ytx

Extract YouTube transcripts from the terminal. Pipe-friendly, no API key needed.

Why ytx?

• Stdout by default -- transcripts go straight to your terminal, ready to pipe anywhere
• No API key, no setup -- scrapes what it needs from the video page automatically
• Built for LLM workflows -- feed any YouTube video into llm, fabric, mods, or your own tools in one command

Install

cargo install ytx-cli

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/koguchic/ytx.git
cd ytx && cargo install --path .

Quick Start

ytx dQw4w9WgXcQ                         # bare video ID
ytx https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ        # short URL
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=...      # full URL
ytx dQw4w9WgXcQ -t                      # with timestamps
ytx dQw4w9WgXcQ -l ja                   # Japanese captions

Pipe It Anywhere

This is where ytx shines. It's a Unix building block -- grab a transcript and send it wherever you want.

# Search a lecture for a specific concept
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | grep -i "attention mechanism"

# Summarize a video with an LLM
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | llm "what are the key takeaways?"

# Extract action items with fabric
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | fabric -p extract_wisdom

# Get a word count
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | wc -w

# Save to a file
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... > transcript.txt

# Copy to clipboard (macOS)
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | pbcopy

# Translate via LLM
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... -l ja | llm "translate this to English"

# Timestamped transcript to file
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... -t -o notes.txt

Options

How It Works

1. Fetches the YouTube video page and extracts the InnerTube API key
2. Calls the InnerTube player API (ANDROID client) to get caption URLs -- no PoToken needed
3. Fetches and parses the caption XML (supports both srv3 and legacy formats)

No API key required. No browser automation. Just HTTP requests.

Supported URL Formats

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
• https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
• Bare 11-character video IDs

License

MIT