An Obsidian companion plugin for managing YouTube subscriptions. Public RSS and Google Takeout work without login; optional Google OAuth account sync keeps the channel list aligned with the signed-in YouTube account.
The interface follows Obsidian's language setting — English, or Simplified Chinese when Obsidian is set to Chinese.
The plugin keeps the fast-moving video feed in plugin data, writes one ordinary Markdown file per channel for long-lived metadata and groups, and creates video notes only when you explicitly save one. This keeps a large subscription list from flooding the vault with thousands of files.
Features
- Add one channel or paste many at once.
- Accept channel URLs,
@handles,UC…channel IDs, and Google Takeoutsubscriptions.csvcontent. - Organize a channel into zero, one, or several groups.
- Fetch recent uploads from YouTube's public Atom feeds.
- Filter the feed by group, search, or unread state.
- Mark videos read/unread and save selected videos as Markdown notes.
- Pause individual channels and retain their local data.
- Generate a native
Channels.basetable/card view. - Refresh at startup, on an interval while Obsidian is open, or manually.
- Authorize a Google account with the system browser, PKCE, and the read-only YouTube scope.
- Import the complete signed-in subscription list and periodically mirror new subscriptions and cancellations.
Add subscriptions
Choose Add or import YouTube channels and use any mixture of:
https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA
UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA
For a Takeout export, either select subscriptions.csv in the modal or paste
its contents. The importer recognizes columns named like Channel Id,
Channel Url, and Channel Title.
Google account sync (C2)
Account sync is optional. The plugin continues to work with public RSS when it is not configured.
- In Google Cloud, enable YouTube Data API v3 for a project.
- Configure the OAuth consent screen. If the app remains in external testing, add the Google account you use for YouTube as a test user.
- Create an OAuth Client ID of type Desktop app.
- In Obsidian, open gogoga YouTube → Options, paste the Client ID, save the Client Secret to Obsidian SecretStorage, and choose Authorize Google account.
- Complete consent in the system browser. Obsidian then synchronizes the account subscriptions and continues fetching recent videos through RSS.
The first authorization uses a localhost callback and therefore requires
Obsidian desktop. The dashboard and synchronized data remain usable on mobile.
Only the youtube.readonly scope is requested. The Client Secret and refresh
token are stored in Obsidian SecretStorage and are never written to the plugin's
data.json.
Vault data
The default structure is:
YouTube/
├── Channels.base
├── Channels/
│ └── UC….md
└── Videos/
└── 2026-09-29 Video title.md
Channel filenames use the stable YouTube channel ID so a renamed channel does not create a duplicate. The visible title lives in frontmatter.
On an existing channel note, the plugin updates only the properties it owns.
Anything written below the frontmatter is preserved. Stopping tracking marks
the note as subscribed: false instead of deleting it.
The groups and enabled properties can also be edited directly in the
generated Bases view or channel note. The plugin reads those changes back into
its dashboard state.
Network and privacy
- Requests go directly from Obsidian to public YouTube channel pages and Atom feeds.
- Optional account sync connects directly to Google's OAuth and YouTube Data API endpoints. It uses read-only access and never posts, likes, or changes subscriptions.
- The OAuth Client ID is stored in plugin settings; the Client Secret and refresh token are stored separately in Obsidian SecretStorage.
- No analytics or third-party relay service is used.
- The plugin cannot refresh while Obsidian is closed.
- Public feeds expose only a recent window of uploads, so this MVP is designed for ongoing incremental tracking rather than complete channel history.