Use when the spoken content of a YouTube video is needed — even if not explicitly requested: pasted video links or IDs, requests to summarize, quote, transcribe, translate, fact-check, or extract anything from a video. Also use for research or learning when a video is the source. Not for uploads or

Transcript Fetch video transcripts via [TranscriptAPI.com](https://transcriptapi.com). Setup If $TRANSCRIPT API KEY is not set, read [references/auth setup.md](references/auth setup.md) and follow the instructions there to get and store the key. Required Headers Every request needs two headers: Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT API KEY User Agent: your agent's name and version if known (e.g. HermesAgent/0.11.0 , ClaudeCode/1.0 ). Version is optional — agent name alone is fine. Do not omit this header or send a bare default — Cloudflare will return a 403 (error code 1010) and block the request. GET /api/v2/youtube/transcript Param Required Default Values video url yes — YouTube URL or 11 char video ID format no json json , text include timestamp no true true , false send metadata no false true , false Accepts: full URLs ( youtube.com/watch?v=ID ), short URLs ( youtu.be/ID ), shorts ( youtube.com/shorts/ID ), or bare video IDs. Default: Always use format=text&include timestamp=true&send metadata=true unless user specifies otherwise. Response ( format=json ): Response ( format=text ): Errors Code Meaning Action 401 Bad API key Check key or re setup 402 No credits Top up at transcriptapi.com/billing 403/1010 Cloudflare block Add or fix User Agent header 404 No transcript Video may not have captions enabled 408 Timeout Retry once after 2s 429 Rate limited Wait and retry Tips For long videos, summarize key points first, offer full transcript on request. Use format=json when you need precise timestamps for quoting specific moments. Use include timestamp=false for clean text suitable for translation or analysis. 1 credit per successful request. Errors don't cost credits. Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min. Copy paste examples Every request in this file as a ready to run one liner: [references/curl examples.md](references/curl examples.md)