---
name: youtube
version: "1.0"
description: Extract transcripts from YouTube videos via the YouTube caption system
entry:
script: scripts/main.py
class: YoutubeSkill
triggers:
extensions:
- "https://www.youtube.com/"
- "https://youtu.be/"
- "https://www.youtubekids.com/"
intents: []
requires:
- youtube-transcript-api
author: axoviq.com
license: AGPL-3.0-or-later
---
# YouTube Skill
Extracts the transcript (captions) from a YouTube video using the YouTube
caption system — no API key or audio download required. Optionally uses a
vision-capable LLM to produce a structured summary (Overview, Topics,
Key takeaways) before the raw transcript.
## Setup
```bash
pip install youtube-transcript-api
```
## Standalone usage
**Transcript only** (no LLM required):
```python
import asyncio
from synthadoc.skills.youtube.scripts.main import YoutubeSkill
skill = YoutubeSkill() # no provider — returns raw timestamped transcript
async def main():
result = await skill.extract("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ")
print(result.text) # "[0:00] text [0:04] text ..."
print(result.metadata) # {"video_id": "...", "title": "...", "url": "..."}
asyncio.run(main())
```
**With LLM summarization** (pass any provider that implements `complete()`):
```python
skill = YoutubeSkill(provider=my_provider)
result = await skill.extract(url)
# result.text contains:
# ## Executive Summary
# <Overview / Topics / Key takeaways>
#
# ## Transcript
# [0:00] ...
```
The provider must implement:
```python
async def complete(messages, system=None, temperature=0.0, max_tokens=4096)
-> object with .text (str), .input_tokens (int), .output_tokens (int)
```
`Message` (used to build the `messages` list) is importable from
`synthadoc.skills.base`:
```python
from synthadoc.skills.base import Message
```
## When this skill is used
- Source starts with `https://www.youtube.com/`, `https://youtu.be/`, or
`https://www.youtubekids.com/`
To search YouTube by topic instead of ingesting a specific URL, use the web
search skill — it filters Tavily results to YouTube domains automatically:
```bash
synthadoc ingest "youtube Moore's Law"
synthadoc ingest "youtube kids: Sesame Street"
synthadoc ingest "search for youtube: history of computing"
```
## Limitations
- Only works for videos that have captions (auto-generated or manually added).
If no captions are available the source is skipped with a warning.
- Private or deleted videos are skipped gracefully.