GENesis-AGI: Skill for Claude Code

Overview

This skill retrieves YouTube video content (metadata and transcripts) using yt-dlp. WebFetch does not work reliably for YouTube (dynamic content, SSL issues). yt-dlp is the reliable alternative.

Prerequisite: yt-dlp must be installed (pip install yt-dlp).

Workflow

1. Ensure yt-dlp is available (install if needed):

   which yt-dlp || pip install yt-dlp
   

2. Fetch metadata for each video:

   yt-dlp --skip-download --print '%(title)s|||%(uploader)s|||%(description)s' 'VIDEO_URL'
   

3. Fetch the auto-generated transcript. Request both English tracks and prefer en-orig:

   VID='VIDEO_ID'   # <- substitute the real 11-char video id
   mkdir -p ~/tmp/yt-transcripts
   rm -f ~/tmp/yt-transcripts/"$VID".*.vtt        # drop any earlier run's files
   yt-dlp --write-auto-sub --skip-download --sub-langs "en-orig,en" -o "$HOME/tmp/yt-transcripts/%(id)s" 'VIDEO_URL'
   ls ~/tmp/yt-transcripts/ | grep -F -- "$VID"
   

   The rm -f is load-bearing, not tidiness: that directory persists across runs and across videos, so a stale $VID.en-orig.vtt from an earlier fetch would satisfy step 4's preference check even when THIS fetch failed or returned only en — you would clean an old transcript and never see an error. grep -F -- because a video id may begin with -, which grep would otherwise read as options. YouTube may serve two English auto-caption tracks — en-orig ("English (Original)") and en ("English"). Usually they are the same resource. Observed 2026-09 on one video: the two were served with different cue segmentation, and the closing lines differed in wording ("subscribe" vs "subscription") — that wording difference is direct evidence of a different transcription. The same video served byte-identical tracks hours later. Cause unknown; requesting both and preferring en-orig costs one extra small download and is free insurance either way.

   en-orig exists only where the video's original audio is English. On a foreign-language video there is no en-orig, and en is a machine TRANSLATION with nothing in the file marking it as one. A requested track that does not exist is skipped silently — check the ls, and see step 6 if nothing was written.