YouTube Channel Monitor (AssemblyAI)#

Monitor YouTube channels and auto-transcribe new videos using AssemblyAI cloud API. Zero local dependencies beyond requests.

Prerequisites#

1. AssemblyAI account: https://www.assemblyai.com/app/signup (free, 100 hours/month)
2. API Key: from Dashboard
3. requests library (usually pre-installed with OpenClaw/Python)

Setup API Key#

Choose one:

bash

# Option A: environment variable
export ASSEMBLYAI_API_KEY="your-key"

# Option B: config file
echo '{"api_key": "your-key"}' > data/config.json

How It Works#

text

Channel page → innertube API → audio direct URL → AssemblyAI cloud → text + summary

No local audio download, no Whisper, no ffmpeg. AssemblyAI handles everything server-side.

Commands#

bash

# Transcribe a single video
python3 scripts/monitor.py now "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

# Add a channel to monitor
python3 scripts/monitor.py add "https://www.youtube.com/@ChannelName/videos" "Alias"

# Check all channels for new videos + transcribe
python3 scripts/monitor.py check [count_per_channel]

# List channels
python3 scripts/monitor.py list

# Remove channel
python3 scripts/monitor.py remove "Alias"

Important Notes#

• Audio URL extraction uses YouTube's innertube API (pure requests).
• Works on normal residential IPs. Datacenter IPs may get blocked by YouTube.
• If audio URL extraction fails with UNPLAYABLE, the IP may be flagged — this is a YouTube limitation, not a bug.
• Free tier: 100 hours/month of transcription.
• Transcription takes ~70-80% of video duration.
• Results saved to data/summaries/{video_id}.json.

Output Format#

Each result includes:

• text: full transcription
• summary: AI-generated paragraph summary
• confidence: transcription confidence score
• utterances: timestamped segments with speaker labels

Files#

PathPurposedata/channels.jsonmonitored channelsdata/processed.jsonalready-transcribed video IDsdata/summaries/*.jsontranscription resultsdata/config.jsonAPI key (optional)