Extract Videos from YouTube Channel

Why? Manually tracking YouTube videos is tedious and error-prone. This skill automates extracting video metadata (titles, durations, URLs) into a CSV for systematic transcript downloading and analysis.

Quick Start

# Recurring channel (adds to channels.yaml for future syncs)
mkdir -p data/<channel-name>
transcript-extract https://www.youtube.com/@ChannelName/videos \
  --count 50 \
  --append-csv data/<channel-name>/videos.csv \
  --register-channel

# One-time extraction (conferences, playlists)
mkdir -p data/<name>
transcript-extract <youtube_url> --count 100 --append-csv data/<name>/videos.csv

Workflow

1. Determine Extraction Type

| Scenario | Use --register-channel? | Typical Count | |----------|---------------------------|---------------| | New channel for ongoing tracking | Yes | 50-200 initial, then 20-50 for syncs | | Conference talks (one-time) | No | 50-500 | | Specific playlist/topic | No | As needed | | Testing/exploration | No | 5-10 |

[!TIP] Use --register-channel only for channels you want to sync regularly. It adds the channel to data/channels.yaml for the sync-all-channels skill.

2. Create Directory Structure

mkdir -p data/<channel-name>

Naming conventions:

Use lowercase with hyphens: aws-reinvent-2025, veritasium, lexfridman
Match the YouTube handle when possible: @veritasium becomes veritasium
For conferences, include year: pycon-2025, kubecon-eu-2024

3. Run Extraction Command

transcript-extract <channel_url> \
  --count <N> \
  --append-csv data/<channel-name>/videos.csv \
  [--register-channel]

Parameters:

| Option | Description | Default | When to Use | |--------|-------------|---------|-------------| | --count, -n | Number of latest videos | 10 | Always specify explicitly | | --append-csv | CSV file path | Required | Always use for tracking | | --register-channel | Add to channels.yaml | False | Recurring channels only | | --output, -o | Save video IDs to text file | - | Rarely needed | | --verbose, -v | Enable verbose output | False | Debugging |

[!CAUTION] The --count in the command sets the INITIAL extraction count. The count in channels.yaml (set by --register-channel) controls FUTURE sync counts. These are independent values.

4. Verify Extraction

# Check CSV was created with expected columns
head -3 data/<channel-name>/videos.csv

# Count extracted videos
wc -l data/<channel-name>/videos.csv

Expected CSV columns:

url - Full YouTube video URL
title - Video title
duration_minutes - Video length
view_count - Number of views
description - Video description
transcript_downloaded - Tracking field (initially empty)
summary_done - Tracking field (initially empty)

Examples

Adding a New Channel for Regular Syncing

# 1. Create directory
mkdir -p data/veritasium

# 2. Extract initial batch with registration
transcript-extract https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium/videos \
  --count 100 \
  --append-csv data/veritasium/videos.csv \
  --register-channel

# Result: 100 videos extracted, channel added to channels.yaml with count: 100

One-Time Conference Extraction

# Extract AWS re:Invent talks (won't be synced later)
mkdir -p data/aws-reinvent-2025
transcript-extract https://www.youtube.com/@AWSEventsChannel/videos \
  --count 200 \
  --append-csv data/aws-reinvent-2025/videos.csv

# No --register-channel = not added to channels.yaml

Re-running on Existing CSV (Incremental Update)

# Running again only adds NEW videos (duplicates auto-skipped)
transcript-extract https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium/videos \
  --count 20 \
  --append-csv data/veritasium/videos.csv

# Safe to run multiple times - existing videos preserved

Troubleshooting

| Problem | Cause | Solution | |---------|-------|----------| | "No videos found" | Wrong URL format | Use https://www.youtube.com/@ChannelName/videos (include /videos) | | CSV not created | Directory doesn't exist | Run mkdir -p data/<name> first | | Duplicate videos appearing | Running with different URL variants | Always use canonical @handle/videos format | | Channel not in channels.yaml | Forgot --register-channel | Re-run with flag, or manually add to YAML | | Wrong video count in channels.yaml | Flag uses command's --count value | Edit channels.yaml manually to adjust future sync count | | Permission denied | File locked or read-only | Close any apps using the CSV |

Common Mistakes

Forgetting /videos in URL
- Wrong: https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium
- Right: https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium/videos
Using --register-channel for one-time extractions
- This pollutes channels.yaml with channels you won't sync
- Only use for channels you want in the regular sync rotation
Expecting transcripts to download
- This skill ONLY extracts video metadata to CSV
- Use download-transcripts skill to actually fetch transcripts
Not creating directory first
- The --append-csv path requires parent directory to exist
- Always run mkdir -p data/<name> before extraction
Confusing command --count with channels.yaml count
- Command --count: How many videos to extract NOW
- channels.yaml count: How many videos for FUTURE syncs
- Initial extraction might be 200, but sync count might be 30

Quality Checklist

Before considering extraction complete:

[ ] Directory created in data/ with proper naming
[ ] CSV exists with expected video count
[ ] CSV has all required columns (url, title, duration_minutes, etc.)
[ ] If recurring channel: entry exists in channels.yaml
[ ] If recurring channel: channels.yaml count is set appropriately for future syncs

Next Steps

After extracting videos:

Download transcripts: Use the download-transcripts skill
Sync channels later: Use sync-all-channels for registered channels
Add summaries: Use summarize-transcripts after downloading