Skill: YouTube Ultimate

Owner: globalcaos

Summary: Free transcripts, 4K downloads, and video exploration — zero API quotas burned.

Tags: latest:4.2.2

Version history:

v4.2.2 | 2026-02-21T07:34:27.056Z | user

Humor boost: 200/month upgrade line

v4.2.1 | 2026-02-21T07:33:30.098Z | user

Added notes.security transparency block

v4.2.0 | 2026-02-21T07:05:24.628Z | user

Marketia copy (Hook/Sell/Convert), metadata.openclaw block, humor grade 5/10

v1.0.6 | 2026-02-13T22:12:23.931Z | user

Fix repository/homepage links to fork

v1.0.5 | 2026-02-13T22:09:09.423Z | user

SEO-optimized description and keywords for better discoverability

v1.0.4 | 2026-02-11T13:20:05.030Z | auto

• Update to version 1.0.4
• Added new metadata file (_meta.json) for enhanced skill management
• Updated description in SKILL.md for improved clarity and conciseness

v1.0.3 | 2026-02-08T23:35:02.689Z | user

Added credits, fixed repository link

v1.0.2 | 2026-02-08T05:10:50.967Z | user

Fix: removed author attribution with real name

v1.0.1 | 2026-02-06T21:03:04.028Z | user

v1.0.1: Added repository link to OpenClaw fork.

v2.0.0 | 2026-02-06T05:55:01.367Z | user

v2 release: Unified transcripts, search, batch ops, and downloads in one skill.

v1.0.0 | 2026-02-03T09:11:53.717Z | user

Initial release of Research Pro

Archive index:

Archive v4.2.2: 4 files, 10855 bytes

Files: _meta.json (135b), README.md (9591b), scripts/youtube.py (25143b), SKILL.md (1819b)

File v4.2.2:SKILL.md

---

name: youtube-ultimate version: 4.2.2 description: "Free transcripts, 4K downloads, and video exploration — zero API quotas burned." metadata: openclaw: owner: kn7623hrcwt6rg73a67xw3wyx580asdw category: media tags: - youtube - transcripts - video-download - media - offline license: MIT notes: security: "This skill invokes yt-dlp and youtube-transcript-api locally to fetch transcripts and download videos. No credentials stored, no API keys required, no external services beyond YouTube itself. All processing happens on your machine. No data is sent anywhere except standard YouTube HTTP requests."

YouTube Ultimate

Your agent reads YouTube so you don't have to. Pull transcripts, summarize videos, and extract knowledge — all without touching YouTube's API quota.

What It Does

• Free Transcripts — Grab any video's transcript instantly. No API key, no quota, no billing surprises at 3 AM. Won't burn through your free-tier quota fetching a single playlist, then suggest you upgrade to the $200/month plan like it's doing you a favor.
• 4K Video Downloads — Save videos locally for offline access, training data, or that flight where Wi-Fi costs more than the ticket.
• Video Exploration — Search, browse, and drill into video details without rate-limit anxiety.

Why It Matters

YouTube's API gives you 10,000 quota units per day. A single search costs 100. A transcript request? Not even supported. YouTube Ultimate sidesteps all of that. Your agent gets full access to video content while your quota counter stays at zero.

Clone it. Fork it. Break it. Make it yours.

👉 Explore the full project: github.com/globalcaos/clawdbot-moltbot-openclaw

File v4.2.2:README.md

📺 YouTube Research Pro

The most comprehensive YouTube skill for AI agents.

Extract transcripts for FREE, search videos, analyze channels, download content — all from one unified interface.

---

Why This Skill?

We analyzed 15+ YouTube MCP servers and found that each one does one thing well, but none does everything. So we built the skill we wished existed.

| What Others Do | What We Do | | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | Transcripts OR search OR downloads | All three, unified | | Burn API quota on transcripts | FREE transcripts (zero quota) | | Single video at a time | Batch operations (50 videos) | | Basic search | Filtered search (date, duration, order) | | Text output only | JSON export for pipelines |

The Killer Feature: FREE Transcripts

Most YouTube tools use the official YouTube Data API for transcripts, which costs 100 quota units per request. With a daily limit of 10,000 units, you can only fetch ~100 transcripts per day.

We use youtube-transcript-api — a library that extracts transcripts directly from YouTube's frontend, costing zero API quota. Fetch unlimited transcripts, every day.

---

What Can Your Agent Do With This?

