Turn YouTube into Markdown Guides with Apify + OpenAI (n8n)

Turn any public YouTube tutorial into a clean, downloadable Markdown guide—automatically

This n8n workflow takes a public YouTube link from an n8n form, extracts timestamped frames and transcript segments using Apify Frameskim, then uses OpenAI to convert each segment into concise, numbered steps—ready as a Markdown file you can download.

What this workflow does

• Collects inputs via n8n Form: receives a YouTube URL plus optional start time, end time, and step interval.
• Generates content with Apify Frameskim: calls the Apify actor to produce frames at your chosen interval, returning a screenshot, timestamp, and transcript excerpt for each segment.
• Cleans and filters frames: keeps only items that include both an image and transcript text, then numbers the steps.
• Writes step instructions with OpenAI: for each frame, OpenAI creates a short step title and a single-sentence instruction based only on that transcript excerpt (no unrelated guessing).
• Builds a Markdown guide: assembles a Markdown document that includes each step’s instruction, screenshot, and a timestamped YouTube link.
• Returns a downloadable file: converts the Markdown into guide.md and provides it back to the form completion page for download.

Use cases

• Documentation teams converting training videos into step-by-step Markdown guides.
• SaaS operators turning product walkthroughs into internal onboarding materials.
• Automation engineers generating consistent “how-to” docs from recurring YouTube training sources.

Technical details

• Apify integration via HTTP Request using an Apify API token (Bearer auth).
• OpenAI node writes step titles and one-sentence instructions using the transcript excerpt.
• n8n nodes used: set, code, form, sticky note, form trigger, http request.
• Configurable defaults: step interval, max frames, caption language, and an Apify cost cap.