• Prerequisites
• 1 Install yt-dlp system-wide
• 2 Download the auto-generated captions as SRT
• 3 Strip index numbers and timecodes
• 4 (Option-al) Extra polish
• 5 Enjoy your transcript
  • TL;DR (copy-paste cheat sheet)

§Prerequisites

# Make sure your package list is fresh
sudo apt update

# (Optional but recommended) ffmpeg lets yt-dlp negotiate the best formats
sudo apt install ffmpeg jq

§1 Install yt-dlp system-wide

sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp \
  -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp && sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

A single binary is dropped into /usr/local/bin/; version upgrades are as simple as running the same command again in the future.

§2 Download the auto-generated captions as SRT

Pick any video ID—here we’ll use knAGgxzYqw8 (Chase Hughes on What is Money?).

VIDEO="knAGgxzYqw8"  # change this to your target ID

yt-dlp --skip-download \
       --write-auto-sub \
       --sub-lang en \
       --sub-format srt \
       -o "${VIDEO}.%(ext)s" \
       "https://youtu.be/${VIDEO}"
# Result: knAGgxzYqw8.en.srt

Flags explained

§3 Strip index numbers and timecodes

grep -vE '^[0-9]+$|^[0-9]{2}:' "${VIDEO}.en.srt" \
  | sed '/^[[:space:]]*$/d' \
  > "${VIDEO}.txt"

Breakdown

1. grep -vE '^[0-9]+$|^[0-9]{2}:'

   • Removes the line counters (3911) and any line that begins with a timestamp (02:33:40,800 --> …).

2. sed '/^[[:space:]]*$/d'

   • Deletes leftover blank lines.

3. Output is redirected to <ID>.txt—in our example: knAGgxzYqw8.txt.

§4 (Option-al) Extra polish

Remove bracketed stage cues such as [Music] or [Applause] and collapse back-to-back duplicates:

grep -v '^\[.*\]$' "${VIDEO}.txt" \
  | awk 'prev != $0 {print} {prev=$0}' \
  > "${VIDEO}_clean.txt"

mv "${VIDEO}_clean.txt" "${VIDEO}.txt"

§5 Enjoy your transcript

less "${VIDEO}.txt"          # page through
grep -i "keyword" "${VIDEO}.txt"   # quick search

You now have a plain-text file ready for note-taking, quoting, or feeding into your favorite AI summarizer—no browser or third-party web services required.

§TL;DR (copy-paste cheat sheet)

sudo apt update && sudo apt install ffmpeg jq -y
sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp \
  -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp && sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

VIDEO="knAGgxzYqw8"                                      # video ID
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en \
       --sub-format srt -o "${VIDEO}.%(ext)s" \
       "https://youtu.be/${VIDEO}"

grep -vE '^[0-9]+$|^[0-9]{2}:' "${VIDEO}.en.srt" \
  | sed '/^[[:space:]]*$/d' \
  | grep -v '^\[.*\]$' \
  | awk 'prev != $0 {print} {prev=$0}' \
  > "${VIDEO}.txt"

less "${VIDEO}.txt"

Happy transcribing!

Adam Malin

adammalin.com

npub15jnttpymeytm80hatjqcvhhqhzrhx6gxp8pq0wn93rhnu8s9h9dsha32lx

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