yt-dlp

Download YouTube videos, audio, and subtitles/transcripts.

Setup

Check if yt-dlp is installed, and download it if not:

if ! command -v yt-dlp &>/dev/null && [ ! -f ~/yt-dlp ]; then
  curl -sL https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o ~/yt-dlp && chmod +x ~/yt-dlp
fi

Then use ~/yt-dlp (or just yt-dlp if installed globally).

Examples

Download subtitles/transcript:

~/yt-dlp --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --skip-download -o "/tmp/%(id)s" <url>

Download audio only:

~/yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 -o "/tmp/%(title)s.%(ext)s" <url>

Download video:

~/yt-dlp -o "/tmp/%(title)s.%(ext)s" <url>

Get video info (title, duration, description):

~/yt-dlp --print title --print duration_string --print description --no-download <url>

Notes

• Subtitles are saved as .vtt files - read them to get the transcript
• Use /tmp/ for downloads to avoid cluttering the working directory