ai-agent

yt-dlp: Fast, Reliable Video & Audio Downloads for Founders

Name: yt-dlp: Fast, Reliable Video & Audio Downloads for Founders
Author: yt-dlp

Pull high‑quality media from YouTube and dozens of sites with a single CLI command. Ideal for product demos, content curation, and rapid prototyping – backed by 194k+ GitHub stars.

From the repo · “A feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader”

200,288 stars+2,356★ this week17,469 forksPythonGuide quality 9/10 · reviewed Sep 29Install verified Oct 5Updated 10/21/2026100% free · open source

What it does

yt-dlp is a command-line tool that allows you to download videos and audio from YouTube and other video sites in various formats

When to use it

•When you need to download a video or audio file from a website for offline use
•When you want to extract audio from a video file
•When you need to download multiple videos or playlists at once

Ready-to-paste prompt

yt-dlp -f 'best[height<=1080]' --merge-output-format mp4 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzMQgpTdhX0LpL4rjN3ib8-kQ6lHBEa8f

Heads up: Some video sites may require you to specify a User-Agent header with `-H` option to bypass their bot protection, e.g. `yt-dlp -H 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0' https://www.example.com/video`

Saves to your device

Use with Claude

New

Skip the builder — one click puts this in Claude, Cursor, Antigravity and more.

🛠️ Technical setup✓ Install verified 10/5/2026

Expect 20–40 minutes in a terminal — or let your AI agent drive it.

Try it instantly — no install

Claude Code

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/yt-dlp && curl -fsSL https://workflowstacks.com/api/skills/yt-dlp/claude-skill -o ~/.claude/skills/yt-dlp/SKILL.md

Open in another AI app

Opens the app with this repo with the prompt ready to go — no copy-paste needed.

Connect the whole catalog (MCP)

claude mcp add --transport http workflowstacks https://workflowstacks.com/api/mcp

Adds a WorkflowStacks connector to Claude Code: search and load any skill here by chatting.

How yt-dlp: Fast, Reliable Video & Audio Downloads for Founders works

Codeflow

Free to inspect

Yt-dlp: Fast, Reliable Video & Audio Downloads for Founders is a very large Python project (~267k lines across 1129 code files). It is a full software project: use it through its install path rather than reading it end to end. Last commit this month, Unlicense license, has a test suite.

Size

Very large codebase

~267k lines · 1129 code files · days to read — use, don't read

Setup

Developer setup

A real software project. Use it via its install path; don't expect to read it all.

Runs on

Python · Docker

No API keys detected

Python 100%

Where to start reading

1
README.md
Start here — what it does and how to install it
2
yt_dlp/__main__.py
Where the program starts running
3
pyproject.toml
Dependencies and the commands it exposes
4
yt_dlp/__init__.py
Inside yt_dlp/ — the main logic begins here

What's in each folder

yt_dlp/Core code — the actual logic1045 files

test/Tests — proof it works84 files

.github/CI / automation (GitHub Actions)31 files

devscripts/Folder31 files

bundle/Folder23 files

.NO_AI/Folder1 files

READMEHas testsDocumentedCI checksDocker readyUnlicense licenseUpdated this month

Use with Claude

New

Skip the builder — one click puts this in Claude, Cursor, Antigravity and more.

🛠️ Technical setup✓ Install verified 10/5/2026

Expect 20–40 minutes in a terminal — or let your AI agent drive it.

Try it instantly — no install

Claude Code

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/yt-dlp && curl -fsSL https://workflowstacks.com/api/skills/yt-dlp/claude-skill -o ~/.claude/skills/yt-dlp/SKILL.md

Open in another AI app

Opens the app with this repo with the prompt ready to go — no copy-paste needed.

Connect the whole catalog (MCP)

claude mcp add --transport http workflowstacks https://workflowstacks.com/api/mcp

Adds a WorkflowStacks connector to Claude Code: search and load any skill here by chatting.

Quick Actions

Details

Creator

yt-dlp

Language

Python

Do this with a working workflow

Pages we wrote and tested that put a skill like this to work — importable n8n templates, outcome guides and Claude Desktop configs.

Outcome guide

Repurpose blog posts into social media content

Paste one piece of content into a private form and the workflow emails you back four ready-to-post formats — LinkedIn, X thread, Instagram, and an email blurb — all in the original’s voice.