Skill: YouTube Apify Transcript

Owner: robbyczgw-cla

Summary: Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API. Works from cloud IPs (Hetzner, AWS, etc.) by bypassing YouTube's bot detection. Free tier includes $5/month credits (~714 videos). No credit card required.

Tags: latest:1.1.2

Version history:

v1.1.2 | 2026-02-11T09:00:23.308Z | user

Fix: SKILL.md cache path updated to match code. APIFY_API_TOKEN declared in registry metadata.

v1.1.1 | 2026-02-11T08:56:09.256Z | user

Security: cache dir now skill-local (configurable via env). APIFY token moved from query string to Authorization Bearer header.

v1.1.0 | 2026-02-11T08:37:36.806Z | user

Added local transcript caching (permanent, by video ID), --no-cache, --clear-cache, --cache-stats. New batch mode: --batch file.txt for bulk processing.

v1.0.7 | 2026-02-04T23:04:20.193Z | auto

• Added a CHANGELOG.md file.
• Updated SKILL.md to include a Metadata section with structured YAML and an emoji.
• Simplified metadata requirements in SKILL.md (now only lists required environment variable and binary).
• Bumped version to 1.0.7.

v1.0.6 | 2026-02-03T17:18:28.536Z | user

Add ClawHub runtime requirements metadata (SKILL.md frontmatter)

v1.0.5 | 2026-02-03T16:58:59.245Z | user

Add runtime requirements metadata for ClawHub discovery

v1.0.4 | 2026-02-03T14:17:47.459Z | user

Fix: Handle string captions format from APIFY API. The API returns captions as plain strings instead of dicts with timestamps. Updated both text and JSON formatters to handle both formats gracefully.

v1.0.3 | 2026-02-03T14:14:55.926Z | auto

youtube-apify-transcript 1.0.3

• No changes detected from previous version 1.0.2.
• Version number updated only; functionality and documentation remain the same.

v1.0.2 | 2026-02-03T13:45:56.097Z | auto

• Added a frontmatter block with name, version, description, and tags at the top of SKILL.md.
• No changes to functionality or usage instructions. Documentation only.

v1.0.1 | 2026-02-03T13:38:50.494Z | user

Fixed: Now in own GitHub repo (was incorrectly pushed as PR)

v1.0.0 | 2026-02-03T13:35:27.412Z | user

Initial release - Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API

Archive index:

Archive v1.1.2: 6 files, 8791 bytes

Files: CHANGELOG.md (109b), package.json (1263b), README.md (1326b), scripts/fetch_transcript.py (17571b), SKILL.md (4024b), _meta.json (143b)

File v1.1.2:SKILL.md

---

name: youtube-apify-transcript version: 1.1.2 description: Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API. Works from cloud IPs (Hetzner, AWS, etc.) by bypassing YouTube's bot detection. Free tier includes $5/month credits (~714 videos). No credit card required. tags: [youtube, transcript, apify, video, subtitles, captions, cloud-ip, free-tier, web-scraping]

youtube-apify-transcript

Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API (works from cloud IPs, bypasses YouTube bot detection).

Why APIFY?

YouTube blocks transcript requests from cloud IPs (AWS, GCP, etc.). APIFY runs the request through residential proxies, bypassing bot detection reliably.

Free Tier

• $5/month free credits (~714 videos)
• No credit card required
• Perfect for personal use

Cost

• $0.007 per video (less than 1 cent!)
• Track usage at: https://console.apify.com/billing

Links

• 🔗 APIFY Pricing
• 🔑 Get API Key
• 🎬 YouTube Transcripts Actor

Setup

1. Create free APIFY account: https://apify.com/
2. Get your API token: https://console.apify.com/account/integrations
3. Set environment variable:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export APIFY_API_TOKEN="apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"

# Or use .env file (never commit this!)
echo 'APIFY_API_TOKEN=apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE' >> .env

Usage

Basic Usage

# Get transcript as text (uses cache by default)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

# Short URL also works
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID"

Options

# Output to file
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --output transcript.txt

# JSON format (includes timestamps)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --json

# Both: JSON to file
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --json --output transcript.json

# Specify language preference
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --lang de

Caching (saves money!)

Transcripts are cached locally by default. Repeat requests for the same video cost $0.

# First request: fetches from APIFY ($0.007)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL"

# Second request: uses cache (FREE!)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL"
# Output: [cached] Transcript for: VIDEO_ID

# Bypass cache (force fresh fetch)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --no-cache

# View cache stats
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --cache-stats

# Clear all cached transcripts
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --clear-cache

Cache location: .cache/ in skill directory (override with YT_TRANSCRIPT_CACHE_DIR env var)

Batch Mode

Process multiple videos at once:

# Create a file with URLs (one per line)
cat > urls.txt << EOF
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO1
https://youtu.be/VIDEO2
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO3
EOF

# Process all URLs
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --batch urls.txt

# Output: 
# [1/3] Fetching VIDEO1...
# [2/3] [cached] VIDEO2
# [3/3] Fetching VIDEO3...
# Batch complete: 2 fetched, 1 cached, 0 failed
# [Cost: ~$0.014 for 2 API call(s)]

# Batch with JSON output to file
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --batch urls.txt --json --output all_transcripts.json

Output Formats

Text (default):

Hello and welcome to this video.
Today we're going to talk about...

