yt-dlp — Media Acquisition

Repo: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

Fork of youtube-dl with far better extractor coverage and maintenance. Pairs with ffmpeg for merging, remuxing, and post-processing.

When to Activate

• "Download this video / rip the audio / save this reel"
• "Get me the transcript/captions for this URL"
• "Grab this whole playlist / channel"
• 403s, nsig extraction failures, cookie or login-wall problems

Not for video comprehension — that's the watch-video skill.

Metadata First

Always inspect before downloading. Costs nothing, avoids surprises.

yt-dlp --skip-download --print "%(title)s | %(duration)s s | %(resolution)s" URL
yt-dlp -F URL                                    # list every available format
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-info-json -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" URL

Format Selection

yt-dlp URL                                       # best available, auto-merged
yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=1080]+ba/b[height<=1080]' URL   # cap at 1080p
yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4]' URL    # force mp4/m4a
yt-dlp -f 'ba' URL                               # audio stream only
yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps,codec:h264' URL           # sort preferences instead of filtering

bv*=best video, ba=best audio, b=best pre-merged. The / separated groups are fallbacks, tried left to right. Merging needs ffmpeg on PATH.

Audio Extraction

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 URL      # best-quality mp3
yt-dlp -x --audio-format m4a URL                        # m4a, usually no re-encode
yt-dlp -x --audio-format wav --postprocessor-args "-ac 1 -ar 16000" URL   # whisper-ready

Captions and Transcripts

yt-dlp --list-subs URL                           # what's actually available
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-subs --sub-langs en --convert-subs srt URL
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-subs --sub-langs en --convert-subs srt URL
yt-dlp --embed-subs --sub-langs en URL           # burn into the container

Request exact language codes. A wildcard like --sub-langs "en.*" pulls every auto-translated track (en-ar, en-zh, …) and reliably triggers HTTP 429.

Partial Downloads

yt-dlp --download-sections "*90-150" URL         # seconds 90–150 only
yt-dlp --download-sections "*1:30-2:30" URL      # same, timestamps

Adding --force-keyframes-at-cuts gives exact cut points but forces a re-encode (roughly 2× slower). Skip it unless frame-exact boundaries matter.

Playlists and Channels

yt-dlp --no-playlist URL                         # single video from a playlist URL
yt-dlp -I 1:10 PLAYLIST_URL                      # items 1–10
yt-dlp --dateafter 20260101 CHANNEL_URL          # only recent uploads
yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index)02d - %(title)s.%(ext)s" PLAYLIST_URL
yt-dlp --download-archive done.txt PLAYLIST_URL  # resumable, skips completed items

Login-Walled Content

yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser chrome URL         # chrome|safari|firefox|edge|brave
yt-dlp --cookies cookies.txt URL                 # Netscape-format cookie file

Instagram reels, private/members content, and age-gated videos need this. Close the browser first if cookie extraction fails on a locked database. Never commit a cookie file — it is a live session credential.

Output Templates

yt-dlp -o "~/Videos/%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" URL
yt-dlp -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s" URL                   # stable, filesystem-safe
yt-dlp --restrict-filenames URL                  # ASCII only, no spaces

Post-Processing

yt-dlp --remux-video mp4 URL                     # change container, no re-encode
yt-dlp --recode-video mp4 URL                    # re-encode (slow)
yt-dlp --embed-thumbnail --embed-metadata URL
yt-dlp --split-chapters URL

Troubleshooting

Check version age first on any failure: yt-dlp --version. Anything older than about a month is the prime suspect.

Install / Update

brew install yt-dlp          # also: brew upgrade yt-dlp
yt-dlp -U                    # only for standalone-binary installs, not brew