How I download YouTube videos into DEVONthink automatically.

• 1. While browsing YouTube or checking my subscriptions from Reeder, I can save videos to my Decoding playlist.

• 2. By subscribing to the channel using its hidden RSS feed from DEVONthink, I can get saved videos into my Decoding database.

• 3. DEVONthink watches this RSS feed via a smart rule and downloads videos using yt-dlp.

  • Here’s a screenshot of the rule and the attached script.

    • Download the script.

  • I use yt-dlp because it’s faster than youtube-dl lately.

  • I use a custom “Seen” field to mark videos in the RSS feed as downloaded, so the script downloads them only once.

• 4. The script saves videos into my inbox folder at ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink 3/Inbox, which automatically gets imported by DEVONthink.

• 5. From here, I can organize downloaded videos, start watching them and take notes.