Video Transcript

Extract transcripts from videos via TranscriptAPI.com.

Setup

$TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY

is not set, help the user create an account (100 free credits, no card):

Step 1 — Register: Ask user for their email.

node ./scripts/tapi-auth.js register --email USER_EMAIL

→ OTP sent to email. Ask user: "Check your email for a 6-digit verification code."

Step 2 — Verify: Once user provides the OTP:

node ./scripts/tapi-auth.js verify --token TOKEN_FROM_STEP_1 --otp CODE

API key saved to
~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
. See File Writes below for details. Existing file is backed up before modification.

Manual option: transcriptapi.com/signup → Dashboard → API Keys.

File Writes

The verify and save-key commands save the API key to

~/.openclaw/openclaw.json

(sets

skills.entries.transcriptapi.apiKey

and

enabled: true

). Existing file is backed up to
~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.bak
before modification.

To use the API key in terminal/CLI outside the agent, add to your shell profile manually:

export TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY=<your-key>

GET /api/v2/youtube/transcript

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_URL&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Param	Required	Default	Values
`video_url`	yes	—	YouTube URL or 11-char video ID
`format`	no	`json`	`json` (structured), `text` (readable)
`include_timestamp`	no	`true`	`true` , `false`
`send_metadata`	no	`false`	`true` , `false`

Accepted URL formats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

```
https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
```
```
https://youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
```
Bare video ID:
```
dQw4w9WgXcQ
```

Response (

format=text&send_metadata=true

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": "[00:00:18] We're no strangers to love\n[00:00:21] You know the rules...",
  "metadata": {
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
    "author_name": "Rick Astley",
    "author_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstley",
    "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg"
  }
}

Response (

format=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 }
  ]
}

Tips

Summarize long transcripts into key points first, offer full text on request.
Use
```
format=json
```
when you need precise timestamps for quoting specific moments.
Use
```
send_metadata=true
```
to get video title and channel for context.
Works with YouTube Shorts too.

Errors

Code	Meaning	Action
401	Bad API key	Check key or re-setup
402	No credits	Top up at transcriptapi.com/billing
404	No transcript	Video may not have captions enabled
408	Timeout	Retry once after 2s

1 credit per successful request. Errors don't consume credits. Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min.

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