video-downloader

name	video-downloader
description	Download YouTube videos with customizable quality and format options. Use this skill when the user asks to download, save, or grab YouTube videos. Supports various quality settings (best, 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p), multiple formats (mp4, webm, mkv), and audio-only downloads as MP3.

Model routing: Sonnet for implementation; Haiku for verification/scoring; Opus only for explicit architectural decisions.

video-downloader

Quick Start

The simplest way to download a video:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

This downloads the video in best available quality as MP4 to ~/Downloads/.

Note: Playlists are skipped by default — pass a single video URL.

Options

Quality Settings

Use -q or --quality to specify video quality:

• best (default): Highest quality available
• 1080p: Full HD
• 720p: HD
• 480p: Standard definition
• 360p: Lower quality
• worst: Lowest quality available

Example:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -q 720p

Format Options

Use -f or --format to specify output format (video downloads only):

• mp4 (default): Most compatible
• webm: Modern format
• mkv: Matroska container

Example:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -f webm

Audio Only

Use -a or --audio-only to download only audio as MP3:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -a

Custom Output Directory

Use -o or --output to specify a different output directory:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -o /path/to/directory

Complete Examples

1. Download video in 1080p as MP4:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -q 1080p

2. Download audio only as MP3:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -a

3. Download in 720p as WebM to custom directory:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -q 720p -f webm -o /custom/path

Uses yt-dlp for robust downloading; auto-installs if not present.

Important Notes

• Downloads are saved to ~/Downloads/ by default
• Video filename is automatically generated from the video title
• The script handles installation of yt-dlp automatically
• Higher quality videos may take longer to download and use more disk space