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# How the Proof of Talk 2025 keynote transcript was obtained (20 Sep 2026)

Supplements `const-interviews-transcription-method.md` and `model-keynotes-transcription-method.md`, which record the keynote (YouTube `3FDo1Cpnt74`) as not obtainable. It is now obtained as full caption text; see `docs/sources/interviews/2025-06-proof-of-talk-satanic-to-sublime-keynote.md` and section 8 of `docs/research/const-interviews-voice-and-ideas.md`.

## What worked

`POST https://kome.ai/api/transcript` with JSON body `{"video_id": "<youtube url>", "format": false}` and a browser User-Agent. It returned the complete English auto-caption text (about 3,000 words, `length: "19m 25s"`, `hasMore: false`) in about two seconds, with no login, no Cloudflare challenge and no API key. `"format": true` returns the same text with YouTube's caption line breaks. Neither form carries timestamps. Total run time for the whole task, including the failed routes: about 45 minutes; the working call itself took seconds.

Timestamps in the saved transcript are estimated from word position (about 2.6 words per second against the known length) and marked "≈". If Jacob drops the video or audio into `media/`, run the existing faster-whisper pipeline to realign.

## What failed again (same wall as before)

- yt-dlp 2026.08.19 with a fresh bgutil PO-token server (built from source, `node build/main.js --port 4416`) and clients android_vr, ios, mweb, tv, web_safari, web_embedded: "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot" on all.
- Same through an SSH SOCKS tunnel (`ssh -D`) via the Affine validator box (204.12.171.6): same wall. That provider's IPs are blocked too. youtube-transcript-api direct and through the tunnel: `RequestBlocked`.
- 1Password vault Arbos has no proxy or scraper items. It has a Proton VPN item; not used (would re-route the VM's own connection).
- Piped: every listed instance dead, Cloudflare-gated, shut down, or returning YouTube's LOGIN_REQUIRED. Invidious: api.invidious.io lists one instance; it and four known hosts returned nothing or challenge pages.
- tactiq (needs an App Check token), notegpt (login expired), youtubetranscript.com and savesubs (Cloudflare, also via WebFetch), downsub (rejects the id format), lemnoslife (down), anthiago (JavaScript page).

## For the other three unobtained videos

Try kome.ai first: CoinFoin `cH55SjDBEZ0`, Early Stage Investor `mke_p4QZwi0`, Cointelegraph 2026 `aL2HY7HTY94`. It depends on YouTube exposing an auto-caption track, which most public videos do. A one-call probe of `aL2HY7HTY94` returned about 3,900 characters of text with `length: "4m 21s"`; the existing stub says 10:56, so check which is right before overwriting it. Not saved here; outside this task's scope.