--- name: transcriptapi description: Full TranscriptAPI toolkit — fetch YouTube transcripts, search videos and channels, browse channel uploads, get latest videos, and explore playlists. Use when the user wants to work with YouTube content programmatically, get transcripts for summarization or analysis, find videos, or monitor channels. Triggers on YouTube URLs, "transcript", "transcriptapi", "video summary", "what did they say", "find videos about", "search youtube". homepage: https://transcriptapi.com user-invocable: true metadata: {"openclaw":{"emoji":"📺","requires":{"env":["TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"],"bins":["node"],"config":["~/.openclaw/openclaw.json"]},"primaryEnv":"TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"}} ---

TranscriptAPI

Full YouTube data toolkit via TranscriptAPI.com. Transcripts, search, channels, playlists — one API key.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, help the user create an account (100 free credits, no card):

Step 1 — Register: Ask user for their email.

node ./scripts/tapi-auth.js register --email USER_EMAIL

→ OTP sent to email. Ask user: _"Check your email for a 6-digit verification code."_

Step 2 — Verify: Once user provides the OTP:

node ./scripts/tapi-auth.js verify --token TOKEN_FROM_STEP_1 --otp CODE

> API key saved to ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json. See File Writes below for details. Existing file is backed up before modification.

Manual option: transcriptapi.com/signup → Dashboard → API Keys.

File Writes

The verify and save-key commands save the API key to ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json (sets skills.entries.transcriptapi.apiKey and enabled: true). Existing file is backed up to ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.bak before modification.

To use the API key in terminal/CLI outside the agent, add to your shell profile manually: export TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY=

API Reference

Full OpenAPI spec: transcriptapi.com/openapi.json — consult this for the latest parameters and schemas.

Auth

All requests: -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Endpoints

Channel endpoints accept channel — an @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID. No need to resolve first. Playlist endpoints accept playlist — a playlist URL or ID.

GET /api/v2/youtube/transcript — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_URL&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

| Param | Required | Default | Validation | | ------------------- | -------- | ------- | ------------------------------- | | video_url | yes | — | YouTube URL or 11-char video ID | | format | no | json | json or text | | include_timestamp | no | true | true or false | | send_metadata | no | false | true or false |

Accepts: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ID, https://youtu.be/ID, youtube.com/shorts/ID, or bare ID.

Response (format=json):

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": [
    { "text": "We're no strangers...", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 }
  ],
  "metadata": { "title": "...", "author_name": "...", "author_url": "..." }
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/search — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

| Param | Required | Default | Validation | | ------- | -------- | ------- | --------------------- | | q | yes | — | 1-200 chars (trimmed) | | type | no | video | video or channel | | limit | no | 20 | 1-50 |

Response (type=video):

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "video",
      "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
      "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "channelTitle": "Rick Astley",
      "channelHandle": "@RickAstley",
      "channelVerified": true,
      "lengthText": "3:33",
      "viewCountText": "1.5B views",
      "publishedTimeText": "14 years ago",
      "hasCaptions": true,
      "thumbnails": [{ "url": "...", "width": 120, "height": 90 }]
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 20
}

Response (type=channel):

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "channel",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "title": "Rick Astley",
      "handle": "@RickAstley",
      "subscriberCount": "4.2M subscribers",
      "verified": true,
      "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC..."
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 5
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve — FREE (0 credits)

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve?input=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

| Param | Required | Validation | | ------- | -------- | --------------------------------------- | | input | yes | 1-200 chars — @handle, URL, or UC... ID |

Response:

{ "channel_id": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q", "resolved_from": "@TED" }

If input is already a valid UC[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{22} ID, returns immediately without lookup.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/videos — 1 credit/page

# First page (100 videos)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?continuation=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

| Param | Required | Validation | | -------------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------------- | | channel | conditional | @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID | | continuation | conditional | non-empty string (next pages) |

Provide exactly one of channel or continuation.

Response:

{
  "results": [{
    "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
    "title": "Latest Video",
    "channelId": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
    "channelTitle": "TED",
    "channelHandle": "@TED",
    "lengthText": "15:22",
    "viewCountText": "3.2M views",
    "thumbnails": [...],
    "index": "0"
  }],
  "playlist_info": {"title": "Uploads from TED", "numVideos": "5000"},
  "continuation_token": "4qmFsgKlARIYVVV1...",
  "has_more": true
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/latest — FREE (0 credits)

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

| Param | Required | Validation | | --------- | -------- | ----------------------------------------- | | channel | yes | @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID |

Returns last 15 videos via RSS with exact view counts and ISO timestamps.

Response:

{
  "channel": {
    "channelId": "...",
    "title": "TED",
    "author": "TED",
    "url": "..."
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
      "title": "Latest Video",
      "published": "2026-01-30T16:00:00Z",
      "viewCount": "2287630",
      "description": "Full description...",
      "thumbnail": { "url": "...", "width": "480", "height": "360" }
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 15
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/search — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search\
?channel=@TED&q=climate+change&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

...