What the Markdown export contains
The .md file opens with YAML frontmatter holding the video title, channel, source URL, and the export date. That lets note apps such as Obsidian treat it as a structured note you can filter and query.
Below the frontmatter comes a level-one heading with the video title, a line linking back to the channel and the YouTube source, a “Transcript” heading, and then each caption segment as its own paragraph with a bold [MM:SS] timestamp.
Sample Markdown output (original example text, not from a real video)
--- title: "Example Video Title" channel: "Example Channel" url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" date: "2026-10-01" --- # Example Video Title **Channel:** Example Channel | **Source:** [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID) ## Transcript **[00:00]** First, write down the question you want the video to answer. **[00:04]** Next, search the transcript for a distinctive phrase. **[00:08]** Finally, check the matching moment in the source video.
Getting the most out of it in a notes app
- Obsidian: drop the file into your vault. The frontmatter becomes note properties, so you can list every transcript from one channel with a Dataview query.
- Notion: use Import → Markdown. Headings, bold timestamps, and the source link carry over; the frontmatter arrives as plain text you can delete or move into database properties.
- Linking notes: because each segment is a separate paragraph, you can link or embed a single moment from another note instead of the whole transcript.
- Highlighting: add your own ==highlights== or callouts under the relevant timestamp so your notes stay anchored to the video.
Before you rely on it
The export date in the frontmatter is the day you downloaded the file, not the video’s upload date. Auto-generated captions can misspell names and technical terms, so check anything you plan to quote against the video at its timestamp.