🔍 Research & Analysis

• Search YouTube with filters (date, duration, view count)
• Get video details in batch (up to 50 at once)
• Extract full transcripts for content analysis
• Read comments to gauge audience sentiment

📝 Content Extraction

• Pull transcripts in any available language
• Get timestamped transcripts for precise references
• Export everything as JSON for further processing

📥 Downloads

• Download videos at any resolution
• Extract audio only (podcasts, music, interviews)
• Grab subtitles as separate files

📊 Channel Intelligence

• Analyze channel statistics
• Track subscriber counts and view totals
• List and explore playlists

---

Quick Examples

# Get a video transcript (FREE - no API quota!)
uv run youtube.py transcript dQw4w9WgXcQ

# With timestamps
uv run youtube.py transcript dQw4w9WgXcQ --timestamps

# Search with filters
uv run youtube.py search "machine learning" --duration long --order viewCount

# Batch video details
uv run youtube.py video id1 id2 id3 id4 id5 --json

# Download audio as MP3
uv run youtube.py download-audio VIDEO_ID -f mp3

# Get top comments with replies
uv run youtube.py comments VIDEO_ID --replies

---

Complete Command Reference

Transcripts (FREE - Zero API Quota)

| Command | Description | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | | transcript VIDEO | Extract transcript as plain text | | transcript VIDEO --timestamps | Include [MM:SS] timestamps | | transcript VIDEO -l es,en | Prefer Spanish, fall back to English | | transcript VIDEO --json | Output as JSON array | | transcript-list VIDEO | List all available languages |

Search & Discovery

| Command | Description | | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | search QUERY | Search YouTube videos | | search QUERY -l 20 | Return 20 results (default: 10) | | search QUERY --order date | Sort by upload date | | search QUERY --order viewCount | Sort by popularity | | search QUERY --duration short | Under 4 minutes | | search QUERY --duration long | Over 20 minutes | | search QUERY --published-after 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z | Filter by date |

Video Information

| Command | Description | | ------------------- | ------------------------ | | video ID | Get video details | | video ID1 ID2 ID3 | Batch mode (up to 50) | | video ID --json | JSON output | | video ID -v | Include full description |

Comments

| Command | Description | | ----------------------------- | --------------------- | | comments VIDEO | Get top comments | | comments VIDEO -l 50 | Get 50 comments | | comments VIDEO --replies | Include reply threads | | comments VIDEO --order time | Sort by newest |

Channel & User Data

| Command | Description | | ---------------------------- | -------------------- | | channel | Your channel info | | channel CHANNEL_ID | Specific channel | | subscriptions | Your subscriptions | | playlists | Your playlists | | playlist-items PLAYLIST_ID | Videos in a playlist | | liked | Your liked videos |

Downloads (requires yt-dlp)

| Command | Description | | ----------------------------- | --------------------- | | download VIDEO | Download best quality | | download VIDEO -r 720p | Specific resolution | | download VIDEO -s en | Include subtitles | | download VIDEO -o ~/Videos | Custom output folder | | download-audio VIDEO | Audio only (MP3) | | download-audio VIDEO -f m4a | Audio as M4A |

---

API Quota Costs

| Operation | Quota Cost | Notes | | ------------- | ---------- | --------------------------- | | Transcripts | 0 | Uses youtube-transcript-api | | Downloads | 0 | Uses yt-dlp | | Search | 100 | Per request | | Video details | 1 | Per video | | Comments | 1 | Per request | | Channel info | 1-3 | Varies |

Daily free quota: 10,000 units

Pro tip: For research tasks, always start with transcripts — they're free and contain the most information.

---

Setup

1. Install dependencies

brew install uv yt-dlp  # macOS
# or
pip install uv && pip install yt-dlp  # other

2. Get YouTube API credentials

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a project (or select existing)
3. Enable "YouTube Data API v3"
4. Create OAuth 2.0 Client ID (Desktop app)
5. Download JSON → save as ~/.config/youtube-skill/credentials.json

3. Authenticate

uv run youtube.py auth

---

Command Aliases

For faster typing:

| Full | Alias | | ----------------- | ------ | | transcript | tr | | transcript-list | trl | | search | s | | video | v | | comments | c | | channel | ch | | subscriptions | subs | | playlists | pl | | playlist-items | pli | | download | dl | | download-audio | dla |

---

Comparison with Other Tools

| Feature | YouTube Research Pro | kimtaeyoon83 | kevinwatt/yt-dlp | dannySubsense | kirbah | | ---------------- | -------------------- | ------------ | ---------------- | ------------- | ------ | | Free transcripts | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | Search | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Filtered search | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | Batch operations | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | | Comments | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | Downloads | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | Audio extraction | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | JSON output | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | | Multi-language | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | URL + ID support | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |

Result: No other skill covers all these capabilities in one package.

