summarize

Name: summarize
Author: steipete

Extract summaries and transcripts from URLs, videos, and local files via CLI. Supports URLs, YouTube links, PDFs, and local files with configurable summary length (short to xxl) and output format (text or JSON) Works with OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Google Gemini models; defaults to Gemini 3 Flash if no model specified Includes best-effort YouTube transcript extraction and Firecrawl/Apify fallbacks for blocked or hard-to-parse content Single command interface with optional config file for persistent model and API key settings

INSTALLATION

npx skills add https://github.com/steipete/clawdis --skill summarize

Run in your project or agent environment. Adjust flags if your CLI version differs.

SKILL.md

Summarize

Fast CLI to summarize URLs, local files, and YouTube links.

When to use (trigger phrases)

Use this skill immediately when the user asks any of:

"use summarize.sh"

"what's this link/video about?"

"summarize this URL/article"

"transcribe this YouTube/video" (best-effort transcript extraction; no yt-dlp needed)

Quick start

summarize "https://example.com"

summarize "/path/to/file.pdf"

summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto

YouTube: summary vs transcript

Best-effort transcript (URLs only):

summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto --extract

If the user asked for a transcript but it's huge, return a tight summary first, then ask which section/time range to expand.

Model + keys

Set the API key for your chosen provider:

OpenAI: OPENAI_API_KEY

Anthropic: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

xAI: XAI_API_KEY

Google: GEMINI_API_KEY (aliases: GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY, GOOGLE_API_KEY)

Default model is auto; config may choose the provider/model.

Useful flags

--length short|medium|long|xl|xxl|<chars>

--max-output-tokens <count>

--extract (print extracted content, no LLM summary)

--json (machine readable)

--firecrawl auto|off|always (fallback extraction)

--youtube auto (Apify fallback if APIFY_API_TOKEN set)

Config

Optional config file: ~/.summarize/config.json

{ "model": "openai/gpt-5.2" }

Optional services:

FIRECRAWL_API_KEY for blocked sites

APIFY_API_TOKEN for YouTube fallback