youtube-full — YouTube transcript, search, channels & playlists via TranscriptAPI

YouTube transcripts, video search, channel browsing, in-channel search, playlist extraction, and new-upload monitoring — all via TranscriptAPI. Processes 500K+ transcripts daily, fast. No yt-dlp, no headless browsers, no Google API key.

This is the API-backed alternative to ingest-youtube. Where ingest-youtube uses yt-dlp (which stops working on cloud server IPs), youtube-full calls TranscriptAPI's API and works from any runtime — local machine, cloud server, serverless function, or CI environment. 686 installs via the skills CLI (skills.sh/zeropointrepo/youtube-skills).

When to Use This Skill

User asks to get, fetch, or retrieve a YouTube video transcript
User asks to search YouTube for videos on a topic
User wants to monitor a channel for new uploads
User needs channel metadata, video lists, or playlist contents
Agent is deployed on a cloud server where yt-dlp calls fail (YouTube blocks cloud IPs)
Building a research corpus from YouTube conference talks, tutorials, or interviews
Competitive intelligence: monitoring competitor channels for new content

Do NOT use for:

Downloading actual video or audio files (use yt-dlp directly with -f best)
YouTube comments, likes, or engagement data (not in API)
Private or age-restricted videos (not accessible without user authentication)
Live stream transcripts (not stable until stream ends)

How It Works

Step 1: Install the skill

npx skills add ZeroPointRepo/youtube-skills --skill youtube-full

100 free credits included. API key is provisioned automatically via TranscriptAPI OAuth on first invocation — no manual setup.

Step 2: Use it by asking Claude

Get the transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
Search YouTube for "LLM reasoning 2026" and summarize the top 3 results
What are the latest uploads on @3Blue1Brown?
List all videos in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYLIST_ID

Step 3: Available operations

Operation	Skill invocation	Credits
Get transcript	`get_transcript(video_id)`	1
Search YouTube	`search_youtube(query)`	1 per page
Channel video list	`get_channel_videos(handle)`	1 per page
In-channel search	`search_in_channel(handle, query)`	1 per page
Playlist extraction	`get_playlist_videos(playlist_id)`	1 per page
Track new uploads	`channel_latest(handle)`	Free
Resolve channel handle	`channel_resolve(handle)`	Free

Failed or rate-limited calls cost zero credits.

Examples

Example 1: Research corpus from conference talks

Search YouTube for "NeurIPS 2025 keynote" and get transcripts for the top 5 results. 
Summarize the main themes across all talks.

The agent calls search_youtube, selects the top 5 results, calls get_transcript for each, and synthesizes.

Example 2: Competitive channel monitoring

Check @AnthropicAI and @OpenAI channels for any new videos in the last week. 
For each new video, get the transcript and extract any product announcements.

The agent calls channel_latest (free) for each channel, fetches transcripts of new uploads, and extracts signal.

Example 3: Direct transcript with timestamps

Get the full transcript with timestamps for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

The agent calls get_transcript(video_id, timestamps=true) and returns the full text.

Best Practices

Use channel_latest (free) before get_transcript to check if a video is new
Cache transcripts in your workflow — each get_transcript call costs 1 credit
Use search_in_channel when you already know the channel to avoid broad search noise
Prefer get_playlist_videos for course or lecture series — cheaper than searching by query
Don't batch-transcribe entire channels unless the user explicitly requested it
Don't use search_youtube when you already have the video URL — jump straight to get_transcript

Limitations

This skill does not replace environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, or safety boundaries are missing.
Transcripts are available only when YouTube has captions (manual or auto-generated). Some videos have no captions.
API key is required for paid usage beyond the free 100-credit tier. Get one at transcriptapi.com.
Rate limits apply: 200 RPM on Monthly plan, 300 RPM on Annual. Contact support for higher limits.

Security & Safety Notes

This skill makes HTTPS API calls to transcriptapi.com. No local data is written.
The API key is stored in the agent's credential store, not in this SKILL.md.
No shell commands, no binary execution, no local system mutation. Risk level: safe.

Common Pitfalls

Problem: yt-dlp fails when the agent runs on a cloud server.
Solution: This is exactly the use case for youtube-full. The API routes through TranscriptAPI's infrastructure and works from any cloud runtime.
Problem: Credit balance runs out mid-workflow.
Solution: Use channel_latest (free) to check before fetching; use targeted search to fetch only the videos you need.
Problem: Transcript is not available for a video.
Solution: The API returns a structured error (zero credits charged). Ask the user to provide an alternative source.

Related Skills

@ingest-youtube — yt-dlp-based local ingestion to a markdown vault; works locally but not on cloud servers
@deep-research — General-purpose research skill that can incorporate youtube-full as a data source
@ai-research-corpus — Building searchable knowledge bases; pairs well with youtube-full for video content

Youtube Full