The transcript
Every word from the video, saved as text. Taken from YouTube captions, or transcribed on your own computer when there are none.
Free bonus · AI for Business Claude Code skill v1.0 · MIT licence
Turn any video into a step-by-step guide — and a skill Claude remembers.
Paste a YouTube link, a podcast or a talk. A few minutes later you have a written guide with diagrams you can read, search and share with your team — and, if you want, the expert's method saved as a skill Claude can use on your next job.
- About 5 minutes to set up
- No extra cost beyond your Claude plan
- No coding needed
What it does
One link in. A guide and a skill out.
- 1 · You paste a link A YouTube video, a podcast, a webinar, a Facebook or Vimeo video, or an audio file on your computer.
- 2 · Claude does the homework Gets the transcript, looks up the speaker, checks what has changed since the video was made, and finds the steps worth copying.
- 3 · You get the results A visual guide you can open in any browser, plus a skill Claude installs so it can use the method from now on.
What you get
Three things land in one folder.
A visual guide
An 8,000–12,000 word reference with 8–20 diagrams, in one file that works offline. It ends with “Applying this in your business”: the cost of every tool mentioned, and a cheaper alternative.
A skill Claude keeps
The expert's method, written as a Claude skill and installed for you, so next time you ask for help with that kind of work, Claude already knows the method.
Pick how much you want each time
Full SkillTranscript + guide + skill. For a method you will use again: a sales process, a hiring checklist, a prompt technique.Default if you just paste a link
Guide OnlyTranscript + guide. For training material, SOPs and reference documents.
Quick SummaryKey points right in the chat, nothing saved. To see what's in a video before you spend an hour on it.
Step 0
Get the skill
Leave your name and email and the download appears right here. I'll send one follow-up with what people build with it, and an invitation to the next AI for Business meetup. No newsletter, no drip.
Download video-to-skill.zip (1 MB)
Saved to your Downloads folder. Double-click the zip to unzip it, then follow the three steps below.
Install
Three steps, about 5 minutes.
You will type a few lines into the Terminal (Mac) or PowerShell (Windows). Each box below has a copy button — paste, press Enter, done.
- 1
Install Claude Code and sign in
Get it free from claude.com/claude-code (it uses your Claude subscription). Then open a terminal, type
claude, press Enter and sign in once.Open the Terminal: press ⌘ + Space, type Terminal, press Enter.
Open PowerShell: press the Windows key, type PowerShell, press Enter.
- 2
Put the folder where Claude looks for skills
First go to your Downloads folder, where the unzipped video-to-skill folder is: type
cd ~/Downloadsand press Enter. Then paste this:Windows' Extract All puts the folder inside a folder of the same name, so first step into the outer one: type
cd ~\Downloads\video-to-skilland press Enter. Then paste this:mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills cp -R "video-to-skill" ~/.claude/skills/video-to-skillNew-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.claude\skills" | Out-Null Copy-Item -Recurse "video-to-skill" "$HOME\.claude\skills\video-to-skill"It must end up exactly like this: Your home folderC:\Users\you.claude hidden folderskillsvideo-to-skill ← the folder you just copiedSKILL.md Claude reads thisWant to see it in Finder? The .claude folder is hidden: in your home folder press ⌘ + Shift + . to show hidden folders.
Want to see it in File Explorer? Paste
%USERPROFILE%\.claude\skillsinto the address bar. - 3
Add two small helpers
The skill uses Python to fetch transcripts and build the guide. Claude will offer to install these the first time it needs them — or do it now:
pip3 install youtube-transcript-api markdown
Use it
Now try it.
Close and reopen Claude Code (type claude), then type this with any YouTube link. Or just say “learn from this video” and paste the link.
/video-to-skill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=…> /video-to-skill https://youtube.com/watch?v=…
What do you need from this video?
1 Full Skill — guide + a skill I keep
2 Guide Only — the visual guide
3 Quick Summary — key points here
> 1
✓ Transcript saved
✓ Guide written — 14 diagrams checked
✓ Skill installed
Where your files go
Everything in one place: Downloads › Video Skills.
Downloads
Video Skills
one folder per video
transcript.txt
…-guide.html open this one
…-guide.md
SKILL.md Full Skill only
Nothing else on your computer is touched. In Full Skill mode Claude tells you before it installs the new skill, so you stay in charge.
Why I'm giving it away
This is the skill I use to learn. A useful talk goes in, and a reference document I can search, share with my team and act on comes out, with the method captured as a skill Claude applies the next time I need it. It has replaced hours of note-taking for me, and it is the clearest demonstration I have of what a Claude Code skill is: a plain text file that turns a repeatable job into one command.
Shared at the AI for Business meetup, Hamilton, September 10, 2026. If you make it better, tell me. If you want the same idea built for a job specific to your business, that is what I do.
Questions
What is a Claude Code skill?
A skill is a plain-text file (SKILL.md) that tells Claude Code how to do a specific job, step by step. When you type /video-to-skill or say "learn from this video", Claude reads the file and follows it. You can open the file and change it.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. You need Claude Code installed and a terminal open. The install is copying one folder into place. After that you paste a link and answer one question.
Where do the files go?
Everything goes into a folder under Downloads called "Video Skills", one subfolder per video: the transcript, the guide as HTML and Markdown, and the skill file. Nothing else on your computer is touched, and Claude tells you before it installs a skill.
Does it work with Facebook videos, podcasts or audio recordings?
Yes. YouTube captions are the fast path. For everything else it downloads the audio with yt-dlp and transcribes it locally with Whisper, which is free and runs on your machine.
What does it cost to run?
Nothing beyond your Claude subscription. Transcription and diagram rendering are local. No API keys are needed.
I typed /video-to-skill and nothing happened. What now?
The folder is in the wrong place. It must end up as ~/.claude/skills/video-to-skill/SKILL.md — a video-to-skill folder directly inside skills, with SKILL.md inside it (not a folder inside a folder). Fix the location, then quit Claude Code and run claude again so it picks the skill up.
Which should I pick: Full Skill, Guide Only or Quick Summary?
Full Skill when the video teaches a method you will use again (a sales process, a prompt technique, a hiring framework). Guide Only for training material and reference documents. Quick Summary when you only want to know what is in the video before spending an hour on it. If you just paste a link, it does a Full Skill.
Can I change it for my business?
That is the point. The guide structure, the output folder, the sections Claude writes and the quality rules are all in SKILL.md and GUIDE-STANDARD.md as plain text. Edit them and Claude follows the new version. MIT licence.