| name | yt-dlp |
| description | Download videos and audio from YouTube and thousands of other websites using yt-dlp. Use this skill when the user provides a video URL and wants to download it, extract audio, or asks about downloading videos/audio from websites like YouTube, Bilibili, TikTok, Twitter/X, Vimeo, etc. |
yt-dlp Video Downloader
Download videos and audio from YouTube and 1000+ websites.
Prerequisites
Check if yt-dlp is installed before downloading:
which yt-dlp && yt-dlp --version
If not installed:
brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg
pip install yt-dlp
Quick Start
When user provides a video URL:
yt-dlp "URL"
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 "URL"
yt-dlp -o "~/Downloads/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "URL"
Common Tasks
Download Video
yt-dlp "URL"
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio/best[height<=1080]" "URL"
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio/best[height<=720]" "URL"
yt-dlp -F "URL"
Extract Audio
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 "URL"
yt-dlp -x --audio-format m4a "URL"
Download Playlist
yt-dlp "PLAYLIST_URL"
yt-dlp --playlist-items 1-5 "PLAYLIST_URL"
yt-dlp --no-playlist "URL"
Subtitles
yt-dlp --write-subs --sub-langs en,zh "URL"
yt-dlp --embed-subs "URL"
Output Options
yt-dlp -o "~/Downloads/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "URL"
yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "URL"
Workflow
- User provides video URL
- Ask for preferences if not specified:
- Video or audio only?
- Quality preference?
- Output location? (default: current directory)
- Check yt-dlp is installed
- Run appropriate command
- Report download result
Troubleshooting
yt-dlp -U
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser chrome "URL"
yt-dlp -v "URL"