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Jaydeep Solanki edited this page Mar 8, 2026 · 8 revisions

FAQ

Quick answers for common usage, config, and output questions.

General

What is yt-study?

It is a Python CLI that converts YouTube videos, playlists, and URL batches into Markdown study notes using transcripts plus LLM-based structuring.

What does it output?

  • one Markdown file per video for standard runs
  • one Markdown file per chapter for long videos with chapters
  • nested output when playlists are processed

Is it free?

The CLI is open source. Model/provider usage may still cost money depending on your API plan.

Inputs and Commands

What inputs are supported?

  • single YouTube video URLs
  • playlist URLs
  • text files with one URL per line

How do I see the config path?

yt-study config-path

How do I re-run setup?

yt-study setup --force

Configuration

Where is config stored?

~/.yt-study/config.env

Does the app read the repo-root .env?

No. Runtime config comes from ~/.yt-study/config.env plus environment variable overrides.

Which keys are officially supported by the runtime config loader?

  • DEFAULT_MODEL
  • OUTPUT_DIR
  • MAX_CONCURRENT_VIDEOS
  • TEMPERATURE
  • MAX_TOKENS
  • GEMINI_API_KEY
  • OPENAI_API_KEY
  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
  • GROQ_API_KEY
  • XAI_API_KEY
  • MISTRAL_API_KEY

Which API key does a model family use?

Model family Key
Gemini / Vertex GEMINI_API_KEY
GPT / OpenAI OPENAI_API_KEY
Claude / Anthropic ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
Groq GROQ_API_KEY
Grok / xAI XAI_API_KEY
Mistral MISTRAL_API_KEY

Processing Behavior

When does chapter mode activate?

When both are true:

  • the video is longer than 3600 seconds
  • chapters are available

What happens if title lookup fails?

The pipeline falls back to the raw video ID for naming.

What happens if one playlist item fails?

The pipeline continues with the remaining videos and reports failures in the final summary.

Operational Questions

Where are logs stored?

Default:

~/.yt-study/logs/

Fallback:

./logs/

My Windows terminal breaks on Unicode output. What should I do?

Use Windows Terminal or PowerShell 7, or switch to UTF-8:

chcp 65001

Where should I go next?

Clone this wiki locally