youtube-dl-server

Very spartan Web and REST interface for downloading youtube videos onto a server. starlette + yt-dlp.

Running

Docker CLI

This example uses the docker run command to create the container to run the app. Here we also use host networking for simplicity. Also note the -v argument. This directory will be used to output the resulting videos

docker run -d --net="host" --name youtube-dl -v /home/core/youtube-dl:/youtube-dl kmb32123/youtube-dl-server

To provide custom yt-dlp configuration (e.g., authentication, custom options), mount a config directory:

docker run -d --net="host" --name youtube-dl \
  -v /home/core/youtube-dl:/youtube-dl \
  -v /home/core/yt-dlp-config:/root/.config/yt-dlp \
  kmb32123/youtube-dl-server

Place your config file in /home/core/yt-dlp-config/ with yt-dlp options (one per line). See yt-dlp configuration documentation for details.

Docker Compose

A minimal example lives in docker-compose.example.yml. This is an example service definition that could be put in docker-compose.yml. This service uses a VPN client container for its networking.

  youtube-dl:
    image: "kmb32123/youtube-dl-server"
    network_mode: "service:vpn"
    volumes:
      - /home/core/youtube-dl:/youtube-dl
      - /home/core/yt-dlp-config:/root/.config/yt-dlp  # optional: custom yt-dlp config
    restart: always

Python

If you have Python 3.12+ installed in your PATH you can simply run like this, providing optional environment variable overrides inline.

YDL_UPDATE_TIME=False python3 -m uvicorn youtube-dl-server:app --port 8123

In this example, YDL_UPDATE_TIME=False is the same as the command line option --no-mtime.

Configuration

All behavior is controlled by environment variables (or a .env file read from the working directory). The process environment wins over the .env file, and an empty value means "not set". Booleans accept true/1/false/0 (case-insensitive); an unparseable value is logged as a warning and the documented default is used, so a typo cannot stop the app from starting. See .env.example for the full list with defaults: YDL_FORMAT, YDL_EXTRACT_AUDIO_FORMAT, YDL_EXTRACT_AUDIO_QUALITY, YDL_RECODE_VIDEO_FORMAT, YDL_OUTPUT_TEMPLATE, YDL_ARCHIVE_FILE, YDL_PROXY, YDL_COOKIE_FILE, YDL_UPDATE_TIME, YDL_LOG_LEVEL, YDL_UPDATE_CHECK, YDL_UPDATE_CHECK_INTERVAL, and the opt-in media options YDL_WRITE_SUBTITLES, YDL_SUBTITLES_LANGS, YDL_WRITE_THUMBNAIL, YDL_EMBED_METADATA.

YDL_FORMAT is yt-dlp's format selector. The format field of a download request is a separate thing: it names a postprocessor (mp3 extracts audio, mp4 recodes), and an explicit request format wins for that download. YDL_EXTRACT_AUDIO_FORMAT and YDL_RECODE_VIDEO_FORMAT apply when the request names no codec or container.

The container includes a health check that probes http://127.0.0.1:8080/healthz — it verifies the app responds and that the output volume is writable (the most common operational failure). It makes no external network calls.

YDL_UPDATE_CHECK reports a newer yt-dlp version without installing anything. It is off by default, so startup makes no network request; when enabled, the first check runs at startup and then every YDL_UPDATE_CHECK_INTERVAL seconds (floor 60). GET /youtube-dl/update returns {current, latest, checked_at, update_available} and the queue page shows the available version. A failed check is logged and not reported, so a deployment without outbound access looks like an up-to-date one. Installing an upgrade is still an explicit PUT /youtube-dl/update.

Usage

Start a download remotely

Downloads can be triggered by supplying the {{url}} of the requested video through the Web UI or through the REST interface via curl, etc.

HTML

Just navigate to http://{{host}}:8080/youtube-dl and enter the requested {{url}}.

Curl

curl -X POST --data-urlencode "url={{url}}" http://{{host}}:8080/youtube-dl/q

Fetch

fetch(`http://${host}:8080/youtube-dl/q`, {
  method: "POST",
  body: new URLSearchParams({
    url: url,
    format: "bestvideo"
  }),
});

Bookmarklet

Add the following bookmarklet to your bookmark bar so you can conveniently send the current page url to your youtube-dl-server instance.

javascript:!function(){fetch("http://${host}:8080/youtube-dl/q",{body:new URLSearchParams({url:window.location.href,format:"bestvideo"}),method:"POST"})}();

Implementation

The server uses starlette for the web framework and yt-dlp to handle the downloading. The integration with yt-dlp makes use of their python api.

This docker image is based on the official python alpine image, pinned in the Dockerfile and kept current by Dependabot.