Transcriptly

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Transcriptly is a free, open-source YouTube transcript downloader. A Chrome extension captures the transcript of any YouTube video as timestamped Markdown — one video at a time, or a whole playlist or channel in batch — and keeps everything as plain files on your own computer. Optionally, you can publish a copy to the public transcript archive.

Screenshots

Capture a single video — preview the transcript in the popup and save it as timestamped Markdown, locally or to the public archive.

Batch workflow — select videos on a channel or playlist, configure the batch, and start capturing.

batch-select.mp4

Batch manager — watch progress, pause, and retry individual videos while the batch runs in the background.

Why Transcriptly

• You own the files. Captures land as ordinary .md files in a folder you choose — no account, no upload. Search them with grep, version them with git, read them in Obsidian or VS Code, or feed them to any tool that reads text.
• Timestamps stay useful. The Timeline format keeps a [mm:ss] anchor on every paragraph, so a line of text always points back to the moment in the video. The Article format reflows the same transcript into clean prose.
• Batch by default. On a playlist or channel page, tick the videos you want and let the batch manager work through them in the background — with pause, resume, and retry. Every video becomes its own Markdown file.
• Publishing is a choice, not a side effect. Contributing a capture to the public archive is a separate, explicit destination: sign in, confirm once, and manage or retract your contributions anytime. Reading the archive is free and needs no account.

How it works

1. Capture — open a YouTube video with a transcript, click the Transcriptly icon, review the preview, and save.
2. Store — the transcript is written to local Markdown via the File System Access API, in the folder you picked.
3. Find — your library is plain text: search it with the tools you already use.
4. Publish (optional) — toggle Public archive before saving to share a copy at transcriptly.libmap.cn, where it becomes a searchable, attributed transcript page that links back to YouTube.

For playlists and channels, tick videos on the list page and the batch manager handles the rest.

Install

Chrome extension

• From the Chrome Web Store (recommended), or
• Download the *-chrome-sideload.zip from a GitHub release, unzip it, and load the folder via chrome://extensions → Load unpacked.

Public archive

No install needed — browse and search at transcriptly.libmap.cn. Sign in only if you want to publish captures or manage your contributions.

Running from source

Prerequisites: Node.js ≥ 20 and pnpm ≥ 11 (corepack enable works).

pnpm install

Extension only (local capture)

The extension works without the website — local Markdown saving needs no server.

pnpm dev:extension

WXT starts a dev server and prints a "Load unpacked" path; load it in Chrome via chrome://extensions. The production build is pnpm --filter @transcriptly/extension build (or pnpm release for the validated store/sideload ZIPs).

Full stack (extension + website)

The website is a Next.js app with PostgreSQL (auth, private library, public archive).

cp .env.example .env            # fill in the values below
pnpm cloud:up                   # postgres + migrations + app on :3000
pnpm dev:web                    # hot-reload dev server on :3000

.env needs:

Variable	Notes
DATABASE_URL	Postgres connection string (the compose default works as-is)
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET	openssl rand -base64 32
BETTER_AUTH_URL	http://localhost:3000 for local dev
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID / GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET	OAuth callback: http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/google
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID / GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET	OAuth callback: http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/github
EXTENSION_ORIGINS	Comma-separated chrome-extension:// origins allowed to call auth endpoints; the pinned dev ID default works with the in-repo extension key

Sign in at localhost:3000, then use Sign in inside the extension to share the website session — after that, Public archive becomes available as a save destination.

Useful commands

Command	What it does
pnpm dev:extension	Extension dev build with HMR
pnpm dev:web	Website dev server
pnpm cloud:up / cloud:down	Postgres + migrations + app via Docker Compose
pnpm test	Unit tests (all packages)
pnpm e2e	Extension end-to-end tests (Playwright)
pnpm lint / pnpm typecheck	Biome lint / TypeScript
pnpm release	Build + validate the store/sideload ZIPs
pnpm db:generate / db:migrate	Drizzle schema migrations

Repository layout

packages/schema    capture type contract (single source of truth)
packages/capture   environment-neutral capture core + Markdown serializer
apps/extension     WXT extension: popup, content script, batch manager,
                   cloud queue, store listing assets (store-assets/)
apps/web           Next.js site: auth, private library, public archive
docs/adr           architecture decision records

Privacy

Local captures never leave your machine. Public publication happens only after an explicit, confirmed opt-in, and contributions can be retracted from My Contributions. See the privacy policy.

License

Released under the MIT License.