youtube-full-channel-transcripts

# YouTube Full Channel Transcripts **Free, local alternative to Apify actor** — no third-party paid APIs. Fetches all videos from a YouTube channel (or playlist), extracts available transcripts (auto-generated or manual), and exports to JSON/CSV. ## When to Use - "Get all transcripts from channel X" - "Export channel Y's video subtitles" - "Build dataset of all videos from creator Z" ## Prerequisites - `yt-dlp` installed (https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp) - `jq` installed (for JSON processing) - Internet connection ## Usage ```bash # Basic: fetch all transcripts from a channel youtube_full_channel_transcripts channel_url="https://www.youtube.com/@SomeChannel" output_format="json" # With filters youtube_full_channel_transcripts channel_url="https://www.youtube.com/c/ChannelName" max_videos=50 languages="en" include_auto_generated=true ``` ## Options | Parameter | Type | Required | Description | |-----------|------|----------|-------------| | `channel_url` | string | yes | YouTube channel URL, handle, or playlist URL | | `output_format` | string | no | Output format: `json` (default) or `csv` | | `max_videos` | integer | no | Limit number of videos to process (default: all) | | `languages` | string | no | Comma-separated language codes (e.g., `en,es`). Default: `en` | | `include_auto_generated` | boolean | no | Include auto-generated transcripts? (default: `true`) | | `output_dir` | string | no | Directory to save results (default: `workspace/exports/youtube-transcripts`) | ## Output - `transcripts.json` or `transcripts.csv` — structured data with: ```json { "video_id": "abc123", "title": "Video Title", "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=abc123", "upload_date": "20240322", "duration": 360, "language": "en", "transcript": "Full text...", "is_auto_generated": false } ``` - Summary printed to console: number of videos processed, success/failure counts. ## Implementation Details 1. **Discovery:** `yt-dlp --flat-playlist -J` to list all videos 2. **Transcript fetch:** `yt-dlp --write-subs --sub-format srt --skip-download` per video 3. **Parsing:** Extract SRT subtitles and convert to plain text 4. **Combine:** Aggregate results into JSON/CSV ## Errors & Retries - If a video has no available transcript, it's skipped (logged) - Network errors: retry up to 3 times with backoff - Rate limiting: yt-dlp handles automatically; can add `--sleep-interval` if needed ## Notes - Respect YouTube's rate limits. The tool includes small delays by default. - Large channels (100+ videos) may take a while; use `max_videos` to limit. - Auto-generated transcripts are more available but less accurate.