youtube-summariser 0.4.0

Summarize YouTube videos using AI (OpenAI or Anthropic)

YouTube Summariser

A command-line tool that summarizes YouTube videos using AI. It extracts transcripts from YouTube videos and generates structured summaries using OpenAI or Anthropic models.

Installation

pip install youtube-summariser

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/weijianzhg/youtube-summariser
cd youtube-summariser
pip install -e .

Quick Start

Run the interactive setup to configure your API keys:

youtube-summariser init

This guides you through:

• Selecting your default provider (Anthropic or OpenAI)
• Entering your API key (securely masked)
• Optionally configuring a secondary provider

Configuration

Option 1: Interactive Setup (Recommended)

youtube-summariser init

Settings are saved to a platform-appropriate location:

• macOS/Linux: ~/.youtube-summariser/config.yaml
• Windows: %APPDATA%\youtube-summariser\config.yaml

Re-run init anytime to update your settings.

Option 2: Environment Variables

# For Anthropic (default provider)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key

# For OpenAI
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key

Or create a .env file in your working directory.

Configuration Priority

1. Environment variables (highest priority)
2. User config file (~/.youtube-summariser/config.yaml)
3. Bundled defaults

Default Provider

The default provider is Anthropic. You can change this via init or override per command using --provider.

Usage

# Interactive configuration
youtube-summariser init

# Summarize a video (saves to auto-generated filename)
youtube-summariser "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

# Specify output filename
youtube-summariser "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID" -o my_summary.md

# Print to terminal only (no file saved)
youtube-summariser "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --no-save

# Use a specific provider
youtube-summariser "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID" --provider openai

Commands

Command	Description
init	Interactive setup for API keys and preferences
summarise	Summarize a YouTube video (also aliased as summarize)

You can also pass a URL directly without the summarise subcommand for convenience.

Options

Flag	Description
-o, --output	Specify output filename (default: summary_<video_id>_<timestamp>.md)
--no-save	Print summary to terminal without saving to file
--provider	LLM provider to use: openai or anthropic
--no-stream	Disable streaming output
-v, --version	Show version number
-h, --help	Show help message

Output Format

Summary files are saved as markdown (.md) with the following structure:

# YouTube Video Summary

| | |
|---|---|
| **Video URL** | <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID> |
| **Video ID** | `VIDEO_ID` |
| **Generated** | 2025-01-01 14:30:00 |
| **Model** | anthropic / claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929 |

---

## Main Topics
...

## Key Points
...

## Detailed Summary
...

## Notable Quotes
...

## Timestamps for Important Moments
...

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• An API key for OpenAI or Anthropic

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.