YouTube Search
plasch281 downloadsSearch YouTube videos by link and automatically create notes with video metadata.
- Overview
- Scorecard
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Search YouTube videos by link and automatically create Obsidian notes with rich metadata.
Features
- 🎬 Paste any YouTube URL and create a note in seconds
- 📋 Auto-paste from clipboard — the URL field automatically populates if your clipboard contains a YouTube link
- 📝 Generates notes with frontmatter properties:
title,url,videoId,channelName,channelUrl,thumbnailUrl,publishedAt,viewCount,tags - 🖼️ Optionally download and save thumbnails locally to your vault
- ✏️ Fully customisable note template using
{{placeholder}}variables - ⚙️ Settings to control which properties are included
How to Use
- Click the YouTube ribbon icon (▶ in the sidebar), or run the command "Add YouTube video" from the command palette (
Ctrl/Cmd + P). - Paste your YouTube video URL into the input field.
- A preview of the video (thumbnail, title, channel, metadata) is shown — review it.
- Click "Create Note" — done!
Supported URL Formats
| Format | Example |
|---|---|
| Standard watch URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ |
| Short URL | https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ |
| Shorts | https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ |
| Embed URL | https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ |
| Mobile | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ |
Generated Note Example
---
title: "Never Gonna Give You Up"
url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
videoId: "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
channelName: "Rick Astley"
channelUrl: "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw"
thumbnailUrl: "https://img.youtube.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpg"
publishedAt: "Oct 25, 2009"
viewCount: "1.4B"
dateAdded: "2025-01-15"
---
## Never Gonna Give You Up
▶️ [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)
**Channel:** [Rick Astley](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw)
## Notes
> _Your notes here_
Settings
Note Creation
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Note location | Folder where notes are saved | YouTube |
| Filename template | Template for the note filename | {{title}} |
| Open note after creation | Auto-open the new note | true |
Note Properties
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Include channel info | Add channelName and channelUrl |
false |
| Include thumbnail | Add thumbnailUrl and show image |
true |
| Include tags | Add YouTube video tags | false |
| Include video info | Add YouTube video info | false |
Thumbnail
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Save thumbnail locally | Download thumbnail to vault | false |
| Thumbnail directory | Where to save thumbnails | YouTube/thumbnails |
When Save thumbnail locally is enabled, the thumbnailUrl property becomes an Obsidian wiki-link [[YouTube/thumbnails/VIDEO_ID.jpg]] so the image embeds natively.
Template Variables
Use these in the Filename template or Custom note template settings:
| Variable | Value |
|---|---|
{{title}} |
Video title |
{{videoId}} |
YouTube video ID (e.g. dQw4w9WgXcQ) |
{{url}} |
Full YouTube URL |
{{embedUrl}} |
YouTube embed URL |
{{channelName}} |
Channel name |
{{channelUrl}} |
Channel URL |
{{channelId}} |
Channel ID |
{{thumbnailUrl}} |
Thumbnail URL (local path or remote URL) |
{{thumbnailUrlRemote}} |
Always the remote thumbnail URL |
{{description}} |
Video description (first 500 chars) |
{{publishedAt}} |
Publish date |
{{viewCount}} |
View count (formatted, e.g. 1.4B) |
{{tags}} |
Comma-separated list of video tags |
{{date}} |
Today's date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
{{time}} |
Current time (HH:MM:SS) |
Installation
Manual Installation
- Download
main.js,manifest.json, andstyles.cssfrom the latest release. - Create a folder
<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/youtube-search/. - Copy the three files into that folder.
- In Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins, enable YouTube Search.
From Source
git clone https://github.com/plasch/obsidian-youtube-search-plugin
cd obsidian-youtube-search-plugin
npm install
npm run build
Then copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to your plugin folder.
How It Works
The plugin uses no YouTube API key. It fetches video metadata via:
- YouTube oEmbed API (
youtube.com/oembed) — provides title, channel name, and thumbnail URL. No auth required. - YouTube page scraping — extracts additional metadata (description, tags, view count, publish date, channel ID) from the video page HTML.
This means the plugin works out of the box with no configuration needed.
Privacy
All requests go directly from Obsidian to YouTube's servers. No data is sent to any third-party service.
License
MIT
HealthExcellent
ReviewPassed
About
Create Obsidian notes from any YouTube URL with rich frontmatter (title, url, videoId, channelName, channelUrl, thumbnailUrl, publishedAt, viewCount, tags). Auto-fill the URL from your clipboard, preview video metadata and thumbnail, optionally download thumbnails locally, and use a fully customizable note template with {{placeholders}}.Details
Current version
1.0.1
Last updated
2 months ago
Created
2 months ago
Updates
2 releases
Downloads
281
Compatible with
Obsidian 0.15.0+
Platforms
Desktop, Mobile
License
MIT
Author