--- name: yt description: Quick YouTube utility — fetch transcripts, search videos, get latest from channels. Use when someone shares a YouTube link, asks about a video, or says "yt", "youtube", "check this video", "what's this video about", "find videos about", "latest from". 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"}} ---

yt

Quick YouTube lookup via TranscriptAPI.com.

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.

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"

Search — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

| Param | Default | Values | | ------- | ------- | ---------------------- | | q | — | 1-200 chars (required) | | type | video | video, channel | | limit | 20 | 1-50 |

Channel latest — FREE

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

Returns last 15 videos with exact view counts and publish dates. Accepts @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID.

Resolve handle — FREE

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

Use to convert @handle to UC... channel ID.

Errors

| Code | Action | | ---- | -------------------------------------- | | 402 | No credits — transcriptapi.com/billing | | 404 | Not found / no captions | | 408 | Timeout — retry once |

Free tier: 100 credits. Search and transcript cost 1 credit. Channel latest and resolve are free.