youtube-transcript

Download YouTube Transcript

Extract the transcript and metadata from a YouTube video using Playwright with a persistent Chrome profile.

Configuration

Read the settings file at .claude/download.local.md to get:

• chrome_profile_path: Path to persistent Chrome profile (default: ~/.claude/youtube-chrome-profile)
• headless: Run browser in headless mode (default: false)

If the settings file doesn't exist, use defaults.

Settings file template:

---
chrome_profile_path: ~/.claude/youtube-chrome-profile
headless: false
---

First-Time Setup

On first run, the browser will open in visible mode (not headless) so the user can:

1. Log into YouTube if needed
2. Accept any cookie banners
3. The login state is saved to the Chrome profile for future runs

After initial login, subsequent runs can use --headless for faster extraction.

Usage

Parse the YouTube URL from $ARGUMENTS. The URL can be in various formats:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
• https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

Execution

Run the extraction script:

python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/youtube_transcript_extractor.py" "<URL>" --profile "<chrome_profile_path>"

Add --headless flag if configured or if the user specifies it.

Important: The script outputs a temp file path to stdout. Read the JSON from that file path.

# Example
output_path=$(python3 script.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=abc123" --profile ~/.claude/youtube-chrome-profile)
# output_path will be something like: /var/folders/.../yt_transcript_abc123.json

Output Format (v2.0)

The script saves JSON to a temp file with the following structure:

{
  "title": "Video Title",
  "channel": "Channel Name",
  "duration": "1:23:45",
  "description": "Video description...",
  "published_date": "Jan 1, 2026",
  "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=...",
  "video_id": "abc123",
  "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/abc123/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": "0:00 First line of transcript\n0:15 Second line...",
  "chapters": [
    {"timestamp": "0:00", "seconds": 0, "title": "Introduction"},
    {"timestamp": "5:30", "seconds": 330, "title": "Main Topic"},
    {"timestamp": "15:00", "seconds": 900, "title": "Deep Dive"}
  ],
  "speakers": [
    {"name": "David Puell", "role": "speaker"},
    {"name": "Yassine Elmandjra", "role": "guest"}
  ]
}

Field Descriptions

Field	Type	Description
title	string	Video title
channel	string	YouTube channel name
duration	string	Video duration (H:MM:SS or M:SS)
description	string	Full video description text
published_date	string	Publication date if available
url	string	Original YouTube URL
video_id	string	YouTube video ID extracted from URL
thumbnail_url	string	URL to max resolution thumbnail
language	string	Auto-detected language code (en, hi, zh, etc.)
transcript	string	Raw transcript with timestamps
chapters	array	Chapters extracted from description timestamps
speakers	array	Speakers identified from description

Language Detection

The script auto-detects the transcript language:

• en - English
• hi - Hindi (Devanagari)
• ar - Arabic
• zh - Chinese
• ja - Japanese
• ko - Korean
• ru - Russian (Cyrillic)

Chapter Extraction

Chapters are extracted from timestamp patterns in the video description:

• Pattern: 0:00 Chapter Title or 1:23:45 - Chapter Title
• Each chapter includes timestamp, seconds (for sorting), and title
• Chapters are sorted by timestamp

Speaker Extraction

Speakers are identified from description patterns:

• "Guests: Name1, Name2"
• "Featuring: Name"
• "With: Name"
• "Speakers: Name1 and Name2"
• Title patterns like "with Name" or "| Name"

Error Handling

• If no transcript is available, the output will include "transcript": null and an "error" field
• If the video requires login and the user isn't logged in, the browser opens for manual login
• If the browser fails to launch, suggest running playwright install chromium

Technical Notes

Temp File Output

The script saves output to a temp file instead of stdout to avoid truncation for long videos. The file path is printed to stdout for the caller to read.

Lazy Loading Handling

The transcript panel is scrolled to trigger lazy loading of all segments before extraction. This ensures complete transcripts for long videos (1+ hours).

Deduplication

Transcript segments are deduplicated to remove repeated lines that can occur from the scrolling process.

Example Output

After successful extraction, present the result clearly:

## Video Metadata
- **Title:** Stablecoins, Regulation, Mining And 2026 Outlook
- **Channel:** ARK Invest
- **Duration:** 1:11:43
- **Language:** en
- **URL:** https://youtube.com/watch?v=...
- **Video ID:** abc123
- **Thumbnail:** https://i.ytimg.com/vi/abc123/maxresdefault.jpg

## Chapters (8 found)
1. 0:00 - Introduction
2. 5:30 - Market Overview
...

## Speakers (3 identified)
- David Puell
- Yassine Elmandjra
- Frank Downing

## Transcript
[transcript text - first 500 chars preview]
...

Full transcript saved to: /tmp/yt_transcript_abc123.json