YouTube Video Summarizer
Summarize YouTube videos by extracting transcripts and providing intelligent summaries. Saves summaries to an Obsidian vault and opens a styled preview in the browser.
Prerequisites
The venv is already set up at ~/.claude/skills/youtube-summarize/venv with youtube-transcript-api installed.
Workflow
- Extract video ID from the URL (supports youtube.com/watch, youtu.be, shorts)
- Fetch transcript using
scripts/get_transcript.py
- Summarize the transcript based on user request
- Save & Preview using
scripts/save_summary.py - saves to Obsidian vault and opens styled HTML in browser
Scripts
Get Transcript
# Activate venv and get plain text transcript
source ~/.claude/skills/youtube-summarize/venv/bin/activate && python ~/.claude/skills/youtube-summarize/scripts/get_transcript.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"
# Get timestamped transcript
source ~/.claude/skills/youtube-summarize/venv/bin/activate && python ~/.claude/skills/youtube-summarize/scripts/get_transcript.py "URL" --format timestamped
# Specify language
source ~/.claude/skills/youtube-summarize/venv/bin/activate && python ~/.claude/skills/youtube-summarize/scripts/get_transcript.py "URL" --lang es
Save Summary & Open Preview
After generating the summary, save it and open the preview:
source ~/.claude/skills/youtube-summarize/venv/bin/activate && python ~/.claude/skills/youtube-summarize/scripts/save_summary.py \
--title "Video Title Here" \
--url "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" \
--summary "Your markdown summary here"
Options:
--no-preview: Skip opening browser preview--no-save: Skip saving to Obsidian vault--stdin: Read summary from stdin instead of --summary flag
Output Locations
- Obsidian Vault:
~/Documents/YouTube-Summaries/ (customize in save_summary.py)
- Browser Preview: Opens automatically in default browser (temp HTML file)
Summarization Guidelines
After extracting the transcript, provide summaries based on user needs:
| Request Type |
Output |
| "Summarize" |
3-5 paragraph overview of main points |
| "Key points" |
Bullet list of 5-10 main takeaways |
| "TLDR" |
2-3 sentence ultra-brief summary |
| "Explain" |
Detailed explanation with context |
| "Timestamps" |
Key moments with timestamps |
Error Handling
| Error |
Cause |
Solution |
TranscriptsDisabled |
Video has no captions |
Inform user; cannot extract |
NoTranscriptFound |
No transcript in requested language |
Try without --lang flag |
VideoUnavailable |
Private/deleted video |
Inform user |
Notes
- Works with auto-generated and manual captions
- Supports 100+ languages (use ISO 639-1 codes)
- Shorts and regular videos both supported
- Summaries are saved with frontmatter for Obsidian compatibility
