Hey!

Honestly, I was disappointed.

Why?

In this newsletter, I wanted to show you how easy it is, in this age where AI is everywhere, to build your own tool.

But I didn’t manage to pull it off.

I mean, I did manage to build it for myself, but when it came to showing you the absolute easiest way to do it yourself, I hit a wall.

You’re probably wondering what I’m talking about by now.

My learning process

Last weekend, I decided to simplify my own learning process.

Since I love learning via YouTube, I’ve gotten into the habit that, when a video really resonates with me, I go to the description at the end, look for the transcript (the text), select it, and copy it. Then I open up ChatGPT and type in this prompt:

“From the text below, please extract the action points for me.”

I hit enter twice and paste in the video transcript.

Boom – and it spits out the action points and handy tips that go with them.

I then copy those and save them in Notion (my note-taking app).

I don’t always use the same prompt (action points), but depending on the video, I ask whatever I’m curious about. It’s honestly like having a conversation with the video’s author 😊 “What did you say was important for…” and then you can keep the conversation going – just about the video, or even ask it to find similar stuff, etc.

My tool?

So what would actually help me?

A browser extension that, when I’m on a YouTube video, lets me copy the transcript to my clipboard with a single click.

Alright, let’s build this…

I opened up Windsurf, which you probably know from previous editions of this newsletter – it’s an AI-first IDE for coding.

And I wrote:

Windsurf IDE

At first, I hit a snag, so I just took a screenshot and pasted it into Windsurf’s chat window and hit Enter.

Screenshot (the problem)

It started fixing things, and after about a minute, it was done.

I tested it again… 🥁🥁

It works! 💪

In about 5 minutes, I had a working browser extension.

Thinking about how to help you get started with building these tools as easily as possible

Here’s what I was thinking:

• Windsurf can be free, but the best models are paid.
• Cursor is the same, or even more expensive.
• There are two open-source options: Cline or Roo Code, both extensions for VS Code IDE.
• Cline is more beginner-friendly, but I’d still have to show you
  • how to install VS Code
  • then how to install the Cline extension
  • and a bit of config to get good AI models working…

Then I remembered Google. They just expanded their Firebase project with an online IDE called:

Firebase Studio – it has access to the Gemini model, which recently joined the top ranks.

Perfect – you just log in with your Gmail account, and I even made you a template, put it on Github, so you can add it to your Firebase Studio project with one click.

That part worked.

But then…

Their Gemini is definitely not Gemini 2.5, and it doesn’t have the search capabilities to pull in extra knowledge from the web.

After many iterations, in the end, the extension didn’t work.

I could show you how to get Gemini 2.5 running inside your project, but given the issues some users have had recently with excessive usage, I don’t recommend it for now.

What did I decide?

Next time, I’ll show you how to set up a real IDE – on your own computer, locally. I’ll help you configure it so it works the best and is the most user-friendly for you. Don’t worry, like I’ve said before: it’s really not a big deal.

But so you don’t leave empty-handed, here are instructions for how you can install my browser extension for copying YouTube transcripts. So you can chat with YouTube videos too! 😀

Instructions

1. Download the extension code to your computer by clicking this link: https://github.com/primus115/yt-to-text/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
2. Unzip the file
3. Open Chrome and type this in the address bar: chrome://extensions/
4. Turn on “Developer mode” (toggle in the top right)
5. Click “Load unpacked” and select the (unzipped) folder
6. Open an interesting YouTube video
7. Click the extension icon
8. Click “Get Transcript” to fetch the transcript
9. Click “Copy to Clipboard” to copy it

Installation

Go to your favorite video and run the extension

P.S.: Sometimes it throws an error:

Solution: just reload the page, click the extension icon again, and hit “Get Transcript”.

Now, quickly open your favorite AI assistant, paste in the copied text, and start the conversation…

I built this browser extension because it’s genuinely useful for me.
P.S.: There are quite a few Chrome extensions that sell really well. Some of them make tens of millions a year 🤯: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFBVYw2ro-I
Let that be your motivation to learn something new…
And if you ever build something like that, let me know! 😄

This time, things didn’t go smoothly. But it’s important you see that not everything is as easy as the “ads” make it look. That’s also why I’m here – to try things out before you do and report back.

Let’s stay in touch!
Primož