Video Transcript Downloader

Download videos, audio, subtitles, and clean paragraph-style transcripts from YouTube and any yt-dlp supported site.

Setup

Run once to install dependencies:

cd ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts && npm ci

Core Commands

All commands use ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js.

Transcript (Default: Clean Paragraph)

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://...'
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://...' --lang en
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://...' --timestamps
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://...' --keep-brackets

Transcript behavior:

• YouTube: Fetches via youtube-transcript-plus when possible
• Other sites: Pulls subtitles via yt-dlp, cleans into paragraph
• Default output: Single paragraph, no timestamps
• Bracketed cues like [Music] stripped by default

Download Video

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads

Download Audio Only

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js audio --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads

Download Subtitles

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js subs --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads --lang en

List Available Formats

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://...'

Advanced Options

Specific Format Selection

After listing formats, download specific format ID:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads -- --format 137+140

Prefer MP4 Container (Remux)

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://...' --output-dir ~/Downloads -- --remux-video mp4

Extra yt-dlp Arguments

Pass additional yt-dlp args after --:

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/video-transcript-downloader/scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://...' -- -v

Command Reference

Command	Purpose	Key Options
transcript	Extract text transcript	--lang, --timestamps, --keep-brackets
download	Download video	--output-dir
audio	Extract audio as MP3	--output-dir
subs	Download subtitle file	--output-dir, --lang
formats	List available formats	(none)

Prerequisites

Requires yt-dlp and ffmpeg:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S yt-dlp ffmpeg

# macOS
brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg

# Verify installation
yt-dlp --version
ffmpeg -version | head -n 1

Troubleshooting

"missing yt-dlp": Install yt-dlp and ensure it's on PATH

"missing ffmpeg": Required for audio extraction; install ffmpeg

Empty transcript: Site may not have subtitles; try different --lang value

Format issues: Use formats command to list available formats, then specify with --format