YouTube Summarizer

# YouTube Summarizer Skill

Automatically fetch transcripts from YouTube videos, generate structured summaries, and deliver full transcripts to messaging platforms.

## When to Use

Activate this skill when: - User shares a YouTube URL (youtube.com/watch, youtu.be, youtube.com/shorts) - User asks to summarize or transcribe a YouTube video - User requests information about a YouTube video's content

## Dependencies

**Required:** MCP YouTube Transcript server must be installed at: `/root/clawd/mcp-server-youtube-transcript`

If not present, install it: ```bash cd /root/clawd git clone https://github.com/kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript.git cd mcp-server-youtube-transcript npm install && npm run build ```

## Workflow

### 1. Detect YouTube URL Extract video ID from these patterns: - `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID` - `https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID` - `https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID` - Direct video ID: `VIDEO_ID` (11 characters)

### 2. Fetch Transcript Run this command to get the transcript: ```bash cd /root/clawd/mcp-server-youtube-transcript && node --input-type=module -e " import { getSubtitles } from './dist/youtube-fetcher.js'; const result = await getSubtitles({ videoID: 'VIDEO_ID', lang: 'en' }); console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2)); " > /tmp/yt-transcript.json ```

Replace `VIDEO_ID` with the extracted ID. Read the output from `/tmp/yt-transcript.json`.

### 3. Process the Data

Parse the JSON to extract: - `result.metadata.title` - Video title - `result.metadata.author` - Channel name - `result.metadata.viewCount` - Formatted view count - `result.metadata.publishDate` - Publication date - `result.actualLang` - Language used - `result.lines` - Array of transcript segments

Full text: `result.lines.map(l => l.text).join(' ')`

### 4. Generate Summary

Create a structured summary using this template:

```markdown 📹 **Video:** [title] 👤 **Channel:** [author] | 👁️ **Views:** [views] | 📅 **Published:** [date]

**🎯 Main Thesis:** [1-2 sentence core argument/message]

**💡 Key Insights:** - [insight 1] - [insight 2] - [insight 3] - [insight 4] - [insight 5]

**📝 Notable Points:** - [additional point 1] - [additional point 2]

**🔑 Takeaway:** [Practical application or conclusion] ```

Aim for: - Main thesis: 1-2 sentences maximum - Key insights: 3-5 bullets, each 1-2 sentences - Notable points: 2-4 supporting details - Takeaway: Actionable conclusion

### 5. Save Full Transcript

Save the complete transcript to a timestamped file: ``` /root/clawd/transcripts/YYYY-MM-DD_VIDEO_ID.txt ```

Include in the file: - Video metadata header - Full transcript text - URL reference

### 6. Platform-Specific Delivery

**If channel is Telegram:** ```bash message --action send --channel telegram --target CHAT_ID \ --filePath /root/clawd/transcripts/YYYY-MM-DD_VIDEO_ID.txt \ --caption "📄 YouTube Transcript: [title]" ```

**If channel is other/webchat:** Just reply with the summary (no file attachment).

### 7. Reply with Summary

Send the structured summary as your response to the user.

## Error Handling

**If transcript fetch fails:** - Check if video has captions enabled - Try with `lang: 'en'` fallback if requested language unavailable - Inform user that transcript is not available and suggest alternatives: - Manual YouTube transcript feature - Video may not have captions - Try a different video

**If MCP server not installed:** - Provide installation instructions - Offer to install it automatically if in appropriate context

**If video ID extraction fails:** - Ask user to provide the full YouTube URL or video ID

## Examples

See `examples/` directory for sample outputs.

## Quality Guidelines

- **Be concise:** Summary should be scannable in 30 seconds - **Be accurate:** Don't add information not in the transcript - **Be structured:** Use consistent formatting for easy reading - **Be contextual:** Adjust detail level based on video length - Short videos (<5 min): Brief summary - Long videos (>30 min): More detailed breakdown

## Notes

- MCP server uses Android client emulation to bypass YouTube's cloud IP blocking - Works reliably from VPS/cloud environments where yt-dlp often fails - Supports multiple languages with automatic fallback to English - Transcript quality depends on YouTube's auto-generated captions or manual captions