YT Digest
Turns a YouTube URL into a timestamped, screenshotted markdown research note via real yt-dlp + ffmpeg.
Test report
- Verdict
- Tested · Works
- Score
- Tested
- Jul 16, 2026
- Environment
- Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
- Upstream re-checked
- Jul 18, 2026 · 28b8f25
Ran the entire real pipeline (yt-dlp fetch, VTT parse, ffmpeg frame grab, markdown assembly, cleanup) end to end on a live YouTube video, no shortcuts: correct metadata, deduplicated captions, real extracted screenshots, ~21MB source video actually deleted afterward leaving only a 1.3MB vault note+images — it does exactly what it claims, with zero friction.
Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works
- Installs cleanly 5/5
- Triggers reliably 5/5
- Output vs. baseline 10/10
- Docs & honesty 5/5
What YT Digest does
Fetches a video's transcript and (optionally) its 720p file via yt-dlp, de-duplicates rolling auto-captions into clean sentence-level timestamps, has Claude pick 5-10 key moments, grabs a screenshot at each visual moment with ffmpeg, and assembles a single markdown note (TL;DR, timestamp deep-links, screenshots, collapsed transcript) at vault/research/youtube/<slug>.md, deleting the source video afterward. Triggers on a pasted YouTube link plus a summarize/digest request; headless-safe with no interactive prompts.
How to install YT Digest
git clone https://github.com/tga-cheetung/yt-digest.git
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/yt-digest
cp -r yt-digest/SKILL.md yt-digest/scripts ~/.claude/skills/yt-digest/
Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/
(per-project). Restart Claude Code after installing.
Commands — how to trigger YT Digest
-
/yt-digestTurns a YouTube URL into a timestamped, screenshotted markdown research note via real yt-dlp + ffmpeg.
It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:
-
Turn this YouTube tutorial link into a timestamped markdown note -
Digest this conference talk video with screenshots at key moments -
Summarize this YouTube video and save it to my research vault
Frequently asked questions
- Is the YT Digest skill free?
- Yes. The skill itself is free from tga-cheetung/yt-digest. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
- Does YT Digest work with Claude Code?
- We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 16, 2026. Verdict: Tested · Works. Ran the entire real pipeline (yt-dlp fetch, VTT parse, ffmpeg frame grab, markdown assembly, cleanup) end to end on a live YouTube video, no shortcuts: correct metadata, deduplicated captions, real extracted screenshots, ~21MB source video actually deleted afterward leaving only a 1.3MB vault note+images — it does exactly what it claims, with zero friction.
- What is the YT Digest SkillProof Score?
- 10.0/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 10/10, docs & honesty 5/5.
- How do I install YT Digest?
- Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
- Can I use YT Digest with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?
- The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.