{"slug": "i-was-tired-of-manually-copying-youtube-transcripts-so-i-built-a-15kb-firefox", "title": "I was tired of manually copying YouTube transcripts, so I built a 15KB Firefox extension", "summary": "A developer built yt-transcript-yoinker, a roughly 15KB Firefox extension that adds a single \"Copy Transcript\" button to the YouTube interface, letting users grab an entire video transcript to the clipboard in one click. The add-on runs entirely locally with no account, external API, or background server, using about 100 lines of vanilla JavaScript and WebExtension APIs, and is available on GitHub and Mozilla's AMO add-on store. A Chrome port is on the roadmap, with the developer inviting pull requests.", "body_md": "If you use YouTube for learning, research, or building AI tools, you know this pain:\n\nOpen transcript panel -> Scroll -> Select all -> Try not to copy the whole page -> Paste into notes -> Fix formatting.\n\nI do this 10 times a day. So I built **yt-transcript-yoinker**.\n\nIt'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.\n\n**GitHub: [https://github.com/pawanhirumina/yt-transcript-yoinker](https://github.com/pawanhirumina/yt-transcript-yoinker)**\n\n**Install from AMO: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/yt-transcript-yoinker/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/yt-transcript-yoinker/)**\n\nI needed transcripts for:\n\nEvery existing tool either:\n\nI wanted something that just works, locally.\n\nSuper simple, no magic.\n\n`yt-navigate-finish`)` navigator.clipboard.writeText()`\nNo background server. The whole thing is ~100 lines of JS.\n\nStack: HTML, CSS, Vanilla JavaScript (WebExtension APIs)\n\nI 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!\n\n**For users:**\n\n**For devs:**\n\n```\nbash\ngit clone https://github.com/pawanhirumina/yt-transcript-yoinker.git\n# Then in Firefox: about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox -> Load Temporary Add-on -> manifest.json\n```\n\n", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-was-tired-of-manually-copying-youtube-transcripts-so-i-built-a-15kb-firefox", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/pawanhirumina/i-was-tired-of-manually-copying-youtube-transcripts-so-i-built-a-15kb-firefox-extension-o96", "published_at": "2026-09-19 08:23:33+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-19 08:54:26.187790+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["yt-transcript-yoinker", "Firefox", "YouTube", "Mozilla", "AMO", "GitHub", "Chrome", "pawanhirumina"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-was-tired-of-manually-copying-youtube-transcripts-so-i-built-a-15kb-firefox", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-was-tired-of-manually-copying-youtube-transcripts-so-i-built-a-15kb-firefox.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-was-tired-of-manually-copying-youtube-transcripts-so-i-built-a-15kb-firefox.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-was-tired-of-manually-copying-youtube-transcripts-so-i-built-a-15kb-firefox.jsonld"}}