JSON (--json):

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Video Title",
  "transcript": [
    {"start": 0.0, "duration": 2.5, "text": "Hello and welcome"},
    {"start": 2.5, "duration": 3.0, "text": "to this video"}
  ],
  "full_text": "Hello and welcome to this video..."
}

Error Handling

The script handles common errors:

• Invalid YouTube URL
• Video has no transcript
• API quota exceeded
• Network errors

Metadata

metadata:
  clawdbot:
    emoji: "📹"
    requires:
      env: ["APIFY_API_TOKEN"]
      bins: ["python3"]

File v1.1.2:README.md

📹 YouTube Transcript Fetcher (APIFY)

Fetch YouTube video transcripts from anywhere — even cloud servers where YouTube blocks direct access.

✨ Features

• Works from cloud IPs (AWS, GCP, VPS, etc.)
• Bypasses YouTube bot detection via APIFY proxies
• Local caching — repeat requests are FREE
• Batch mode — process multiple videos at once
• Text or JSON output with timestamps
• Language preference support
• Simple Python script, no SDK needed

💰 Free Tier

APIFY offers $5/month free credits — that's approximately 714 videos per month at $0.007 each!

No credit card required. Sign up here

🚀 Quick Start

# 1. Set your API token
export APIFY_API_TOKEN="apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN"

# 2. Fetch a transcript
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

📖 Documentation

See SKILL.md for full documentation, setup instructions, and usage examples.

🔗 Links

• APIFY Free Tier - $5/month free
• Get API Key
• YouTube Transcripts Actor

⚙️ Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• requests library (pip install requests)
• APIFY API token (free)

📄 License

MIT

File v1.1.2:_meta.json

{ "ownerId": "kn73gpe8xz2630jrknkb3ya96h7zb84h", "slug": "youtube-apify-transcript", "version": "1.1.2", "publishedAt": 1770800423308 }

File v1.1.2:CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

[1.0.7] - 2026-02-04

• Privacy cleanup: removed hardcoded paths and personal info from docs

File v1.1.2:package.json

{ "name": "@openclaw/youtube-apify-transcript", "version": "1.1.2", "description": "Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API. Works from cloud IPs (Hetzner, AWS, etc.) by bypassing YouTube's bot detection. Free tier includes $5/month credits (~714 videos).", "author": "robbyczgw-cla", "license": "MIT", "keywords": [ "openclaw", "skill", "youtube", "transcript", "apify", "video", "subtitles", "captions", "cloud-ip", "free-tier", "web-scraping" ], "repository": { "type": "git", "url": "https://github.com/robbyczgw-cla/youtube-apify-transcript.git" }, "homepage": "https://clawhub.ai/robbyczgw-cla/youtube-apify-transcript", "bugs": { "url": "https://github.com/robbyczgw-cla/youtube-apify-transcript/issues" }, "openclaw": { "skill": true, "triggers": [ "youtube transcript", "get transcript", "video transcript" ], "capabilities": [ "transcript-extraction", "cloud-ip-bypass", "multi-language" ], "requirements": { "bins": [ "python3" ], "env": { "APIFY_API_TOKEN": "required" } } }, "files": [ "SKILL.md", "README.md", ".env.example", "scripts/" ] }

Archive v1.1.1: 6 files, 8744 bytes

Files: CHANGELOG.md (109b), package.json (1223b), README.md (1326b), scripts/fetch_transcript.py (17571b), SKILL.md (3984b), _meta.json (143b)

File v1.1.1:SKILL.md

---

name: youtube-apify-transcript version: 1.1.1 description: Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API. Works from cloud IPs (Hetzner, AWS, etc.) by bypassing YouTube's bot detection. Free tier includes $5/month credits (~714 videos). No credit card required. tags: [youtube, transcript, apify, video, subtitles, captions, cloud-ip, free-tier, web-scraping]

youtube-apify-transcript

Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API (works from cloud IPs, bypasses YouTube bot detection).

Why APIFY?

YouTube blocks transcript requests from cloud IPs (AWS, GCP, etc.). APIFY runs the request through residential proxies, bypassing bot detection reliably.

