YouTube Transcript Fetcher

YouTube Transcript Fetcher is a command-line tool written in Go that allows you to download and save transcripts from YouTube videos. It supports multiple languages and provides various options for customizing the output.

Features

• Fetch transcripts from YouTube videos using video ID or URL
• Support for multiple languages
• Customizable output format
• Error handling for various scenarios (video unavailable, transcripts disabled, etc.)

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.15 or higher

Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/youtube-transcript-fetcher.git
   

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd youtube-transcript-fetcher
   

3. Build the program:

   go build -o youtube-transcript-fetcher
   

Usage

Basic usage:

./youtube-transcript-fetcher -videoId=VIDEO_ID_OR_URL

To see all available options:

./youtube-transcript-fetcher -h

Options

• -videoId: YouTube video ID or URL (required)
• -lang: Language code for the transcript (default: "en")
• -output: Output file path (default: will use sanitized video title with .txt extension, limited characters )
• -showText: Show transcript text (default: true)
• -showDuration: Show transcript duration (default: false)
• -showOffset: Show transcript offset (default: false)
• -showLang: Show transcript language (default: false)
• -disableAll: Disable all transcript output fields (default: false)
• -noTextPrefix: Disable prefix 'Text: ' in front of transcript text (default: true)

Examples

1. Fetch English transcript for a video:

   ./youtube-transcript-fetcher -videoId=dQw4w9WgXcQ -lang=en -output=transcript.txt
   

2. Fetch Spanish transcript and only show text:

   ./youtube-transcript-fetcher -videoId=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ -lang=es -showDuration=false -showOffset=false -showLang=false
   

3. Fetch transcript without 'Text: ' prefix:

   ./youtube-transcript-fetcher -videoId=dQw4w9WgXcQ -showDuration=false -showOffset=false -showLang=false -noTextPrefix=true
   

Error Handling

The program handles various error scenarios, including:

• Video unavailable
• Transcripts disabled for the video
• Requested language not available
• Too many requests (captcha required)

In case of an error, an appropriate message will be displayed.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• This project was inspired by the need for a simple, command-line tool to fetch YouTube transcripts.
• Thanks to the Go community for providing excellent libraries and documentation.