Voice Note Transcriber

Fetch voice note emails via IMAP, transcribe attachments with OpenAI Whisper, and save transcripts to an Obsidian vault's fleeting notes folder.

Voice Note Transcriber → Obsidian

Fetch voice-note emails from IMAP, transcribe audio attachments with OpenAI Whisper, and save the result as a fleeting note in your Obsidian vault.

Quick start

python3 {skillDir}/scripts/transcribe_voice_notes.py

Configuration

Set environment variables (or let the skill read from OpenClaw config):

Variable	Required	Description
EMAIL_ADDRESS	✅	IMAP login address
EMAIL_PASSWORD	✅	App-specific password
OPENAI_API_KEY	✅	OpenAI API key
OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH	✅	Absolute path to Obsidian vault root
EMAIL_PROVIDER		Provider key: gmail (default), outlook, 163.com, 126.com
FLEETING_FOLDER		Vault subfolder for fleeting notes (default: 0-Inbox)
VOICE_NOTE_KEYWORD		Subject filter keyword (default: Voice Note)
MARK_EMAIL_READ		true / false (default: true)

OpenClaw config example

{
  skills: {
    "voice-note-transcriber": {
      obsidianVaultPath: "/home/user/Documents/MyVault",
      fleetingFolder: "0-Inbox",
      emailProvider: "gmail",
      subjectKeyword: "Voice Note",
      markEmailRead: true,
    },
  },
}

What it does

1. Connects to IMAP and fetches unread emails whose subject contains the configured keyword.
2. Downloads audio attachments (.mp3, .wav, .m4a, .webm, .ogg, .flac) to a temp directory.
3. Transcribes each attachment via the OpenAI Whisper API (whisper-1).
4. Writes a Markdown note with YAML frontmatter to the vault's fleeting folder.
5. Optionally marks the source email as read.

Output note format

---
tags:
  - type/transcript
  - source/voice-note
date: 2025-05-12
email_subject: "Voice Note — weekly recap"
email_from: [e-mail]
---

# Voice Note Transcript — 2025-05-12

## Transcript

(transcribed text here)

## Source

- **Subject:** Voice Note — weekly recap
- **From:** [e-mail]
- **Date:** Mon, 12 May 2025 08:00:00 +0800

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
"Missing OPENAI_API_KEY"	Export OPENAI_API_KEY or set it in OpenClaw config
Notes not appearing in Obsidian	Check OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH is the vault root (not a subfolder) and FLEETING_FOLDER exists inside it
No emails found	Verify EMAIL_PROVIDER, credentials, and VOICE_NOTE_KEYWORD match your mailbox
Attachment not transcribed	Ensure the attachment has a recognised audio extension

Publishing to ClawHub

clawhub publish ~/.openclaw/skills/voice-note-transcriber \
  --slug voice-note-transcriber \
  --name "Voice Note Transcriber" \
  --version 1.0.0 \
  --changelog "Initial release"