subtitles
Get subtitles from YouTube videos for translation, language learning, or reading along. Use when the user asks for subtitles, subs, foreign language text, or wants to read video content. Supports multiple languages and timestamped output for sync'd reading.
Why use this skill?
Easily extract YouTube video subtitles for translation, learning, or reading. Supports clean text and timestamped JSON output for seamless integration.
Install via CLI (Recommended)
clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/therohitdas/subtitlesWhat This Skill Does
The subtitles skill for OpenClaw AI acts as a direct bridge between your workspace and YouTube's vast library of content. By leveraging the TranscriptAPI service, this skill allows users to extract precise video transcripts directly into their chat or local system. Whether you are performing linguistic research, conducting qualitative analysis on video content, or simply looking to read along with a tutorial without audio, this skill streamlines the process by providing both raw text and synchronized, timestamped data. It handles authentication seamlessly by managing API keys and ensuring your configuration is backed up before any changes occur, making it a robust utility for content consumption.
Installation
To integrate this skill, use the command clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/therohitdas/subtitles. Upon installation, the system will check for your credentials. If you are new to the service, the agent will guide you through a two-step registration process: first, provide your email to receive an OTP; second, verify that token via the CLI. The agent will then securely write your API key to ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json. For security, existing configuration files are always backed up as .bak files before any modifications take place.
Use Cases
This tool is ideal for:
- Language Learning: Extracting clean text from foreign language videos to create custom vocabulary lists or flashcards.
- Research & Documentation: Converting long-form video lectures or interviews into searchable text documents for better information retention.
- Accessibility: Providing text-based versions of visual media for users who prefer reading over audio consumption.
- Content Repurposing: Quickly capturing spoken content from technical guides or tutorials to draft summaries or blog posts.
Example Prompts
- "Can you get the subtitles for this YouTube video and format them into a clean paragraph for me to read?"
- "I'm trying to learn Spanish. Please fetch the transcript for this video and include the timestamps so I can sync it with the audio."
- "Summarize the main points of this tutorial, but first, retrieve the full transcript from this video link so you have the accurate data."
Tips & Limitations
- Use
format=textandinclude_timestamp=falsewhen you want a clean reading experience without distraction. - For technical analysis or translation projects, always request
format=jsonwithinclude_timestamp=trueto maintain the integrity of the dialogue flow. - Note that transcripts are only available for videos that have captions enabled or auto-generated by YouTube.
- If you need to use this outside of OpenClaw, you can manually export your key by adding
export TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY=<your-key>to your shell profile.
Metadata
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Find the right skillPaste this into your clawhub.json to enable this plugin.
{
"plugins": {
"official-therohitdas-subtitles": {
"enabled": true,
"auto_update": true
}
}
}Tags(AI)
Flags: network-access, file-write, external-api
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