youtube-digest

YouTube Video Digest

Transforms YouTube videos into structured, actionable knowledge. Where markitdown gives you the raw transcript, this skill gives you understanding -- TL;DR, key takeaways, timestamped assertions, topic timeline, and notable quotes.

When to Use This Skill

Quick triage: Decide whether a video is worth watching
Full digest: Get structured notes from a talk, lecture, or podcast
Claim extraction: Identify the speaker's core assertions with timestamps
Study notes: Create PKM-ready notes (Obsidian, Notion) from educational videos
Multi-video comparison: Compare key points across 2-5 related videos

Environment Detection

Before starting, detect your runtime capabilities and select the appropriate tier:

Check 1: Can I run Bash + Python?
  YES → Tier 1 (fetch_transcript.py -- works WITHOUT pip packages)
  NO  → Check 2: Can I use WebFetch or WebSearch?
    YES → Tier 2 (Web-based extraction -- see strategy below)
    NO  → Tier 3 (User-provided transcript -- last resort)

Tier	Environment	Capabilities	Extraction Method
Tier 1	Claude Code, Codex CLI, any terminal	Bash + Python (stdlib only, no pip needed)	`fetch_transcript.py` uses InnerTube ANDROID API via `urllib` + `xml.etree`
Tier 2	Claude App (Web) with web access	WebFetch + WebSearch	`noembed.com` for metadata → WebSearch for transcript → WebFetch results
Tier 3	Fully restricted (no network at all)	Text generation only	Ask user to paste transcript (last resort)

How It Works

Three-stage pipeline, with the extraction stage adapting to the environment:

[YouTube URL] --> [Extract] --> [Analyze] --> [Format]
                    |               |             |
              Tier 1: script   Claude LLM     Markdown
              Tier 2: web                      output
              Tier 3: user

Stage 1 -- Extract (environment-dependent):

Tier 1: Run scripts/fetch_transcript.py -- works with zero pip packages. Uses Python stdlib (urllib.request + xml.etree) to fetch the YouTube page, extract captionTracks, and parse the timedtext XML. If youtube-transcript-api or yt-dlp are installed, uses them for enhanced extraction, but they are optional.
Tier 2: YouTube domain is often blocked in sandboxed environments. Use this multi-step fallback:
1. Get metadata (non-YouTube domain): WebFetch("https://noembed.com/embed?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID") → returns JSON with title and author_name
2. Search for transcript: WebSearch('"VIDEO_TITLE" full transcript') or WebSearch('"VIDEO_TITLE" transcript text')
3. Fetch transcript from search results: WebFetch the most promising result (blog posts, study sites, and transcript hosting sites often re-publish YouTube transcripts)
4. If step 2-3 fail, try: WebSearch('youtube VIDEO_ID transcript') with the raw video ID
5. Extract whatever timestamped or plain text is available from the fetched pages
Tier 3 (last resort): Ask the user to provide the transcript. Suggest: (1) Click "Show transcript" on YouTube, (2) Use an online transcript extractor, (3) Paste any text from the video.

Stage 2 -- Analyze: Read the extracted content and produce the structured digest. Synthesize, identify themes, extract claims, build the timeline.

Stage 3 -- Format: Output the final Markdown, optionally with Obsidian YAML frontmatter.

Digest Output Structure

Follow this template (also in assets/digest_template.md). The order is intentional -- users who stop reading early still get maximum value.

# [Video Title]

**Channel:** [name] | **Duration:** [HH:MM:SS] | **Published:** [date]
**URL:** [original link]

---

## TL;DR
[1-2 sentence summary of the entire video's core message]

## Key Takeaways
- [3-7 bullet points, each a complete standalone insight]

## Core Assertions & Claims
- [Claim 1] (at [timestamp])
- [Claim 2] (at [timestamp])
- [Flag any claims that are controversial or unsubstantiated]

## Topic Timeline
| Timestamp | Topic | Summary |
|-----------|-------|---------|
| 0:00 | Introduction | ... |
| 3:42 | [Topic] | ... |

## Notable Quotes
> "[Exact or near-exact quote]" -- at [timestamp]

## Summary
[3-5 paragraph narrative covering the video's arc]

---
*Digest generated from transcript. Accuracy depends on caption quality.*

Section rationale:

