YouTube to Docs

Overview

This skill allows you to process YouTube videos to extract transcripts, generate AI summaries, create infographics, and even produce video summaries. You have access to the youtube-to-docs:process_video tool which handles these operations.

Requirements & Dependencies

The youtube-to-docs:process_video tool is a high-level interface that relies on several optional libraries ("extras") and system binaries to function. These are managed automatically when running via the provided MCP configuration or uv.

• Python Libraries: Many features (audio extraction, video generation, cloud storage) require specific extras.
• System Binaries: Features like video creation (combine_infographic_audio) require ffmpeg (handled by the static-ffmpeg library).
• Automatic Setup: The MCP server (configured in .mcp.json) uses uv run --all-extras to ensure all necessary libraries are installed in a managed environment before execution.

Workflows

1. Transcript Extraction

Use this when the user simply wants the text transcript of a video, without additional AI processing.

• Goal: Get the raw text from a YouTube video.
• Tool: youtube-to-docs:process_video
• Required Argument: url (The YouTube link)
• Defaults: By default, process_video fetches the transcript from YouTube.
• Example Prompt: "Get the transcript for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..."

2. Infographic Generation

Use this when the user wants a visual summary or "infographic" representing the video's content.

• Goal: Create a visual summary (image).
• Tool: youtube-to-docs:process_video
• Required Argument: url (The YouTube link)
• Optional Arguments:
  • infographic_model: The image generation model to use.
  • model: The text model for summarization (required context for the image).
• Model Selection Strategy:
  • Pro (High Quality): Use if "gemini pro" is requested.
    • model='gemini-3.1-pro-preview'
    • infographic_model='gemini-3-pro-image'
  • Flash (Default/Speed/Cost): Use if "gemini flash" is requested or no preference is stated.
    • model='gemini-3.5-flash-lite'
    • infographic_model='gemini-3-pro-image'

• Alt Text (Accessibility): By default, process_video generates multimodal alt text using the summary model (image-to-text) for any created infographic. Use alt_text_model to override the model for this step.
• Confirmation: Proceed without asking for extra confirmation unless parameters are missing.

3. Kitchen Sink (Comprehensive Processing)

Use this when the user asks for "everything", a "kitchen sink" run, or a "video summary". This generates transcripts, text summaries, Q&A, audio summaries (TTS), infographics, and combines them into a video file.

• Goal: Generate all possible artifacts, including a video file.
• Tool: youtube-to-docs:process_video
• Required Argument: url (The YouTube link)
• Optional Arguments:
  • all_suite: Shortcut to set models ('gemini-flash' or 'gemini-pro').
  • combine_infographic_audio: Set to True to create the final video (Requires video extra).
  • verbose: Set to True for detailed logging.
  • translate: Translate all outputs to a target language. Format: {model}-{language} e.g. gemini-3.5-flash-lite-es, or aws-translate-{language} e.g. aws-translate-es to use AWS Translate directly, or gcp-translate-{language} e.g. gcp-translate-es to use Google Cloud Translation directly.
• Model Selection Strategy:
  • Pro (Default): all_suite='gemini-pro' (best for video quality).
  • Flash: all_suite='gemini-flash' (faster).
• Language Handling:
  • "spanish" or "es" -> translate='gemini-3.5-flash-lite-es'
  • "french" or "fr" -> translate='gemini-3.5-flash-lite-fr'
  • Default -> omit translate (English only)

4. Suggested Corrected Captions (WCAG / Section 508)

Use this when the user wants to improve caption quality for accessibility compliance.

• Goal: Generate a corrected SRT file following WCAG 2.1 Level AA and Section 508 guidelines.
• Tool: youtube-to-docs:process_video
• Required Argument: url + suggest_corrected_captions
• Format: {model} or {model}-{source}
  • suggest_corrected_captions='gemini-3.5-flash-lite' — auto-detects most recent AI SRT
  • suggest_corrected_captions='gemini-3.5-flash-lite-youtube' — corrects the YouTube-generated SRT
  • suggest_corrected_captions='gemini-3.5-flash-lite-gcp-chirp3' — corrects an STT SRT from gcp-chirp3
• Output: Diff-style SRT (changed segments only, or NO_CHANGES). Saved to suggested-corrected-caption-files/. Column: Suggested Corrected Captions File ({model}).
• Speaker Labels: If speaker extraction was run (model set), the corrected captions will include [Name] labels at each speaker change.

5. Custom / Advanced Usage

Use this when the user specifies particular models or output locations.

• Output Locations:
  • Local: Default.
  • Google Drive: output_file='workspace' (Requires workspace extra).
  • SharePoint: output_file='sharepoint' (Requires m365 extra).
  • Memory: output_file='memory' (keeps artifacts in memory, no files on disk).
• Transcription Source:
  • Default is YouTube captions.
  • To use AI for transcription (STT), set transcript_source to a model name (e.g., 'gemini-3.5-transcribe', 'gemini-3.5-flash-lite' or 'gcp-chirp3'). gemini-3.5-transcribe is Google's dedicated STT model and gives word-level timestamps plus [Speaker N] diarization labels in the SRT.
  • Note: gcp- models require PROJECT_ID and optional YTD_GCS_BUCKET_NAME environment variables.

