If you use YouTube for learning, research, or building AI tools, you know this pain:
Open transcript panel -> Scroll -> Select all -> Try not to copy the whole page -> Paste into notes -> Fix formatting.
I do this 10 times a day. So I built yt-transcript-yoinker.
It's a tiny Firefox add-on that adds a single "Copy Transcript" button right into the YouTube UI. One click, entire transcript in your clipboard. No account, no external API, no data leaving your machine.
GitHub: https://github.com/pawanhirumina/yt-transcript-yoinker
Install from AMO: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/yt-transcript-yoinker/
I needed transcripts for:
Every existing tool either:
I wanted something that just works, locally.
Super simple, no magic.
yt-navigate-finish) navigator.clipboard.writeText()
No background server. The whole thing is ~100 lines of JS.
Stack: HTML, CSS, Vanilla JavaScript (WebExtension APIs)
I live in Firefox. And Mozilla's review process for add-ons is actually strict about privacy, which I like for a tool like this. Chrome version is on the roadmap - if you want to help port it, PRs are welcome!
For users:
For devs:
bash
git clone https://github.com/pawanhirumina/yt-transcript-yoinker.git