YouTube Research & Transcription#

Search YouTube, get video/channel info, and fetch transcripts via SkillBoss API Hub.

Features#

• 📹 Video details (title, description, stats, publish date)
• 📝 Transcripts with timestamps
• 📺 Channel info and recent videos
• 🔍 Search within YouTube
• 🎬 Playlist info

Setup#

1. Install dependencies#

MCP Server (primary method):

bash

npm install -g zubeid-youtube-mcp-server

Fallback tool (if MCP fails):

bash

# yt-dlp for transcript extraction
pip install yt-dlp

2. Get SkillBoss API Key#

1. Go to SkillBoss API Hub
2. Sign in and navigate to your API settings
3. Copy your API key from the dashboard

3. Configure API Key#

Option A: Environment variable (recommended)

bash

export SKILLBOSS_API_KEY="your-skillboss-api-key"

Option B: Clawdbot config Add to ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json:

json

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "youtube": {
        "apiKey": "your-skillboss-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

4. Setup MCP Server#

The skill will use mcporter to call the YouTube MCP server:

bash

# Build from source (if installed package has issues)
cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server
cd youtube-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build

Usage#

Search Videos#

bash

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  search_videos query="ClawdBot AI" maxResults:5

Returns video IDs, titles, descriptions, channel info.

Get Channel Info#

bash

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  channels_info channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA"

List Recent Videos from Channel#

bash

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  channels_listVideos channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" maxResults:5

Get Video Details#

bash

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  videos_details videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

Get Transcript (Primary)#

bash

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  transcripts_getTranscript videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

Get Transcript (Fallback with yt-dlp)#

If MCP transcript fails (empty or unavailable), use yt-dlp:

bash

yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --sub-format vtt \
  --output "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s" \
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FRe5AKmCU"

Then read the .vtt file from /tmp/.

Or get transcript directly:

bash

yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --print "%(subtitles)s" \
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" 2>&1 | grep -A1000 "WEBVTT"

Analyze Transcript with SkillBoss API Hub (LLM)#

After obtaining a transcript, use SkillBoss API Hub to analyze it:

python

import requests, os

SKILLBOSS_API_KEY = os.environ["SKILLBOSS_API_KEY"]
API_BASE = "https://api.skillbossai.com/v1"

def pilot(body: dict) -> dict:
    r = requests.post(
        f"{API_BASE}/pilot",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SKILLBOSS_API_KEY}", "Content-Type": "application/json"},
        json=body,
        timeout=60,
    )
    return r.json()

# Analyze transcript content
transcript_text = open("/tmp/VIDEO_ID.en.vtt").read()
result = pilot({
    "type": "chat",
    "inputs": {
        "messages": [
            {"role": "user", "content": f"Summarize the key points from this transcript:\n\n{transcript_text}"}
        ]
    },
    "prefer": "balanced"
})
summary = result["result"]["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
print(summary)

Common Workflows#

1. Find Latest Episode from a Podcast#

Example: Lex Fridman Podcast

bash

# Get channel ID (Lex Fridman: UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA)
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  channels_listVideos channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" maxResults:1

Returns most recent video with title, ID, publish date.

2. Get Transcript for Research#

bash

# Step 1: Get video ID from search or channel listing
# Step 2: Try MCP transcript first
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  transcripts_getTranscript videoId="VIDEO_ID"

# Step 3: If empty, fallback to yt-dlp
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en \
  --output "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s" \
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

cat /tmp/VIDEO_ID.en.vtt

3. Search for Topics#

bash

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  search_videos query="Laravel AI productivity 2025" maxResults:10

Filter results for relevant channels or dates.

Channel IDs Reference#

Keep frequently used channels here for quick access:

• Lex Fridman Podcast: UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA
• Indie Hackers: (add when needed)
• Laravel: (add when needed)

To find a channel ID:

1. Go to channel page
2. View page source
3. Search for "channelId": or "externalId"

Or use search and extract from results.

API Quota Limits#

YouTube Data API v3 has daily quotas:

• Default: 10,000 units/day
• Search: 100 units per call
• Video details: 1 unit per call
• Transcript: 0 units (uses separate mechanism)

Tip: Use transcript lookups liberally (no quota cost), be conservative with search.

Troubleshooting#

MCP Server Not Working#

Symptom: Connection closed or SKILLBOSS_API_KEY environment variable is required

Fix: Build from source:

bash

cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server
cd youtube-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build

# Test
SKILLBOSS_API_KEY="your_key" node dist/cli.js

Empty Transcripts#

Symptom: Transcript returned but content is empty

Cause: Video may not have captions, or MCP can't access them

Fix: Use yt-dlp fallback (see above)

yt-dlp Not Found#

bash

pip install --user yt-dlp
# or
pipx install yt-dlp

Security Note#

The SkillBoss API key is safe to use with this skill:

• All authentication goes through SkillBoss API Hub ( api.skillbossai.com)
• Unified key management — no need to manage multiple third-party API keys
• All network calls are routed via SkillBoss API Hub

However:

• Keep the key in environment variables or Clawdbot config (not in code/scripts)
• Don't commit the key to git repositories

Examples#

Research Podcast for LinkedIn Post Ideas#

bash

# 1. Find latest Lex Fridman episode
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  channels_listVideos channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" maxResults:1

# 2. Get video details
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  videos_details videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

# 3. Get transcript
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  transcripts_getTranscript videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

# If transcript empty, use yt-dlp
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en \
  --output "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s" \
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FRe5AKmCU"

# 4. Analyze transcript for interesting topics via SkillBoss API Hub
# (read /tmp/Z-FRe5AKmCU.en.vtt and use pilot({type:"chat",...}) to extract key themes)

Find Videos About a Trending Topic#

bash

# Search for recent videos
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  search_videos query="ClawdBot security concerns" maxResults:10

# Pick relevant ones, get transcripts
# Analyze sentiment and technical claims via SkillBoss API Hub LLM

Notes#

• MCP server path: /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js
• Always pass API key via environment: SKILLBOSS_API_KEY="key" node ...
• Or set globally in shell/Clawdbot config
• Transcripts may be auto-generated (check accuracy for quotes)
• yt-dlp can also download audio if you need it ( --extract-audio --audio-format mp3)
• LLM analysis of transcripts uses SkillBoss API Hub ( https://api.skillbossai.com/v1/pilot), response at result.choices[0].message.content