ytx-cli-0.1.0 is not a library.

ytx

Extract YouTube transcripts from the terminal. Pipe-friendly, no API key needed.

Why ytx?

Stdout by default -- transcripts go straight to your terminal, ready to pipe anywhere
No API key, no setup -- scrapes what it needs from the video page automatically
Built for LLM workflows -- feed any YouTube video into llm, fabric, mods, or your own tools in one command

Install

cargo install ytx-cli

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/koguchic/ytx.git
cd ytx && cargo install --path .

Quick Start

ytx dQw4w9WgXcQ                         # bare video ID
ytx https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ        # short URL
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=...      # full URL
ytx dQw4w9WgXcQ -t                      # with timestamps
ytx dQw4w9WgXcQ -l ja                   # Japanese captions

Pipe It Anywhere

This is where ytx shines. It's a Unix building block -- grab a transcript and send it wherever you want.

# Search a lecture for a specific concept
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | grep -i "attention mechanism"

# Summarize a video with an LLM
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | llm "what are the key takeaways?"

# Extract action items with fabric
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | fabric -p extract_wisdom

# Get a word count
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | wc -w

# Save to a file
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... > transcript.txt

# Copy to clipboard (macOS)
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... | pbcopy

# Translate via LLM
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... -l ja | llm "translate this to English"

# Timestamped transcript to file
ytx https://youtube.com/watch?v=... -t -o notes.txt

Options

Flag	Description	Default
`-t, --timestamps`	Prepend `[MM:SS]` or `[HH:MM:SS]` timestamps	off
`-l, --lang <CODE>`	Caption language code	`en`
`-o, --output <FILE>`	Write to file instead of stdout	stdout

How It Works

Fetches the YouTube video page and extracts the InnerTube API key
Calls the InnerTube player API (ANDROID client) to get caption URLs -- no PoToken needed
Fetches and parses the caption XML (supports both srv3 and legacy formats)

No API key required. No browser automation. Just HTTP requests.

Supported URL Formats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
Bare 11-character video IDs

License

MIT

ytx-cli 0.1.0

ytx