallbacks. See Anti-Patterns for guidance. API Setup Every request to transcriptapi.com requires two headers: Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY User-Agent: ClaudeCode/1.0 If TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, prompt the user to get a free key at https://transcriptapi.com (100 free credits, no card required) and store it as TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY . Operations Get transcript (1 credit) GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript ?video_url={URL_OR_ID}&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true Use this for any "get transcript", "summarize video", or "extract quotes" request. Search YouTube (1 credit) GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search ?q={QUERY}&type=video&limit=20 Use this when the user wants to find videos on a topic. Follow with transcript calls on selected results. Channel — latest uploads (FREE) GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest ?channel={@HANDLE_OR_ID} Returns the 15 most recent uploads with view counts and publish timestamps. Use before fetching transcripts to check whether uploads are new. Channel — all videos (1 credit/page) GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos ?channel={@HANDLE_OR_ID} Paginate with ?continuation=TOKEN on subsequent pages. In-channel search (1 credit) GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search ?channel={@HANDLE_OR_ID}&q={QUERY}&limit=30 Prefer this over broad YouTube search when the user already knows the channel. Playlist extraction (1 credit/page) GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos ?playlist={PLAYLIST_URL_OR_ID} Paginate with ?continuation=TOKEN . Response includes playlist_info , results , has_more . Resolve handle (FREE) GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve ?input={@HANDLE_OR_URL} Returns {"channel_id": "UC...", "resolved_from": "@handle"} . Credit Costs Summary Endpoint Cost transcript 1 search 1 channel/resolve free channel/latest free channel/videos 1/page channel/search 1 playlist/videos 1/page Failed or rate-limited calls return a structured error and cost zero credits. Common Workflows Research workflow Search ( /search?q=... ) — pick the most relevant results Fetch transcripts ( /transcript?video_url=... ) for selected videos Summarize or extract quotes from transcript text Channel monitoring channel/latest (free) — check for new uploads If new videos found, fetch transcripts Extract signal (announcements, topics) Playlist to corpus playlist/videos — get all video IDs in the playlist Batch-fetch transcripts, pausing if near credit limit Assemble transcripts into a searchable document set Decision Rules When the user provides a YouTube URL, video ID, or @handle, use the matching endpoint directly — do not search first When the user says "monitor" or "check for new uploads", use channel/latest (free) first Use channel/search when the user knows which channel and wants to find a topic within it Use search (type=channel) to find a channel when the user doesn't know the handle Do not batch-transcribe an entire channel unless the user explicitly asks for that Error Handling Code Cause Action 401 Bad API key Check TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY 402 No credits Inform user, direct to transcriptapi.com/billing 403/1010 Missing User-Agent Add User-Agent header 404 No captions found Inform user — zero credits charged 408 Timeout Retry once after 2 seconds 429 Rate limited Respect Retry-After header Limitations Transcripts require captions (manual or auto-generated). Some videos have no captions — this returns a 404 and costs zero credits. Private and age-restricted videos are not accessible. Live stream transcripts are unstable until the stream ends. Rate limit: 300 requests/minute on the free tier. This skill does not download audio or video files. For local file download, use yt-dlp directly. Anti-Patterns Don't use TranscriptAPI for bulk downloads of entire channels without user confirmation — credit costs add up fast; use channel/latest (free) to check for new content first Don't hardcode the API key — always use TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY environment variable Don't claim "no vendor dependency" — TranscriptAPI is a commercial service. If the user needs a zero-cost or self-hosted path: youtube-transcript-api (Python, no auth needed for public videos) or yt-dlp --write-subs are OSS alternatives with different trade-offs (no search, no channel API, but free and local) Don't batch-transcribe without checking credits — check remaining credits before large operations OSS Fallback Paths If the user cannot or will not use TranscriptAPI: Need OSS Alternative Trade-offs Single transcript youtube-transcript-api (Python) No search; no channel API; captions only Download + subtitles yt-dlp --write-subs Requires local install; no REST; slower Channel monitoring Parse YouTube RSS feed ( /feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=... ) Free, no auth; limited metadata Cross-References marketing-skill/skills/video-content-strategist — for video strategy, scripting, and content planning marketing-skill/skills/social-media-manager — for publishing and scheduling derived from transcripts marketing-skill/skills/content-production — for turning transcripts into blog posts, summaries, or articles