# Skill: cut the fluff from YouTube tutorials

Published: 2026-08-17T00:00:00.000Z
Canonical: https://wow.pjh.is/journal/youtube-clip-skill

My [`youtube-clip` skill](https://github.com/HartreeWorks/skill--youtube-clip) takes a YouTube video and:

1. Reads the transcript and adds chapters.
2. Tags all the "teaching" parts; cuts ads and fluff (e.g. warm-up chat, rambly interludes about the teacher's cat).
3. Makes the "teaching only" video.

This is nice for videos you'll watch repeatedly (e.g. guided yoga sessions), and for courses that have slow intros, ads and lax editing. Typically cuts duration by 10–30%, and makes them much less annoying to watch.

The skill has two modes: a one-shot "remove fluff" and a two-shot "show chapters and descriptions, let you pick the ones you want".

![An agent's chapter table for a salsa warm-up video, each row tagged keep, fluff or promo/ad, cutting 16:01 down to 14:40](https://wow.pjh.is/static/images/blog/skill-youtube-clip.jpeg)

You can also give it a playlist URL to bulk-run an entire course, or point it at videos from other sources ([Parakeet](https://github.com/senstella/parakeet-mlx) will transcribe 'em).