YouTube research and downloads

Arka ships several YouTube skills powered by yt-dlp for search, transcripts, downloads, and bulk playlist/channel fetching.

Prerequisites

brew install yt-dlp    # macOS
apt install yt-dlp     # Linux

Videos save to ~/Videos/YoutubeDownloads/ by default. Override with YOUTUBE_DOWNLOAD_DIR or YOUTUBE_BULK_DOWNLOAD_DIR in .env.

YouTube research

Search YouTube, fetch transcripts from multiple videos, and synthesize a unified research brief.

arka youtube research "how to fix hair loss"
arka youtube research "python asyncio tutorial" --limit 5
youtube_research "analyze 3 videos on react hooks"
youtube_research "IPL 2025 highlights" --index --ask "who scored most runs"

Flag	Purpose
`--limit N`	Number of videos to analyze (default: `2`, set `YT_RESEARCH_MAX` in `.env`)
`--focus "question"`	Narrow the synthesis to a specific question
`--index`	Save session for follow-up questions
`--show-items`	Print per-video summaries

Follow-up on indexed sessions:

youtube_research list
youtube_research ask <session-id> "what was the main recommendation"

Alias: yt_research, arka research youtube <query>. Natural language count parsing works inline:

"analyze 5 videos on rust async"
"research two youtube videos about kubernetes"

Play and find videos

Skill	Example
`play_youtube`	`arka play lofi beats on youtube`
`find_videos`	`find_videos swimming tutorial`
`youtube_transcript`	`youtube_transcript <url> --summarize`

Single video download

Download one video or Shorts link:

arka download dQw4w9WgXcQ
arka download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
youtube_download youtu.be/abc123 --audio
yt_download <url> --quality 720

Flag	Purpose
`--audio`	Save as MP3 instead of video
`—quality 1080	720	480	best`	Video quality
`-o dir`	Output directory

Saves to ~/Videos/YoutubeDownloads/Singles/ by default.

Summarize videos and playlists

arka summarize youtube dQw4w9WgXcQ
arka summarize youtube PLxxx          # playlist ID
playlist_summarize <playlist-url>

Uses captions when available; falls back to STT when needed.

Bulk downloads

Download entire playlists or channels with a web UI at http://localhost:5000:

youtube_bulk status
youtube_bulk start
youtube_bulk open
youtube_bulk download "https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxx" --wait
yt_bulk download @mkbhd --channel --limit 5 --audio
youtube_bulk download PLxxx --range 6-9 --wait
youtube_bulk library

Subcommand	Description
`status`	Server + download progress (default)
`start` / `stop` / `open`	Manage bulk download web UI
`download <url>`	Bulk download playlist or channel
`library`	List downloaded folders and files
`logs`	View download logs

Download options:

Flag	Purpose
`--channel`	Channel URL or `@handle`
`--audio`	MP3 instead of video
`—quality 1080	720	480`	Video quality
`--limit N`	First N items
`--range A-B`	Playlist slice, e.g. `6-9`
`--wait`	Block until finished

Alias: yt_bulk.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Purpose
`YT_RESEARCH_MAX`	`2`	Default videos for research
`YT_RESEARCH_POOL`	auto	Search pool size when filling N captioned videos
`YOUTUBE_DOWNLOAD_DIR`	`~/Videos/YoutubeDownloads/Singles`	Single downloads
`YOUTUBE_BULK_DOWNLOAD_DIR`	`~/Videos/YoutubeDownloads`	Bulk downloads

Research caches transcripts in ~/.cache/fish-agent/youtube-research/. Re-running the same query is faster on repeat.

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YouTube research and downloads

Prerequisites

YouTube research

Play and find videos

Single video download

Summarize videos and playlists

Bulk downloads

Environment variables

​Prerequisites

​YouTube research

​Play and find videos

​Single video download

​Summarize videos and playlists

​Bulk downloads

​Environment variables

Prerequisites

YouTube research

Play and find videos

Single video download

Summarize videos and playlists

Bulk downloads

Environment variables