ytc

Fetch YouTube transcripts and search for videos from the command line.

Install

uv tool install git+https://github.com/PeachlifeAB/ytc.git

Usage

ytc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
ytc dQw4w9WgXcQ
cat urls.txt | ytc

ytc search lex fridman sam altman
ytc search -q lex fridman sam altman
ytc search 'SOLID vs Clean Code 2026' --get-first-transcript
ytc search 'SOLID vs Clean Code 2026' --get-transcripts 3

ytc channels search fireship
ytc channels add UCsBjURrPoezykLs9EqgamOA
ytc channels fetch UCsBjURrPoezykLs9EqgamOA -n 5

Any YouTube URL format works — youtu.be/, /shorts/, /live/, /embed/.

--get-transcripts accepts 1-3 and defaults to 1.

JSON output

--json on search and transcript emits newline-delimited JSON; channels fetch always does. An unavailable transcript still yields a record, with "transcript": null and an "error" field.

ytc search fireship --json | jq -r '.url'

Shell note

On first run, ytc adds a noglob alias to your shell config so you can paste YouTube URLs unquoted without zsh/fish glob-expanding the ? character.

Built with

• youtube-transcript-api — transcript fetching
• yt-dlp — YouTube search and channel data