How to Install and Use YouTube Summarizer in OpenClaw

Open your terminal and run the clawhub install command to add the youtube-summarizer skill to your OpenClaw instance. This skill requires no external API key — it fetches YouTube caption data directly and uses OpenClaw's built-in language model for summarization. Installation takes under a minute and the skill is ready to use immediately. After installation, you will see a confirmation message with the installed version. No additional configuration is required for basic YouTube summarization. Run `clawhub list` to confirm the skill appears in your installed skills inventory before proceeding. If you see `clawhub: command not found`, your OpenClaw installation may be incomplete. Verify that the ClawHub binary is available by running `clawhub --version`.

1clawhub install youtube-summarizer

Open OpenClaw chat and paste a YouTube URL with a summary request. The skill recognizes YouTube URLs automatically — you do not need to use a specific command format. Just describe what kind of summary you want and include the URL in your message. The skill retrieves the video transcript behind the scenes, processes it through the summarization model, and returns the result in the format you requested. For a standard YouTube video, this takes 10-30 seconds depending on video length and network response time. For your first test, use a video you have already watched so you can evaluate whether the summary captures the key points accurately. A 10-20 minute educational or informational video works well for testing — long enough to have meaningful content but short enough that the summary is clearly a condensation rather than a near-full transcript. The default summary format is a brief paragraph followed by bullet points for key takeaways. You can customize this in your prompt: 'give me just 3 bullets', 'write a formal executive summary', 'focus only on the technical implementation details', and so on.

The YouTube Summarizer skill adapts to a wide range of summary format instructions. The key to getting useful output is being explicit about what format serves your purpose. Common formats include: **Bullet list**: Fast to scan, good for sharing key takeaways with colleagues. Ask for '5 bullet points' or '3 main ideas as bullets'. **Structured brief**: Sections with headings (Overview, Key Points, Notable Quotes, etc.) — better for archiving in a knowledge base or as meeting prep material. **Executive summary**: Concise paragraph format for business-focused content — states the conclusion first, then key supporting points. **Show notes format**: Metadata + topics + timestamps (approximate) — good for podcast and interview content. For recurring use cases (e.g., you always summarize product demo videos the same way), configure your preferred format as the default in the skill's YAML config rather than typing the format instructions every time.

1# Configure skill defaults in ~/.openclaw/skills/youtube-summarizer.yaml
2youtube-summarizer:
3  default_format: bullets           # paragraph | bullets | structured | executive | show-notes
4  default_max_length: 250           # target word count for summary
5  include_video_metadata: true      # include title, channel, duration at top
6  output_format: inline             # inline | markdown-file | txt-file
7  output_directory: ~/summaries     # where to save file-based summaries
8  language: en                      # output language

One of the most powerful uses of the YouTube Summarizer skill is processing multiple videos in a single OpenClaw session to build a research digest. You can provide a list of YouTube URLs and ask OpenClaw to summarize each one, then produce a cross-video synthesis highlighting common themes, contrasting viewpoints, or complementary insights. This multi-video workflow is especially useful for: preparing for a meeting or conference by rapidly processing related talks, conducting competitive research by summarizing product demo videos, staying current on a topic area by processing a week's worth of content creator uploads, or building a reading/watching list by summarizing candidates before committing to the full watch. RapidDev can help configure automated daily or weekly YouTube content digests that run on a schedule, pull from your watchlist or subscriptions, and deliver summaries to your preferred output location — particularly useful for teams monitoring competitor product announcements or tracking a fast-moving industry. For comprehensive video knowledge management, combine the YouTube Summarizer with the Video Transcript Downloader skill — use YouTube Summarizer for quick evaluations, and only download full transcripts for videos you identify as high-value through the summary.