Meeting Transcript Converter

Convert .txt and .vtt transcript files into clean Markdown notes, entirely offline. Built for meeting transcripts (e.g. Zoom recordings) but works with any plain-text or WebVTT transcript.

This plugin is desktop-only and does not send data anywhere — all conversion happens locally in your vault.

Features

• Manual conversion — run "Convert transcript file (txt/vtt) to Markdown" from the Command Palette on the active .txt or .vtt file.
• Auto-conversion — optionally watch a folder and convert new transcript files as soon as they're created, with no manual step.
• VTT timestamp rendering — WebVTT cues are rendered as a bulleted list, each optionally prefixed with a formatted timestamp computed from the file's creation time.
• Frontmatter generation — output notes get YAML frontmatter with meeting_name, date, and, when detectable, duration and participants.
• Optional cleanup — delete the original transcript file automatically once it's been converted.

Usage

Manual conversion

1. Open a .txt or .vtt file in Obsidian.
2. Open the Command Palette and run Convert transcript file (txt/vtt) to Markdown.
3. The converted note is created (or updated, if it already exists) in your configured output folder.

Auto-conversion

1. Open Settings → Meeting Transcript Converter.
2. Enable Auto-convert new transcripts.
3. Set Watch folder to the vault folder you want monitored (leave empty to watch the whole vault).
4. Any .txt or .vtt file created in that folder is converted automatically. Enable Delete original file after convert if you don't want to keep the source file around.

How conversion works

TXT files are cleaned by trimming each line and removing empty lines — no other reformatting is applied.

VTT files are parsed as WebVTT: the header, cue sequence numbers, and empty lines are skipped, and each cue becomes a bullet point. If a time format is set, each bullet is prefixed with a timestamp computed as the file's creation time plus the cue's offset, e.g.:

- **[2026-04-05 14:32:01]** Hello, this is the first line
- **[2026-04-05 14:32:06]** Second cue block here

With the time format left empty, timestamps are omitted:

- Hello, this is the first line
- Second cue block here

Every converted note starts with a title (# {name}) and YAML frontmatter containing the meeting name and date, plus duration and participant list when they can be detected from the transcript content.

Known limitation: WebVTT <v Speaker> voice tags are not stripped and will pass through as raw text in the output.

Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Output folder	Vault folder where converted .md files are saved. Created automatically if it doesn't exist.	Transcripts
Watch folder	Vault folder monitored for new transcripts when auto-convert is on. Empty watches the entire vault.	Transcripts
Auto-convert new transcripts	Automatically convert new .txt/.vtt files as they're created.	Off
Delete original file after convert	Remove the source file after a successful conversion.	Off
Time format	Moment.js format string used for VTT cue timestamps. Leave empty to omit timestamps.	YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss

Installing

Manual install:

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Copy them into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/meeting-transcript-converter/.
3. Reload Obsidian and enable Meeting Transcript Converter under Settings → Community plugins.

Development

npm install         # install dependencies
npm run dev          # esbuild watch mode
npm run build         # type-check and produce a production bundle
npm run lint           # run eslint
npm run test             # run the test suite (vitest)

See the doc/ folder for detailed architecture, converter, and settings specifications.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.