Captions

ZeroPointRepo/youtube-skills/skills/captions

by ZeroPointRepo4f7994b94e7d5e250c3b51102d609992e04d5d0dNo license1K starsListed Oct 9, 2026Updated Oct 9, 2026Repository updated 2 days ago

Use when captions, subtitles, or the spoken text of a YouTube video is needed — even if not explicitly requested: pasted video links or IDs, requests to read, quote, or translate a video, accessibility needs, deaf/HoH use cases, content review, or language learning. Fetches timestamped caption data from any YouTube video. Not for uploading subtitles or account management.

Instructions onlyResearch & Analysis

AI-generated overview

Fetches timestamped YouTube captions and subtitles through the TranscriptAPI service for reading, quoting, or translation.

What it does: This skill documents how to call the TranscriptAPI v2 YouTube transcript endpoint to retrieve closed captions from a YouTube video given its URL or video ID. It returns either structured JSON with per-caption start times and durations, or plain text with optional timestamps, plus optional video metadata. It also covers required headers, parameter options, and error handling.
When to use it: Use it when captions, subtitles, or the spoken text of a YouTube video are needed, such as reading, quoting, or translating a video, accessibility and deaf/HoH use cases, content review, or language learning. It is not intended for uploading subtitles or account management.
Requirements: Internet access to transcriptapi.com and a TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY environment variable (a free account provides 100 credits). Requests need an Authorization bearer header and a User-Agent header. No additional runtimes or dependencies; the skill ships no scripts, only reference documents.

Captions

Extract closed captions from YouTube videos via TranscriptAPI.com.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, read references/auth-setup.md [blocked] and follow the instructions there to get and store the key.

Required Headers

Every request needs two headers:

Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: your agent's name and version if known (e.g. HermesAgent/0.11.0, ClaudeCode/1.0). Version is optional — agent name alone is fine. Do not omit this header or send a bare default — Cloudflare will return a 403 (error code 1010) and block the request.

GET /api/v2/youtube/transcript

http

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript?video_url=VIDEO_URL&format=json&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=trueAuthorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEYUser-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript?video_url=VIDEO_URL&format=json&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=trueAuthorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEYUser-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Response (format=json — best for accessibility/timing):

json

{  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",  "language": "en",  "transcript": [    { "text": "We're no strangers to love", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 },    { "text": "You know the rules and so do I", "start": 21.5, "duration": 2.8 }  ],  "metadata": { "title": "...", "author_name": "...", "thumbnail_url": "..." }}

{  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",  "language": "en",  "transcript": [    { "text": "We're no strangers to love", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 },    { "text": "You know the rules and so do I", "start": 21.5, "duration": 2.8 }  ],  "metadata": { "title": "...", "author_name": "...", "thumbnail_url": "..." }}

start: seconds from video start
duration: how long caption is displayed

Response (format=text — readable):

json

{  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",  "language": "en",  "transcript": "[00:00:18] We're no strangers to love\n[00:00:21] You know the rules..."}

{  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",  "language": "en",  "transcript": "[00:00:18] We're no strangers to love\n[00:00:21] You know the rules..."}

Tips

Use format=json for sync'd captions (accessibility tools, timing analysis).
Use format=text with include_timestamp=false for clean reading.
Auto-generated captions are available for most videos; manual CC is higher quality.

Errors

Code	Meaning	Action
401	Bad API key	Check key
402	No credits	transcriptapi.com/billing
403/1010	Cloudflare block	Add or fix User-Agent header
404	No captions	Video doesn't have CC enabled
408	Timeout	Retry once after 2s

1 credit per request. Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min.

Copy-paste examples

Every request in this file as a ready-to-run one-liner: references/curl-examples.md [blocked]

Source and attribution

Source:ZeroPointRepo/youtube-skillsinskills/captionsat commit4f7994b

License: No license

Content belongs to its original authors. SourceWeft indexes it from a public repository.

Report or request removal

Param	Required	Default	Values
`video_url`	yes	—	YouTube URL or video ID
`format`	no	`json`	`json` (structured), `text` (plain)
`include_timestamp`	no	`true`	`true`, `false`
`send_metadata`	no	`false`	`true`, `false`

Captions

Captions

Setup

Required Headers

GET /api/v2/youtube/transcript

Tips

Errors

Copy-paste examples

Source and attribution

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