# Youtube Transcript Note > Create a structured Obsidian vault note from a YouTube video transcript — fetches captions with timestamps, cleans the text, divides into sections, adds a TOC and per-section video links, takes the thumbnail URL directly, and commits. Use when the user shares a YouTube URL and wants a full transcript note in the vault. - Skill: `gkwa/youtube-transcript-note` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add gkwa/youtube-transcript-note` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/gkwa/youtube-transcript-note/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: gkwa (https://skillmd.com/u/gkwa) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/gkwa/youtube-transcript-note --- ## YouTube Transcript Note Workflow Given a YouTube URL, run the following steps in order. Carry outputs forward — do not prompt the user between steps unless a step fails. ### Step 1: Fetch the timestamped transcript Run `benevolentbadger` with SRT format to get captions with timestamps: ``` uv run --no-active --project /Users/mtm/pdev/taylormonacelli/benevolentbadger benevolentbadger --format srt "" ``` Save the full SRT output — you will need the timestamps in step 5. Also run with plain text to get the raw transcript for cleaning: ``` uv run --no-active --project /Users/mtm/pdev/taylormonacelli/benevolentbadger benevolentbadger "" ``` ### Step 2: Clean the transcript This is a transcription task, NOT a summarization task. Every piece of spoken content must appear in the output — do not skip, condense, or summarize any portion of the transcript. If the transcript is long, output all of it. Apply these rules to the plain-text transcript: - Correct all spelling errors - Fix grammatical mistakes (subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, etc.) - Add proper punctuation (periods, commas, apostrophes, contractions) - Capitalize proper nouns and sentence beginnings - Place each complete sentence on its own line - Separate each sentence with a blank line - Combine fragmented phrases into complete, coherent sentences - Remove filler words (um, uh, like, you know, so, kinda, gonna, wanna — replace contractions like "gonna" with "going to") - Remove false starts and repeated words - Remove narrator labels like `[Narrator]`, stage directions like `(laughing)`, and any trailing URLs ### Step 3: Divide into sections Read the cleaned transcript and identify 4–7 natural topic breaks. Every sentence from the cleaned transcript must appear under exactly one section — nothing may be dropped or omitted. For each section: - Write a `##` heading that names the topic (title case, concise) - Place ALL cleaned sentences for that topic under the heading Using the SRT output from step 1, find the `start` time (in seconds) for the first caption that falls under each section. Add the video timestamp URL as a bare link on the line immediately after the `##` heading: ``` ## Section name https://youtu.be/?t=s First sentence of section. ``` ### Step 4: Build the TOC At the top of the body (before the first `##` section), add a table of contents using Obsidian wikilink heading format — not standard markdown anchors: ``` ## Table of contents - [[#Section one]] - [[#Section two]] - [[#Section three]] ``` ### Step 5: Take the thumbnail URL directly YouTube already hosts the thumbnail at a stable URL, so do not run the `social-to-imgur` skill here. Build the URL from the video id: `https://i.ytimg.com/vi//maxresdefault.jpg` The Imgur round trip adds nothing for YouTube and runs into the egress-IP 429. Instagram and other platforms with expiring CDN URLs still need the upload. ### Step 6: Derive the vault filename Convert the video title to a vault-safe filename: - All lowercase - Words separated by spaces (no hyphens or underscores) - Strip special characters (pipes, colons, slashes, etc.) Prefix with the channel/creator name when it helps distinguish the note. Example: `tasty kitchen cast iron skillet care and cooking.md` ### Step 7: Write the vault note Write the note to `/Users/mtm/Documents/Obsidian Vault/.md` with this structure: ``` --- tags: - pic: https://i.ytimg.com/vi//maxresdefault.jpg --- ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi//maxresdefault.jpg) https://youtu.be/ ## Table of contents - [[#Section one]] ... ## Section one https://youtu.be/?t=s ## Section two https://youtu.be/?t=s ``` Rules: - No `# Title` heading — the filename is the title in Obsidian - Tags: use only pre-existing vault tags; do not mint new ones without user approval - One sentence per line, blank line between sentences throughout - No italics or bold anywhere in the file - Link named products to their local vault page (e.g. `[[flaxseed oil]]`) if one exists, or to a Google Image Search URL otherwise ### Step 8: Commit Stage and commit the new file: ``` git add ".md" git commit -m "Add note from YouTube transcript" ``` Run each git command as a separate Bash call (no chaining with &&). ### Step 9: Apply recipe cleanup (cooking/recipe content only) Assess whether the video content is recipe or cooking-focused by examining any of the following signals: - The video title contains words like: recipe, sauce, how to make, cooking, bake, roast, stir-fry, marinade, dipping, dumpling, noodle, soup, fry, etc. - The channel name is associated with food or cooking - The transcript contains ingredient measurements, quantities, or cooking technique vocabulary If any signal indicates recipe/cooking content, invoke the `recipe-cleanup` skill, passing the path to the vault note just written: ``` /recipe-cleanup ``` The skill will fetch the printable recipe from the YouTube description (if one exists), add structured `### Ingredients` checklists and `### Instructions` blocks, update frontmatter with a `creator` field, and resolve ingredient wikilinks. After the skill completes, commit the updated file: ``` git add ".md" git commit -m "Apply recipe cleanup to note" ``` If the content is not recipe or cooking-focused, skip this step entirely — do not invoke `recipe-cleanup`. ### Final report After all steps complete, report: - The vault note filename - The i.ytimg.com thumbnail URL - The section breakdown with their video timestamps - Whether recipe cleanup was applied