---

Use Cases

📚 Research Assistant

"Summarize the key points from this conference talk" → Fetch transcript, analyze with LLM, extract insights

🎓 Learning Helper

"Create study notes from this lecture series" → Batch fetch transcripts from playlist, synthesize content

📰 News Monitoring

"What are people saying about [topic] this week?" → Search recent videos, extract transcripts, analyze trends

🎵 Music/Podcast

"Download this interview as audio for my commute" → Extract audio, convert to MP3

📊 Competitor Analysis

"How is [channel] performing?" → Get channel stats, analyze recent videos, track growth

---

License

MIT — use it, fork it, improve it.

---

Built for the OpenClaw community.

File v4.2.2:_meta.json

{ "ownerId": "kn7623hrcwt6rg73a67xw3wyx580asdw", "slug": "youtube-ultimate", "version": "4.2.2", "publishedAt": 1771659267056 }

Archive v4.2.1: 4 files, 10776 bytes

Files: _meta.json (135b), README.md (9591b), scripts/youtube.py (25143b), SKILL.md (1674b)

File v4.2.1:SKILL.md

---

name: youtube-ultimate version: 4.2.1 description: "Free transcripts, 4K downloads, and video exploration — zero API quotas burned." metadata: openclaw: owner: kn7623hrcwt6rg73a67xw3wyx580asdw category: media tags: - youtube - transcripts - video-download - media - offline license: MIT notes: security: "This skill invokes yt-dlp and youtube-transcript-api locally to fetch transcripts and download videos. No credentials stored, no API keys required, no external services beyond YouTube itself. All processing happens on your machine. No data is sent anywhere except standard YouTube HTTP requests."

YouTube Ultimate

Your agent reads YouTube so you don't have to. Pull transcripts, summarize videos, and extract knowledge — all without touching YouTube's API quota.

What It Does

• Free Transcripts — Grab any video's transcript instantly. No API key, no quota, no billing surprises at 3 AM.
• 4K Video Downloads — Save videos locally for offline access, training data, or that flight where Wi-Fi costs more than the ticket.
• Video Exploration — Search, browse, and drill into video details without rate-limit anxiety.

Why It Matters

YouTube's API gives you 10,000 quota units per day. A single search costs 100. A transcript request? Not even supported. YouTube Ultimate sidesteps all of that. Your agent gets full access to video content while your quota counter stays at zero.

Clone it. Fork it. Break it. Make it yours.

👉 Explore the full project: github.com/globalcaos/clawdbot-moltbot-openclaw

File v4.2.1:README.md

📺 YouTube Research Pro

The most comprehensive YouTube skill for AI agents.

Extract transcripts for FREE, search videos, analyze channels, download content — all from one unified interface.

---

Why This Skill?

We analyzed 15+ YouTube MCP servers and found that each one does one thing well, but none does everything. So we built the skill we wished existed.

| What Others Do | What We Do | | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | Transcripts OR search OR downloads | All three, unified | | Burn API quota on transcripts | FREE transcripts (zero quota) | | Single video at a time | Batch operations (50 videos) | | Basic search | Filtered search (date, duration, order) | | Text output only | JSON export for pipelines |

The Killer Feature: FREE Transcripts

Most YouTube tools use the official YouTube Data API for transcripts, which costs 100 quota units per request. With a daily limit of 10,000 units, you can only fetch ~100 transcripts per day.

We use youtube-transcript-api — a library that extracts transcripts directly from YouTube's frontend, costing zero API quota. Fetch unlimited transcripts, every day.

---

What Can Your Agent Do With This?

🔍 Research & Analysis

• Search YouTube with filters (date, duration, view count)
• Get video details in batch (up to 50 at once)
• Extract full transcripts for content analysis
• Read comments to gauge audience sentiment

📝 Content Extraction

• Pull transcripts in any available language
• Get timestamped transcripts for precise references
• Export everything as JSON for further processing

📥 Downloads

• Download videos at any resolution
• Extract audio only (podcasts, music, interviews)
• Grab subtitles as separate files

📊 Channel Intelligence

• Analyze channel statistics
• Track subscriber counts and view totals
• List and explore playlists

---

Quick Examples

# Get a video transcript (FREE - no API quota!)
uv run youtube.py transcript dQw4w9WgXcQ

# With timestamps
uv run youtube.py transcript dQw4w9WgXcQ --timestamps

# Search with filters
uv run youtube.py search "machine learning" --duration long --order viewCount

# Batch video details
uv run youtube.py video id1 id2 id3 id4 id5 --json

# Download audio as MP3
uv run youtube.py download-audio VIDEO_ID -f mp3

# Get top comments with replies
uv run youtube.py comments VIDEO_ID --replies

---

Complete Command Reference

Transcripts (FREE - Zero API Quota)

| Command | Description | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | | transcript VIDEO | Extract transcript as plain text | | transcript VIDEO --timestamps | Include [MM:SS] timestamps | | transcript VIDEO -l es,en | Prefer Spanish, fall back to English | | transcript VIDEO --json | Output as JSON array | | transcript-list VIDEO | List all available languages |

