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Syncing your YouTube Playlist to Readwise Reader

··3 mins
Python Readwise Obsidian
Table of Contents

The Situation #

I’ve been using Readwise reader for about a month and I’ve been enjoying it. Plus I’m knee-deep in the Readwise + Obsidian note bandwagon. I’m also a fan of watching technical videos on the couch. I found myself watching YouTube videos on my TV and wanting to take notes on them. I created a playlist called ‘TVZ’ (based on Nicole van der Hoven’s different videos on Obsidian and note-taking).

The Problem #

The problem I had was that I’d have to remember to go and parse that YouTube playlist later. Pair that with my ADHD, and I was just accumulating a list of videos that weren’t getting processed.

The Action #

I discovered the Readwise Reader API which enables you to save any URL. That plus them going public and offering a YouTube solution meant I could start saving and highlighting videos. What I needed to do was list out my specific playlist (not difficult with the YouTube API) and pass the video addresses along to the Readwise API.

While I could write a script that maybe runs on a cron, I thought there must be something easier. I discovered Pipedream which lets you essentially chain several APIs together. It also handles the authentication part for you by prompting you to login as needed.

Prerequisites #

To start you’ll want to set up the following:

  1. Create a YouTube playlist that you want to sync.
  2. Sign up for a Pipedream account.
  3. Connect your YouTube and Readwise accounts.

Creating the Workflow #

Note! You can run tests throughout the workflow setup. This enables you to make sure you are getting the right data.
  1. Create a new workflow
  2. Search for YouTube (Data API) - Not the “Custom App” version.
    Searching for YouTube data source
  3. Search for “New Videos in Playlist”
    New Videos in Playlist option
  4. Login to your YouTube account (see Prerequisites above)
  5. Set your “Playlist ID” and the name of this source.
  6. Click the Plus sign to set up the next step
    • This is where it gets a little trickier. While Pipedream is aware of Readwise, it’s unaware of the Readwise Reader API. You can still authenticate for Readwise, but you’ll need to use some custom code to hit that specific endpoint.
  7. Click “Run custom code”
  8. Change the code from “nodejs” to “python”
  9. Click “Add an App” which will let you add the Readwise authentication token
  10. Next you can add the following code
import requests

def handler(pd: "pipedream"):
  headers = {"Authorization": f'Token {pd.inputs["readwise"]["$auth"]["access_token"]}'}
  vid = pd.steps["trigger"]["event"]["contentDetails"]["videoId"]
  video = "https://youtu.be/" + vid
  r = requests.post('https://readwise.io/api/v3/save/', headers=headers, json={"url": video}  )
  # Export the data for use in future steps
  return r.json()

Save your workstream and feel free to test it through.

The Result #

Now every 15 minutes (how often I configured my workflow) the workflow scans my playlist for new videos. This means during my regular Readwise reviews I have a chance to start creating highlights for my YouTube videos.

Updated to make adding the two accounts more obvious.

Resources #

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