Skip to content

The moment it happens

Summarise YouTube videos from Telegram into a Google Doc

Send a YouTube link to your Telegram bot and get a summary back, saved in your Video notes doc as well.

Runs
The moment it happens
Apps
Google Docs, Telegram
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
doc edit; bot token

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when I send a YouTube link to my Telegram bot, summarise the video, reply with the summary and add it to my Video notes Google Doc.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A consultant collects talks, tutorials and interviews to watch later, usually by sending links to herself. The list grows faster than she can watch, and the few she does watch leave no trace a month later when she needs the key point for a client.

With this automation you share a YouTube link to your Telegram bot from your phone. The bot replies with a short summary and appends it, with the link and date, to a Google Doc. Over time that doc becomes a searchable notebook of everything you meant to learn.

What you get out of it

  • Decide quickly what is worth watching

    A summary in seconds tells you whether a 40-minute video deserves your evening. You can skip the ones that only repeat what you know.

  • Notes kept in one place

    Every summary lands in the same doc with its link and date. Searching it later is faster than scrolling back through chats or browser history.

  • Works from the share button

    Sharing a link to the bot takes two taps on your phone. Saving a video is as easy as it was before, with more value afterwards.

  • Useful for sharing with others

    The notes doc can be shared with colleagues or a study group. Everyone gets the gist of the material you found.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. When you send a YouTube link to your Telegram bot, ClickRuntime receives it straight away.

  2. It looks up the video's title and description.

  3. AI writes a short summary with the main points.

  4. The bot replies with the summary, and it is added to the end of your Video notes Google Doc with the link and date.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google Docs
  • Connect Telegram
  • Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens
Summarise YouTube videos from Telegram into a Google Docjust nowSucceeded
Telegram · Notes botPricing for small SaaS teams: test annual plans early; anchor with a higher tier; review prices every 6 months.

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Google Docs and Telegram steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
youtube_summaries_via_telegram_saved_to_a_doc.pyexample
import re
from datetime import date
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_event, credentials, http, ai

DOC_ID = "your-video-notes-doc-id"

@on_event
def handle(event):
    msg = (event.json or {}).get("message") or {}
    m = re.search(r"(?:v=|youtu\.be/|shorts/)([\w-]{11})", msg.get("text", ""))
    if not m:
        return {"skipped": True}
    creds = Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work"))
    items = build("youtube", "v3", credentials=creds, cache_discovery=False).videos().list(part="snippet", id=m.group(1)).execute().get("items", [])
    if not items:
        return {"skipped": "video not found"}
    s = items[0]["snippet"]
    try:
        summary = ai.generate(f"Title: {s['title']}\nChannel: {s['channelTitle']}\n\n{s['description'][:6000]}", system="Summarise this video in 5 short bullet points.", max_output_tokens=400).text.strip()
    except ai.AIError:
        summary = s["description"][:500]
    token = credentials.secret("TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN")
    http.post(f"https://api.telegram.org/bot{token}/sendMessage", json={"chat_id": msg["chat"]["id"], "text": f"{s['title']}\n\n{summary}"})
    docs = build("docs", "v1", credentials=creds, cache_discovery=False).documents()
    end = docs.get(documentId=DOC_ID).execute()["body"]["content"][-1]["endIndex"] - 1
    entry = f"\n{date.today()}: {s['title']}\nhttps://youtu.be/{m.group(1)}\n{summary}\n"
    docs.batchUpdate(documentId=DOC_ID, body={"requests": [{"insertText": {"location": {"index": end}, "text": entry}}]}).execute()
    return {"saved": m.group(1)}

FAQ

Common questions

What is the summary based on?
The video's title and description as published on YouTube. Videos with detailed descriptions or chapter lists give the most useful summaries.
Can I send several links at once?
Send them as separate messages. Each link gets its own reply and its own entry in the doc.
Does it work for private videos?
No. The video has to be public or unlisted so its details can be read.
What permissions does it need?
doc edit; bot token. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run for each event the app sends.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Summarise YouTube videos from Telegram into a Google Doc” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.