Search & Discovery

| Command | Description | | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | search QUERY | Search YouTube videos | | search QUERY -l 20 | Return 20 results (default: 10) | | search QUERY --order date | Sort by upload date | | search QUERY --order viewCount | Sort by popularity | | search QUERY --duration short | Under 4 minutes | | search QUERY --duration long | Over 20 minutes | | search QUERY --published-after 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z | Filter by date |

Video Information

| Command | Description | | ------------------- | ------------------------ | | video ID | Get video details | | video ID1 ID2 ID3 | Batch mode (up to 50) | | video ID --json | JSON output | | video ID -v | Include full description |

Comments

| Command | Description | | ----------------------------- | --------------------- | | comments VIDEO | Get top comments | | comments VIDEO -l 50 | Get 50 comments | | comments VIDEO --replies | Include reply threads | | comments VIDEO --order time | Sort by newest |

Channel & User Data

| Command | Description | | ---------------------------- | -------------------- | | channel | Your channel info | | channel CHANNEL_ID | Specific channel | | subscriptions | Your subscriptions | | playlists | Your playlists | | playlist-items PLAYLIST_ID | Videos in a playlist | | liked | Your liked videos |

Downloads (requires yt-dlp)

| Command | Description | | ----------------------------- | --------------------- | | download VIDEO | Download best quality | | download VIDEO -r 720p | Specific resolution | | download VIDEO -s en | Include subtitles | | download VIDEO -o ~/Videos | Custom output folder | | download-audio VIDEO | Audio only (MP3) | | download-audio VIDEO -f m4a | Audio as M4A |

---

API Quota Costs

| Operation | Quota Cost | Notes | | ------------- | ---------- | --------------------------- | | Transcripts | 0 | Uses youtube-transcript-api | | Downloads | 0 | Uses yt-dlp | | Search | 100 | Per request | | Video details | 1 | Per video | | Comments | 1 | Per request | | Channel info | 1-3 | Varies |

Daily free quota: 10,000 units

Pro tip: For research tasks, always start with transcripts — they're free and contain the most information.

---

Setup

1. Install dependencies

brew install uv yt-dlp  # macOS
# or
pip install uv && pip install yt-dlp  # other

2. Get YouTube API credentials

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a project (or select existing)
3. Enable "YouTube Data API v3"
4. Create OAuth 2.0 Client ID (Desktop app)
5. Download JSON → save as ~/.config/youtube-skill/credentials.json

3. Authenticate

uv run youtube.py auth

---

Command Aliases

For faster typing:

| Full | Alias | | ----------------- | ------ | | transcript | tr | | transcript-list | trl | | search | s | | video | v | | comments | c | | channel | ch | | subscriptions | subs | | playlists | pl | | playlist-items | pli | | download | dl | | download-audio | dla |

---

Comparison with Other Tools

| Feature | YouTube Research Pro | kimtaeyoon83 | kevinwatt/yt-dlp | dannySubsense | kirbah | | ---------------- | -------------------- | ------------ | ---------------- | ------------- | ------ | | Free transcripts | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | Search | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Filtered search | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | Batch operations | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | | Comments | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | | Downloads | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | Audio extraction | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | JSON output | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | | Multi-language | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | URL + ID support | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |

Result: No other skill covers all these capabilities in one package.

---

Use Cases

📚 Research Assistant

"Summarize the key points from this conference talk" → Fetch transcript, analyze with LLM, extract insights

🎓 Learning Helper

"Create study notes from this lecture series" → Batch fetch transcripts from playlist, synthesize content

📰 News Monitoring

"What are people saying about [topic] this week?" → Search recent videos, extract transcripts, analyze trends

🎵 Music/Podcast

"Download this interview as audio for my commute" → Extract audio, convert to MP3

📊 Competitor Analysis

"How is [channel] performing?" → Get channel stats, analyze recent videos, track growth

---

License

MIT — use it, fork it, improve it.

---

Built for the OpenClaw community.

File v4.2.1:_meta.json

{ "ownerId": "kn7623hrcwt6rg73a67xw3wyx580asdw", "slug": "youtube-ultimate", "version": "4.2.1", "publishedAt": 1771659210098 }