Kindle Clippings to Markdown (no Readwise)
Turn your Kindle's My Clippings.txt into clean markdown, one file per book, with overlapping highlights merged. Runs in your browser, no Readwise needed.
Overview
Paste or load your Kindle's My Clippings.txt file and the tool parses every highlight, note, and bookmark, groups them by book and author, and merges overlapping re-highlights into the longer version. Notes attach under the highlight at the same location. Download one markdown file per book, or a combined file, with a YAML header. Nothing is uploaded, parsing runs entirely in your browser, no Readwise account needed.
How it works
- 1Plug your Kindle into your computer over USB and open its documents folder to find My Clippings.txt, or copy the text you already have.
- 2Click Load My Clippings.txt to pick the file, or paste the raw text straight into the box.
- 3The tool groups every highlight, note, and bookmark by book and author, and merges overlapping re-highlights of the same passage automatically.
- 4Pick a book tab to preview its markdown, with each note attached directly beneath the highlight it belongs to.
- 5Download that book's markdown file, or download every book combined into one file.
- 6Copy the markdown directly instead if you'd rather paste it straight into your notes app.
Worked example
Deduping an overlapping highlight and attaching a note
Paste four clippings from a My Clippings.txt export: two overlapping highlights of the opening line of The Hobbit (one at Location 1024-1025, the shorter version, one at Location 1024-1030, which also captures the next sentence), a note at Location 1024-1030, and one highlight from Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind at Location 230-231. The tool merges the two overlapping Hobbit highlights, keeping the longer 1024-1030 version, so 4 clippings become 3. It then groups the result into 2 book files: The Hobbit, with 1 highlight and its attached note (the note's location falls inside the highlight's range, so it renders directly beneath the quote), and Sapiens, with its single highlight.
Methodology & privacy
Records in My Clippings.txt are separated by a line of ten equal signs. Each record's first line is the book title, with the author taken from the final parenthetical group, so a title containing its own parentheses still parses correctly. The second line names the clipping type (Your Highlight, Your Note, or Your Bookmark), the Kindle location (a single number or a range like 1234-1236, whichever the device wrote, with an optional page number ignored), and the Added on timestamp. Within the same book and clipping type, two clippings are merged, keeping whichever has the longer text, when their location ranges overlap or one's text is fully contained in the other's, the pattern a re-highlighted or extended passage produces. A note is attached beneath the highlight whose location range contains the note's location; notes and bookmarks that match no highlight get their own section instead of being dropped. Everything runs synchronously in the browser: no file is uploaded, and no clipping ever reaches a server. This first version reads English-language Kindle exports; devices set to other languages label clipping types differently and are not yet recognized.
- Source: GitHub: kindleclip, an open source My Clippings.txt parser
- Source: Obsidian Forum: Kindle highlights to markdown
- Source: Obsidian Forum: Kindle highlights without Readwise or source-code plugins
- Source: Obsidian Forum: Best way to import Kindle highlights from non-Amazon books
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Whether you paste your clippings or load the .txt file, the parsing happens in JavaScript on your device, nothing is uploaded, logged, or sent to any server, including recal's.
FAQ
How do I export Kindle highlights without Readwise?
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Plug your Kindle into your computer over USB, open its documents folder, and copy My Clippings.txt, the plain-text file the device already keeps of every highlight, note, and bookmark you've made. Paste or load that file here to get clean markdown per book, with no Readwise subscription or account required.
How do I turn My Clippings.txt into markdown?
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Paste the file's contents into the box above, or click Load My Clippings.txt to pick the file directly. The tool parses every clipping, groups them by book, merges overlapping re-highlights, and gives you a downloadable markdown file per book, or one combined file.
Is there a free My Clippings.txt converter?
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Yes, this one. It runs entirely in your browser with no sign-up, no file upload, and no subscription, which is the main complaint readers have with paid highlight-export services.
How do I get Kindle highlights into Obsidian for free?
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Download the markdown file this tool produces for each book and drop it straight into your Obsidian vault as a note. Each file starts with a YAML header (book, author, count) that Obsidian reads as frontmatter, so the highlights are searchable and linkable immediately.
Where do I find My Clippings.txt on my Kindle?
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Connect your Kindle to your computer with a USB cable, open it like a USB drive, and look inside the documents folder. My Clippings.txt sits there as a single running log of every highlight, note, and bookmark you've ever made on that device.
Does this tool support non-English Kindle exports?
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Not yet. This first version recognizes the English labels Your Highlight, Your Note, and Your Bookmark. Kindle devices set to another language write localized labels instead, which this parser doesn't recognize, so records from those exports are skipped rather than misread.
What happens to duplicate or overlapping highlights?
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When you re-highlight the same passage with a slightly wider or narrower selection, Kindle saves both as separate clippings. This tool detects clippings in the same book with overlapping locations, or where one's text fully contains the other's, and keeps only the longer version, so your markdown file isn't cluttered with near-duplicates.
Does this tool upload my highlights anywhere?
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No. Parsing, deduplication, and markdown generation all run in your browser using JavaScript. Your clippings never leave your device or touch a server.
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