youtube-transcript-cli

YouTube Transcript CLI

A Node.js CLI that fetches YouTube transcripts from a video URL or video ID.

This project is a standalone CLI package for npm and bun (not an MCP server).

Features

• Fetch transcript by full YouTube URL or raw video ID
• Optional language priority list (--lang=en,fr)
• Optional timestamps (--timestamps)
• Optional chunking by max characters (--max=6000)
• Works as a local command and as a global command (-g)

Command Name

The CLI command is:

yt-transcript

Hyphens are valid in CLI command names.

Installation

Global install (recommended)

npm install -g youtube-transcript-cli
# or with bun
bun add -g youtube-transcript-cli

Then use it directly from any terminal:

yt-transcript https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --timestamps --max=6000

Local install in a project

npm install youtube-transcript-cli
# or with bun
bun add youtube-transcript-cli

Run with npx:

npx yt-transcript https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --timestamps --max=6000

Local Development Test (before publishing)

From this repository folder:

npm install
npm run build
npm link
yt-transcript --help
yt-transcript https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --timestamps --max=6000

# bun alternative
bun install
bun run build
bun link
yt-transcript https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ --lang=en,fr --timestamps --max=6000

Remove the global link when done:

npm unlink -g youtube-transcript-cli
# or with bun
bun unlink -g youtube-transcript-cli

Usage

yt-transcript [<url|videoId>] [--lang en,fr] [--timestamps] [--max 12000]

If no URL/ID is provided, a default demo video is used.

Version

Check the installed CLI version:

yt-transcript -v
yt-transcript --version
# when running without global install via npx:
npx youtube-transcript-cli -v

Options

• --lang=en,fr or --lang en,fr: language priority list
• --timestamps: include timestamps in output
• --max=6000 or --max 6000: chunk output by max characters
• --help or -h: show help

Output Behavior

• Without --max, output is not chunked.
• With --max, output is split into chunks.
• Timestamps are based on real segment offsets.

Use as a Skill (Prompt Examples)

When integrated as a skill in an AI assistant, users can ask:

• Give me the transcript and timestamps on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
• Give me the french transcript of this Youtube video dQw4w9WgXcQ
• Extract transcript in English and French with timestamps for https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ

Publish to npm

When you are ready:

npm login
npm publish

The package is configured with:

• package name: youtube-transcript-cli
• CLI command: yt-transcript

License

MIT