This is a TypeScript/Node.js command-line tool and library to download YouTube video transcripts and subtitles. It supports multiple languages, translation, and various output formats without requiring a headless browser.

• Fetches transcripts for any YouTube video.
• Supports manually created and automatically generated subtitles.
• Allows translation to any language supported by YouTube.
• No headless browser required (unlike Selenium-based solutions).
• Usable as a CLI tool and a Node.js library.
• Multiple output formats (e.g., plain text, JSON, SRT, VTT - via formatters).
• Proxy support (Generic HTTP/HTTPS and Webshare).
• Cookie authentication for age-restricted videos.

Install globally to use the CLI:

npm install -g youtube-transcriber

Or add to your project as a dependency:

npm install youtube-transcriber
# or
yarn add youtube-transcriber

Get transcript for a video (defaults to English):

youtube-transcriber <video_id>

Specify languages (descending priority):

youtube-transcriber <video_id> --languages es en

Translate to a specific language (e.g., German):

youtube-transcriber <video_id> --languages en --translate de

List available transcripts for a video:

youtube-transcriber <video_id> --list-transcripts

Output in JSON format:

youtube-transcriber <video_id> --format json > transcript.json

Exclude auto-generated transcripts:

youtube-transcriber <video_id> --exclude-generated

Exclude manually-created transcripts:

youtube-transcriber <video_id> --exclude-manually-created

Using proxies:

# Generic HTTP/HTTPS proxy
youtube-transcriber <video_id> --http-proxy http://user:pass@host:port --https-proxy https://user:pass@host:port

# Webshare rotating residential proxies
youtube-transcriber <video_id> --webshare-proxy-username <your_username> --webshare-proxy-password <your_password>

Using cookies for authentication (e.g., for age-restricted videos):

youtube-transcriber <video_id> --cookies /path/to/your/cookies.txt

import { YouTubeTranscriptApi, GenericProxyConfig, WebshareProxyConfig } from 'youtube-transcriber';

async function getTranscript(videoId: string) {
  try {
    // Simple fetch (defaults to English)
    const transcript = await YouTubeTranscriptApi.fetch(videoId);
    console.log(JSON.stringify(transcript, null, 2));

    // Fetch with specific languages
    const transcriptInSpanish = await YouTubeTranscriptApi.fetch(videoId, { languages: ['es', 'en'] });
    console.log(transcriptInSpanish);

    // List available transcripts
    const api = new YouTubeTranscriptApi(); // Instantiate for list or advanced proxy/cookie use
    const transcriptList = await api.list(videoId);

    // Find a specific transcript from the list and fetch it
    const specificTranscript = transcriptList.findTranscript(['de', 'en']);
    if (specificTranscript) {
      const fetched = await specificTranscript.fetch();
      console.log(fetched);

      // Translate it
      const translated = await specificTranscript.translate('fr').fetch();
      console.log(translated);
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
  }
}

// Example with Webshare proxy
async function getTranscriptWithWebshareProxy(videoId: string) {
  const proxyConfig = new WebshareProxyConfig('YOUR_WEBSHARE_USERNAME', 'YOUR_WEBSHARE_PASSWORD');
  const api = new YouTubeTranscriptApi(undefined, proxyConfig);
  try {
    const transcript = await api.list(videoId).then(list => list.findTranscript(['en'])?.fetch());
    console.log(transcript);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
  }
}

// getTranscript('dQw4w9WgXcQ');

This library supports different output formatters for the transcript data. (Details on how to use formatters can be added here once implemented, similar to the Python version).

Available formatters (planned/included):

• PlainTextFormatter
• JSONFormatter
• SRTFormatter
• WebVTTFormatter

Example (conceptual):

// import { YouTubeTranscriptApi, JSONFormatter } from 'youtube-transcriber';

// const transcriptData = await YouTubeTranscriptApi.fetch(videoId);
// const formatter = new JSONFormatter();
// const formattedOutput = formatter.formatTranscript(transcriptData, { indent: 2 });
// console.log(formattedOutput);

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name).
3. Make your changes.
4. Ensure tests pass (npm test).
5. Ensure code is formatted and linted (npm run format and npm run lint).
6. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'feat: Add some feature').
7. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/your-feature-name).
8. Open a Pull Request.

To setup the project locally:

npm install

Useful commands:

• npm run build: Compile TypeScript to JavaScript.
• npm run lint: Lint the codebase.
• npm run format: Format the codebase with Prettier.
• npm test: Run tests with Jest.
• npm run coverage: Generate a coverage report.
• npm run precommit: Runs lint, format, test, and build (useful before committing).

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