Nate B Jones Digest

Overview#

Use this skill whenever you need to keep Richard (or any configured subscriber) up to date on new Nate B Jones videos. The workflow:

1. Detect a new upload on https://www.youtube.com/@NateBJones.
2. Retrieve the transcript (official captions first, Whisper fallback if missing).
3. Summarize the video into an abstract, bullet highlights, and a "References & Links" list.
4. Publish according to the installation's config: email, Control UI/Telegram chat, Google Doc, Markdown file, etc.

All runtime options live in references/config-example.yml. Copy that file, rename it (e.g. config.yml), fill in your preferences, and point the workflow to it.

1. Configure#

1. Copy references/config-example.yml to config.yml (or any path you prefer).
2. Fill in:
   • channel_url or channel_id (the example already targets @NateBJones).
   • poll_cron (default daily at 09:00 local).
   • outputs.email.to, outputs.chat.targets, outputs.doc.type/path.
   • API credentials: YouTube Data API key (for upload polling), Gmail/Google Docs auth handled via gog skill.
3. Store the config path somewhere easy to reference (e.g. skills/nate-b-jones-digest/config.yml).

2. Poll for new videos#

• Preferred: use the YouTube Data API playlistItems endpoint for the channel's uploads playlist. Example: bash

  curl "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlistItems?part=snippet,contentDetails&maxResults=5&playlistId=UPLOADS_PLAYLIST_ID&key=$YOUTUBE_API_KEY"
  
  

• Lightweight alternative: use yt-dlp to check the latest upload ID without downloading video: bash

  yt-dlp --flat-playlist --dump-json "https://www.youtube.com/@NateBJones/videos" | head -n 1 > latest.json
  jq -r '.id' latest.json
  
  

• Compare the discovered video ID with the last processed ID stored in your run logs (e.g., a simple last_video.txt or a Notion/Sheets tracker). Only proceed if it's new.

3. Fetch transcripts#

1. Try official captions via youtube_transcript_api: python

   from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi
   transcript = YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id, languages=['en'])
   text = '\n'.join([chunk['text'] for chunk in transcript])
   
   

2. If captions are unavailable, download audio and run Whisper: bash

   yt-dlp -f 140 -o audio.m4a "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=$VIDEO_ID"
   whisper audio.m4a --model medium --language en --task transcribe --output_format txt
   
   

3. Save the raw transcript alongside metadata (title, URL, publish date, duration). Keep it in your logs for traceability but do not distribute it by default.

4. Summarize#

Produce:

• Abstract (2–3 sentences) summarizing the thesis of the video.
• Highlights – 4–6 bullets (verb-led). Mention timestamps where possible (e.g., [05:42] Key insight).
• References & Links – always include the YouTube URL and any external resources the video mentions.

Template:

text

# Nate B Jones Daily Digest — {{DATE}}

**Video:** {{TITLE}} ({{DURATION}}) → {{URL}}
**Abstract:** ...

## Highlights
- ...

## References & Links
- {{URL}}
- ...

5. Publish per config#

Email (uses gog skill)#

Do not attach the transcript unless someone explicitly asks for it—email only the digest body linked above.

bash

GOG_KEYRING_PASSWORD=... gog gmail send \
  --to "{{config.outputs.email.to}}" \
  --subject "Nate B Jones Digest — {{DATE}}" \
  --body-file summary.txt \
  --body-html summary.html

Chat#

• Control UI / Telegram: paste the summary or use the relevant messaging command (e.g., message action=send ...).
• Respect config.outputs.chat.targets (list of surfaces).

Document archive#

• Google Docs: bash

  gog docs create "Nate B Jones Digest {{DATE}}" --body summary.md
  gog docs share <docId> --email {{config.outputs.doc.share_with}}
  
  

• Markdown on disk: write to the specified path in outputs.doc.path.

6. Automate (optional)#

• Create a cron job or OpenClaw cron entry using poll_cron from config. Each run should:

  1. Poll for new video.
  2. If found, fetch transcript, summarize, publish, log the video ID.

• Keep lightweight audit logs (CSV or JSON) so you can prove what was sent and avoid duplicate emails.

References#

• references/config-example.yml — copy/edit this to match each installation.
• youtube_transcript_api docs: https://pypi.org/project/youtube-transcript-api/
• Whisper CLI: https://github.com/openai/whisper

Stick to the playbook format every time so downstream consumers get consistent digests, and always fall back to Whisper if captions are missing.