Free Tier

• $5/month free credits (~714 videos)
• No credit card required
• Perfect for personal use

Cost

• $0.007 per video (less than 1 cent!)
• Track usage at: https://console.apify.com/billing

Links

• 🔗 APIFY Pricing
• 🔑 Get API Key
• 🎬 YouTube Transcripts Actor

Setup

1. Create free APIFY account: https://apify.com/
2. Get your API token: https://console.apify.com/account/integrations
3. Set environment variable:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export APIFY_API_TOKEN="apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"

# Or use .env file (never commit this!)
echo 'APIFY_API_TOKEN=apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE' >> .env

Usage

Basic Usage

# Get transcript as text (uses cache by default)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

# Short URL also works
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID"

Options

# Output to file
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --output transcript.txt

# JSON format (includes timestamps)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --json

# Both: JSON to file
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --json --output transcript.json

# Specify language preference
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --lang de

Caching (saves money!)

Transcripts are cached locally by default. Repeat requests for the same video cost $0.

# First request: fetches from APIFY ($0.007)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL"

# Second request: uses cache (FREE!)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL"
# Output: [cached] Transcript for: VIDEO_ID

# Bypass cache (force fresh fetch)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --no-cache

# View cache stats
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --cache-stats

# Clear all cached transcripts
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --clear-cache

Cache location: /root/clawd/memory/transcript-cache/

Batch Mode

Process multiple videos at once:

# Create a file with URLs (one per line)
cat > urls.txt << EOF
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO1
https://youtu.be/VIDEO2
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO3
EOF

# Process all URLs
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --batch urls.txt

# Output: 
# [1/3] Fetching VIDEO1...
# [2/3] [cached] VIDEO2
# [3/3] Fetching VIDEO3...
# Batch complete: 2 fetched, 1 cached, 0 failed
# [Cost: ~$0.014 for 2 API call(s)]

# Batch with JSON output to file
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --batch urls.txt --json --output all_transcripts.json

Output Formats

Text (default):

Hello and welcome to this video.
Today we're going to talk about...

JSON (--json):

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Video Title",
  "transcript": [
    {"start": 0.0, "duration": 2.5, "text": "Hello and welcome"},
    {"start": 2.5, "duration": 3.0, "text": "to this video"}
  ],
  "full_text": "Hello and welcome to this video..."
}

Error Handling

The script handles common errors:

• Invalid YouTube URL
• Video has no transcript
• API quota exceeded
• Network errors

Metadata

metadata:
  clawdbot:
    emoji: "📹"
    requires:
      env: ["APIFY_API_TOKEN"]
      bins: ["python3"]

File v1.1.1:README.md

📹 YouTube Transcript Fetcher (APIFY)

Fetch YouTube video transcripts from anywhere — even cloud servers where YouTube blocks direct access.

✨ Features

• Works from cloud IPs (AWS, GCP, VPS, etc.)
• Bypasses YouTube bot detection via APIFY proxies
• Local caching — repeat requests are FREE
• Batch mode — process multiple videos at once
• Text or JSON output with timestamps
• Language preference support
• Simple Python script, no SDK needed

💰 Free Tier

APIFY offers $5/month free credits — that's approximately 714 videos per month at $0.007 each!

No credit card required. Sign up here

🚀 Quick Start

# 1. Set your API token
export APIFY_API_TOKEN="apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN"

# 2. Fetch a transcript
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

📖 Documentation

See SKILL.md for full documentation, setup instructions, and usage examples.

🔗 Links

• APIFY Free Tier - $5/month free
• Get API Key
• YouTube Transcripts Actor

⚙️ Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• requests library (pip install requests)
• APIFY API token (free)

📄 License

MIT

File v1.1.1:_meta.json

{ "ownerId": "kn73gpe8xz2630jrknkb3ya96h7zb84h", "slug": "youtube-apify-transcript", "version": "1.1.1", "publishedAt": 1770800169256 }

File v1.1.1:CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

[1.0.7] - 2026-02-04

• Privacy cleanup: removed hardcoded paths and personal info from docs

File v1.1.1:package.json

{ "name": "@openclaw/youtube-apify-transcript", "version": "1.1.1", "description": "Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API. Works from cloud IPs (Hetzner, AWS, etc.) by bypassing YouTube's bot detection. Free tier includes $5/month credits (~714 videos).", "author": "robbyczgw-cla", "license": "MIT", "keywords": [ "openclaw", "skill", "youtube", "transcript", "apify", "video", "subtitles", "captions", "cloud-ip", "free-tier", "web-scraping" ], "repository": { "type": "git", "url": "https://github.com/robbyczgw-cla/youtube-apify-transcript.git" }, "homepage": "https://clawhub.ai/robbyczgw-cla/youtube-apify-transcript", "bugs": { "url": "https://github.com/robbyczgw-cla/youtube-apify-transcript/issues" }, "openclaw": { "skill": true, "triggers": ["youtube transcript", "get transcript", "video transcript"], "capabilities": [ "transcript-extraction", "cloud-ip-bypass", "multi-language" ], "requirements": { "bins": ["python3"], "env": { "APIFY_API_TOKEN": "required" } } }, "files": [ "SKILL.md", "README.md", ".env.example", "scripts/" ] }