Tool Reference: youtube-to-docs:process_video

Argument	Description	Required Extra	Examples
url	Required. YouTube URL, ID, Playlist ID, or Channel Handle.	-	https://youtu.be/..., @channel
model	LLM for summaries/Q&A.	gcp / azure	gemini-3.5-flash-lite
infographic_model	Model for generating the infographic image.	gcp	gemini-3-pro-image
alt_text_model	Model for generating multimodal alt text for the infographic.	gcp	gemini-3.5-flash-lite
tts_model	Model for text-to-speech audio.	gcp	gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview-Kore, gcp-chirp3-Kore
all_suite	Shortcut to apply a suite of models.	gcp, audio, video	gemini-pro, gemini-flash
combine_infographic_audio	Boolean. If True, creates an MP4 video.	video	True
translate	Translate all outputs to a target language. Format: {model}-{language}, aws-translate-{language}, or gcp-translate-{language}.	-	gemini-3.5-flash-lite-es, aws-translate-es, gcp-translate-es
suggest_corrected_captions	Suggest WCAG 2.1 / Section 508 corrected captions. Format: {model} or {model}-{source}.	-	gemini-3.5-flash-lite, gemini-3.5-flash-lite-youtube, gemini-3.5-flash-lite-gcp-chirp3
post_process	Post-process the transcript with JSON operations. Results added as CSV columns.	-	'{"word count": "apple"}', '{"word count": ["apple", "banana"]}'
output_file	Destination for the CSV report.	workspace / m365	workspace, sharepoint, memory
transcript_source	Source for transcript (default: 'youtube').	audio, gcp (for Chirp)	gemini-3.5-transcribe, gemini-3.5-flash-lite, gcp-chirp3

Examples

User: "Get me a transcript of this video." Action: Call youtube-to-docs:process_video(url='...')

User: "Make an infographic for this video using Gemini Pro." Action: Call youtube-to-docs:process_video(url='...', model='gemini-3.1-pro-preview', infographic_model='gemini-3-pro-image')

User: "Do a kitchen sink run on this video in Spanish." Action: Call youtube-to-docs:process_video(url='...', all_suite='gemini-pro', combine_infographic_audio=True, verbose=True, translate='gemini-3.5-flash-lite-es')

User: "Summarize this playlist and save it to Drive." Action: Call youtube-to-docs:process_video(url='PL...', model='gemini-3.5-flash-lite', output_file='workspace')

User: "Correct the YouTube captions for this video for accessibility." Action: Call youtube-to-docs:process_video(url='...', suggest_corrected_captions='gemini-3.5-flash-lite-youtube')

User: "Generate corrected captions from the STT transcript." Action: Call youtube-to-docs:process_video(url='...', transcript_source='gcp-chirp3', suggest_corrected_captions='gemini-3.5-flash-lite-gcp-chirp3')

User: "Count how many times 'apple' appears in this video's transcript." Action: Call youtube-to-docs:process_video(url='...', post_process='{"word count": "apple"}')

Development & CLI Usage

While this skill primarily uses the youtube-to-docs:process_video tool, you can also run the underlying CLI manually for testing or development.

Note on CLI Syntax: The video URL/ID is a positional argument and is required. Do NOT use --url.

Always use uv to run the tool (do not use python directly) to ensure dependencies are correctly resolved:

# General Syntax:
uv run youtube-to-docs <video_url_or_id> [options]

# Example: Get transcript
uv run youtube-to-docs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0x2I_doX9o

# Example: Kitchen sink with gemini-pro suite
uv run youtube-to-docs B0x2I_doX9o --all gemini-pro --verbose

# Example: Translate to Spanish
uv run youtube-to-docs B0x2I_doX9o -m gemini-3.5-flash-lite -tr gemini-3.5-flash-lite-es

# Example: Suggest corrected captions from YouTube SRT
uv run youtube-to-docs B0x2I_doX9o -scc gemini-3.5-flash-lite-youtube

# Example: STT transcription + corrected captions in one run
uv run youtube-to-docs B0x2I_doX9o -t gcp-chirp3 -scc gemini-3.5-flash-lite-gcp-chirp3

# Example: Post-process transcript to count word occurrences
uv run youtube-to-docs B0x2I_doX9o -pp '{"word count": ["apple", "banana"]}'

See docs/usage.md for full documentation and docs/development.md for setup details.

MCP Configuration: The MCP server definition is located in .mcp.json. It is explicitly configured to use uv with --all-extras to ensure the correct environment and dependencies are used:

"command": "uv",
"args": [ ..., "run", "--all-extras", "python", "-m", "youtube_to_docs.mcp_server" ]