youtube-transcript

About This Fork

This is a fork of the original youtube-transcript package that adds a fallback system for improved reliability. The original package used only HTML scraping, which sometimes fails or returns empty results. This version automatically falls back to YouTube's InnerTube API when needed.

⚠️ Note: The InnerTube API fallback works best in client-side and local server environments.

What's New

• Dual extraction methods: HTML scraping + InnerTube API fallback
• YouTube Shorts support: Enhanced URL regex for /shorts/ URLs
• Better error handling: New YoutubeTranscriptEmptyError class
• Improved reliability: Automatic fallback increases success rate

Installation

$ npm i @danielxceron/youtube-transcript

or

$ yarn add @danielxceron/youtube-transcript

Usage

import { YoutubeTranscript } from '@danielxceron/youtube-transcript';

YoutubeTranscript.fetchTranscript('videoId or URL').then(console.log);

Supported URL Formats

• Standard videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• Short URLs: https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
• YouTube Shorts: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
• Embedded videos: https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
• Direct video IDs: VIDEO_ID

Methods

• fetchTranscript(videoId: string [,options: TranscriptConfig]): Promise<TranscriptResponse[]>

Environment Compatibility

Method	Client-Side	Local Server	Production Server
HTML Scraping	✅	✅	✅
InnerTube API	✅	✅	⚠️ May have limitations

The package automatically uses the best available method for your environment.

Error Handling

• YoutubeTranscriptTooManyRequestError: Rate limiting detected
• YoutubeTranscriptVideoUnavailableError: Video not accessible
• YoutubeTranscriptDisabledError: Transcripts disabled for video
• YoutubeTranscriptNotAvailableError: No transcripts available
• YoutubeTranscriptNotAvailableLanguageError: Requested language not available
• YoutubeTranscriptEmptyError: Empty response (triggers fallback method)

License

MIT Licensed