Extract Videos from YouTube Channel

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

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Workflow

1. Determine Extraction Type

[!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:

[!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)

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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

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Troubleshooting

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Common Mistakes

1. Forgetting /​videos in URL

   • Wrong: https://www.youtube.com/​@veritasium
   • Right: https://www.youtube.com/​@veritasium/​videos

2. 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

3. Expecting transcripts to download

   • This skill ONLY extracts video metadata to CSV
   • Use download-transcripts skill to actually fetch transcripts

4. Not creating directory first

   • The --append-csv path requires parent directory to exist
   • Always run mkdir -p data/<name> before extraction

5. 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

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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

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Next Steps

After extracting videos:

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