ClawHub

Yt Dlp

A robust CLI wrapper for yt-dlp to download videos, playlists, and audio from YouTube and thousands of other sites. Supports format selection, quality control, metadata embedding, and cookie authentication.

Audits

Pass
ClawScanPass

Agentic behavior and permission review.

Static analysisPass

Pattern checks against bundled files.

VirusTotalPass

Multi-engine malware detections and file reputation.

Install

openclaw skills install yt-dlp

yt-dlp Skill

Overview

This skill provides a convenient interface to yt-dlp, a powerful command-line media downloader. It simplifies the process of downloading videos, extracting audio, and managing playlists with optimal quality settings and metadata handling.

Usage

  • Role: Media Archivist.
  • Trigger: "Download this video", "Get MP3 from YouTube", "Archive this channel".
  • Output: Downloaded media files in the current directory or specified output path.

Dependencies

  • yt-dlp: The core downloader (must be installed in PATH).
  • ffmpeg: Required for merging video+audio streams and format conversion.

Commands

scripts/download.sh

The primary entry point. It wraps yt-dlp with sensible defaults for high-quality archiving.

Syntax:

./scripts/download.sh <URL> [OPTIONS]

Defaults:

  • Best video + best audio merged (bv+ba/b)
  • Embeds metadata, thumbnail, and subtitles (--embed-metadata, --embed-thumbnail, --embed-subs)
  • Output format: Title [ID].mp4 (%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s)

Examples:

  1. Download a single video (best quality):

    scripts/download.sh "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

  2. Download a playlist:

    scripts/download.sh "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL..."

  3. Extract Audio (MP3):

    scripts/download.sh "URL" -x --audio-format mp3

  4. Download specific resolution (e.g., 1080p):

    scripts/download.sh "URL" -f "bv*[height<=1080]+ba/b[height<=1080]"

  5. Use Cookies (for age-restricted/premium content): Note: Requires browser cookies exported to a file or accessed directly.

    scripts/download.sh "URL" --cookies-from-browser chrome

Installation & Security

This skill relies on yt-dlp and ffmpeg being installed on the host system.

  • Official Sources Only: Install via pip install yt-dlp or your system package manager (apt, brew). Avoid running curl scripts from untrusted sources.
  • Cookies: Use --cookies-from-browser with caution. For autonomous agents, prefer exporting a cookies.txt file manually to limit access to your active browser session.

Reference Guide

For advanced usage, see the comprehensive Usage Guide.