I was tired of manually copying YouTube transcripts, so I built a 15KB Firefox extension

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.

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 https://github.com/pawanhirumina/yt-transcript-yoinker 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/ 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 Then in Firefox: about:debugging /runtime/this-firefox - Load Temporary Add-on - manifest.json