TL;DR first -- most users want the answer immediately
Key Takeaways -- actionable points for those who want more
Core Assertions -- for critical thinkers and fact-checkers
Timeline -- for jumping to specific parts of the video
Quotes -- for citation and sharing
Summary -- full narrative for completeness

Usage

Basic Digest

User provides a YouTube URL:

Summarize this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

Tier 1 Steps (Bash + Python -- no pip needed)

Run the extraction script (works with Python stdlib only):

python scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" -o /tmp/transcript.json

Read the JSON output
Produce the digest following the template above
Save as video_title_digest.md

Tier 2 Steps (WebFetch + WebSearch -- YouTube domain blocked)

Get video metadata from a non-YouTube domain:
```
WebFetch("https://noembed.com/embed?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID")
```
Returns JSON: {"title": "...", "author_name": "..."}
Search for transcript text using the video title:
```
WebSearch('"VIDEO TITLE" full transcript')
```
WebFetch the most promising search result to extract transcript text

If no transcript found, try broader searches:

WebSearch('VIDEO_ID youtube transcript')
WebSearch('"VIDEO TITLE" subtitles text')

Produce the digest from whatever text is gathered
Note in header: *Digest generated via web search. Timestamps may be unavailable.*

Tier 3 Steps (No Network -- last resort)

Tell the user:
I don't have network access in this environment. To create a digest, I need the transcript:
1. YouTube app/web: Open the video → click ··· (More) → Show transcript → copy all text
2. Online tool: Search "YouTube transcript extractor" and paste the video URL
Once the user provides text, produce the digest from that content
Omit timestamps if they are not present in the provided text
Note in the header: *Digest generated from user-provided transcript.*

Triage (Is It Worth Watching?)

When the user asks whether a video is worth their time, produce only:

TL;DR (1-2 sentences)
Key Takeaways (3-5 bullets)
A verdict: "Worth watching if you care about [X]" or "Skip -- the key points are covered above"

Obsidian Export

When the user wants Obsidian-compatible output, prepend YAML frontmatter:

---
title: "Video Title"
channel: "Channel Name"
date: 2025-03-15
duration: "1h 23m 45s"
url: "https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
tags: [youtube, digest, topic1, topic2]
type: youtube-digest
---

Focused Digest

When the user specifies a topic of interest (e.g., "I only care about the part about battery technology"), weight the analysis toward that topic. Still produce the full structure but mark which sections are most relevant.

Multiple Videos (2-5 URLs)

When the user provides multiple URLs:

Extract content for each URL using the appropriate tier
Produce individual digests for each
Add a Comparison section at the end:
- Points of agreement
- Points of disagreement
- Unique contributions from each video

Edge Cases

Situation	Handling
No transcript available	Report clearly. Suggest the user try a different video. In Tier 2/3, suggest the user manually copy the transcript.
Auto-generated captions	Add a quality warning in the output header.
Non-English video	youtube-transcript-api supports multiple languages. Note the language in the header. In Tier 2/3, ask the user to specify the language.
Very long videos (3+ hrs)	The script chunks the transcript. Warn that timestamps may be less precise. In Tier 3, warn the user that pasting may be impractical and suggest using a transcript extractor tool.
Very short videos (<1 min)	Skip the Timeline section. Produce only TL;DR + Key Takeaways.
Music videos / no speech	Detect short transcript relative to duration. Produce minimal digest from metadata only.
Restricted environment (no Bash/Network)	Automatically fall back to Tier 2 or Tier 3. Never report an error without offering the fallback path.

Dependencies

Required: Python 3.8+ (stdlib only -- no pip packages needed).

The extraction script uses urllib.request and xml.etree.ElementTree from Python's standard library to fetch transcripts directly from YouTube.

Optional (enhanced extraction if available):

pip install youtube-transcript-api   # more robust transcript fetching
pip install yt-dlp                   # richer metadata (chapters, tags, language)

The script auto-detects installed packages and uses them when available, but works fully without them.

Relationship to Other Skills

Skill	Relationship
markitdown	Upstream. Provides raw transcript extraction. youtube-digest adds the analysis layer.
scientific-reading	Sibling pattern. Does for papers what youtube-digest does for videos.
scholar-paper-converter	Analog. Raw PDF-to-Markdown extraction, like markitdown is to YouTube.