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Case study 15 / 18 · Tools

obsidian media fetch plugin

An Obsidian workflow that turns YouTube and Instagram links into structured notes with thumbnails, metadata, and AI-generated summaries. Notes are automatically named and placed into the intended vault folder.

Case study

A set of Templater scripts and templates for Obsidian, rather than a packaged community plugin, that turns YouTube and Instagram links into structured notes.

The problem

Remove the repetitive work of preparing a note every time a media link is saved: gather the right metadata and format it the same way every time.

What was built

  • YouTube and Instagram link handling through their supported APIs.
  • Structured notes with titles, thumbnails, metadata and AI-generated summaries.
  • Automatic note naming and folder placement in the vault.

Key decisions

  • Templater scripts fit the existing vault workflow without a separate plugin.
  • YouTube summaries come from the description, falling back to the title; Instagram summaries come from the caption, falling back to the link and post type.
  • Thumbnails have defined fallbacks when the preferred image is unavailable.
  • Stories and private or restricted Instagram accounts are deliberately out of scope.

Where it stands

Built as scripts and templates. It needs Obsidian, Templater, a few supporting plugins and API keys. Summaries are based on descriptions and captions, not on transcribing the video.

How it was built

AI

  • Groq API — AI-generated summaries

Integrations

  • YouTube Data API — Video metadata and thumbnails

Tooling

  • JavaScript — Templater scripts
  • Obsidian
  • Templater
  • Dataview