YouTube Transcript CLI

A Node.js CLI that fetches YouTube transcripts from a video URL or video ID.

This project is a standalone CLI package for npx, npm and bun.

Features

• Fetch transcript by full YouTube URL or raw video ID
• Optional language priority list (--lang=en,fr)
• Optional timestamps (--timestamps)
• Optional SRT output (--srt)
• Optional output splitting for downstream processing (--split=1000)
• Works with npx (no install needed), or as a global command (-g)

Command Name

The CLI command is:

youtube-transcript-cli

This matches the npm package name so npx youtube-transcript-cli works out of the box.

Quick Start (no install)

npx youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --timestamps
npx youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --srt --split=1000

Installation

Global install (recommended for frequent use)

npm install -g youtube-transcript-cli
# or with bun
bun add -g youtube-transcript-cli

Then use it directly from any terminal:

youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --timestamps --split=1000
youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --srt --split=1000

Local install in a project

npm install youtube-transcript-cli
# or with bun
bun add youtube-transcript-cli

Run with npx:

npx youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --timestamps --split=1000
npx youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --srt --split=1000

Local Development Test (before publishing)

From this repository folder:

npm install
npm run build
npm link
youtube-transcript-cli --help
youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --timestamps --split=1000
youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --srt --split=1000

# bun alternative
bun install
bun run build
bun link
youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --timestamps --split=1000

Remove the global link when done:

npm unlink -g youtube-transcript-cli
# or with bun
bun unlink -g youtube-transcript-cli

Usage

youtube-transcript-cli [<url|videoId>] [--lang en,fr] [--timestamps] [--srt] [--split 12000]

If no URL/ID is provided, a default demo video is used.

Version

Check the installed CLI version:

youtube-transcript-cli -v
youtube-transcript-cli --version
# via npx:
npx youtube-transcript-cli -v

Options

• --lang=en,fr or --lang en,fr: language priority list
• --timestamps: include timestamps in output
• --srt: output SRT subtitles using the transcript timestamps
• --split=1000 or --split 1000: split output into chunks for downstream processing
• --help or -h: show help

Output Behavior

• Without --split, output is not chunked.
• With --split, output is split into consecutive chunks and every chunk is printed.
• --split is useful for downstream processing, batching, or later timestamp-range workflows. It is not a total-output truncation flag.
• --split also applies when --srt is enabled.
• Timestamps are based on real segment offsets.

Use as a Skill (Prompt Examples)

When integrated as a skill in an AI assistant, users can ask:

• Give me the transcript and timestamps on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
• Give me the french transcript of this Youtube video dQw4w9WgXcQ
• Extract transcript in English and French with timestamps for https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ and save it as a .txt/.md/text/markdown file

Use as a Skill (Integration instructions)

To integrate this CLI as a reusable skill, place a folder containing a SKILL.md file inside one of the assistant-supported skills directories. Common locations:

• <your-project>/.claude/skills/youtube-transcript-cli/
• <your-project>/.github/skills/youtube-transcript-cli/
• <your-project>/.opencode/skills/youtube-transcript-cli/

In that folder create a SKILL.md describing usage and parameters. Minimal example:

# youtube-transcript-cli

Short description: Uses the `youtube-transcript-cli` CLI to fetch a YouTube video's transcript.

Usage examples:
- `youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<id> --lang en,fr --timestamps`
- `npx youtube-transcript-cli https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<id> --timestamps`

Notes:
- Ensure `youtube-transcript-cli` is available in the runtime environment (installed as a project dependency or available in `PATH`).
- Adapt the invocation to your assistant runtime (Node, container, cloud function, etc.).

After adding the folder, register or load the skills directory according to your assistant's mechanism so the skill becomes discoverable.

Publish to npm

When you are ready:

npm login
npm publish

The package is configured with:

• package name: youtube-transcript-cli
• CLI command: youtube-transcript-cli

License

MIT