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zarazhangrui

zarazhangrui/youtube-digest

Chrome side panel that turns YouTube videos into transcripts, bilingual views, AI overviews, explanations and timestamped notes, using your own API keys.

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What is it?

YouTube Digest is a Chrome extension that adds a side panel to standard YouTube watch pages. It fetches the native transcript, shows it in Original, Simplified Chinese, or aligned bilingual form, and lets you search for words or phrases and jump between matches. Clicking a timestamp seeks the video to that point.

On top of the transcript, the panel can generate an AI overview with chapters and key quotes, explain selected transcript text, and translate visible content in small cached batches. Notes can be saved from the player or from a quote, and they are polished automatically before being kept for later review.

The project is bring-your-own-key: it uses a Supadata key for transcripts and a DeepSeek key for AI features. Settings and notes are stored in local Chrome storage, and it is installed from source as an unpacked extension rather than from the Chrome Web Store.

Key features

  • 01Shows timestamped transcripts in Original, Chinese, or bilingual view.
  • 02Searches transcript words or phrases and steps through each match.
  • 03Generates AI overviews with chapters and key quotes.
  • 04Explains selected transcript text in context.
  • 05Saves timestamped notes from the player or key quotes.

Use cases

  • Studying lectures or talks by reading a searchable transcript.
  • Learning a language by comparing original and Chinese subtitles side by side.
  • Skimming long videos through AI chapters before watching in full.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Download or clone the project from GitHub into a permanent folder

  2. 2

    Open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, and click Load unpacked to select the project folder

  3. 3

    Enter your own Supadata and DeepSeek API keys in the extension's Settings page

  4. 4

    Open a YouTube video with captions and click the extension icon to open the side panel

Things to know

  • Works only in Google Chrome 116 or newer; Firefox, Safari and mobile browsers are not supported.
  • Requires your own paid-or-free Supadata and DeepSeek API keys, and only the DeepSeek V4 Flash model is supported.
  • Not on the Chrome Web Store; it must be installed locally as an unpacked extension that does not auto-update.
  • Upstream issues and pull requests are not accepted.

In collections

Chrome & browser extensions

Topics

#youtube#chrome-extension#transcript#translation#note-taking#deepseek#language-learning

FAQ

What is youtube-digest?
Chrome side panel that turns YouTube videos into transcripts, bilingual views, AI overviews, explanations and timestamped notes, using your own API keys. YouTube Digest is a Chrome extension that adds a side panel to standard YouTube watch pages. It fetches the native transcript, shows it in Original, Simplified Chinese, or aligned bilingual form, and lets you search for words or phrases and jump between matches. Clicking a timestamp seeks the video to that point.
Is youtube-digest free to use? What license does it have?
youtube-digest is open source under the MIT license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is youtube-digest still maintained?
Updated within 6 months. The last commit to youtube-digest was on Aug 27, 2026.
What can I use youtube-digest for?
Studying lectures or talks by reading a searchable transcript. Learning a language by comparing original and Chinese subtitles side by side. Skimming long videos through AI chapters before watching in full.
How do I install youtube-digest?
Download or clone the project from GitHub into a permanent folder Open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, and click Load unpacked to select the project folder Enter your own Supadata and DeepSeek API keys in the extension's Settings page Open a YouTube video with captions and click the extension icon to open the side panel
Where can I get youtube-digest?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/zarazhangrui/youtube-digest

Summary generated by AI from the project's README. GitHub stats refresh daily.

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