yt-transcript-extractor

Extract YouTube video transcripts from the command line and save them in LLM-friendly formats (Markdown with frontmatter, JSON, TXT, and SRT).

Lightweight Python CLI for transcript extraction, subtitle generation, and downstream content workflows.

Features

• CLI input supports full YouTube URLs or raw video IDs.
• Output formats: markdown, json, txt, srt, or all.
• Optional timestamped transcript output.
• Language preference fallback via repeated --language options.
• Structured metadata for downstream LLM/RAG pipelines.

Use Cases

• Build subtitle files (.srt) from available captions.
• Archive transcripts in structured Markdown and JSON.
• Prepare source text for search, analytics, and summarization.
• Feed normalized transcripts into RAG or ingestion pipelines.

Requirements

• Python >=3.9
• uv (recommended) or pip

Installation

# clone and enter repository
git clone https://github.com/alikhalajii/yt-transcript-extractor.git
cd yt-transcript-extractor

# create environment and install
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e .

With development tools:

uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

Quick Start

# basic (markdown output)
yt-transcript https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfscVS0vtbw

# all formats, with timestamps
yt-transcript rfscVS0vtbw -f all -t

# subtitle file (SRT)
yt-transcript rfscVS0vtbw -f srt

# custom output directory
yt-transcript rfscVS0vtbw -o outputs

# language preference order
yt-transcript rfscVS0vtbw -l en -l es

CLI Reference

yt-transcript [OPTIONS] URL

Output

Markdown (.md)

Best for LLM ingestion. Includes YAML frontmatter:

video_id: rfscVS0vtbw
video_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfscVS0vtbw
language: English
language_code: en
is_generated: false
is_translatable: true
extracted_at: 2026-03-08T13:35:26.502073
total_segments: 2935

JSON (.json)

Machine-friendly metadata and transcript segments with timing.

Text (.txt)

Plain transcript content, optionally timestamped.

SubRip (.srt)

Subtitle-ready output using the standard HH:MM:SS,mmm --> HH:MM:SS,mmm format.

Project Structure

yt-transcript-extractor/
├── examples/
│   ├── demo.py
│   └── examples.sh
├── youtube_transcript/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── cli.py
│   ├── extractor.py
│   └── writer.py
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE
├── pyproject.toml
└── README.md

Development

black youtube_transcript/
ruff check youtube_transcript/
pytest

Install a commit-time gate that mirrors CI checks:

uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
pre-commit install

This runs black --check, ruff check, mypy, and pytest before each commit.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, local testing, and release procedures.

Troubleshooting

• If captions are disabled by the video owner, transcript extraction will fail.
• If a requested language does not exist, pass multiple -l values as fallback.
• If yt-transcript is not found, ensure your virtual environment is activated.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.