Productivity

summarize

steipete/clawdis · updated Apr 12, 2026

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

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
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" --model google/gemini-3-flash-preview
summarize "/path/to/file.pdf" --model google/gemini-3-flash-preview
summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto

YouTube: summary vs transcript

Best-effort transcript (URLs only):

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

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 google/gemini-3-flash-preview if none is set.

Useful flags

  • --length short|medium|long|xl|xxl|<chars>
  • --max-output-tokens <count>
  • --extract-only (URLs only)
  • --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
general reviews

Ratings

4.510 reviews
  • Shikha Mishra· Oct 10, 2024

    summarize is among the better-maintained entries we tried; worth keeping pinned for repeat workflows.

  • Piyush G· Sep 9, 2024

    Keeps context tight: summarize is the kind of skill you can hand to a new teammate without a long onboarding doc.

  • Chaitanya Patil· Aug 8, 2024

    Registry listing for summarize matched our evaluation — installs cleanly and behaves as described in the markdown.

  • Sakshi Patil· Jul 7, 2024

    summarize reduced setup friction for our internal harness; good balance of opinion and flexibility.

  • Ganesh Mohane· Jun 6, 2024

    I recommend summarize for anyone iterating fast on agent tooling; clear intent and a small, reviewable surface area.

  • Oshnikdeep· May 5, 2024

    Useful defaults in summarize — fewer surprises than typical one-off scripts, and it plays nicely with `npx skills` flows.

  • Dhruvi Jain· Apr 4, 2024

    summarize has been reliable in day-to-day use. Documentation quality is above average for community skills.

  • Rahul Santra· Mar 3, 2024

    Solid pick for teams standardizing on skills: summarize is focused, and the summary matches what you get after install.

  • Pratham Ware· Feb 2, 2024

    We added summarize from the explainx registry; install was straightforward and the SKILL.md answered most questions upfront.

  • Yash Thakker· Jan 1, 2024

    summarize fits our agent workflows well — practical, well scoped, and easy to wire into existing repos.