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name: yt-dlp description: Download videos and audio from YouTube and thousands of other sites. Use when downloading videos/audio, extracting audio, downloading playlists, or including subtitles/metadata.

yt-dlp Skill

This skill provides common commands for downloading media using yt-dlp.

Basic Usage

Copy# Download a video (best quality)
yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..."

# List available formats
yt-dlp -F "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..."

# Download specific format
yt-dlp -f 22 "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..."

Common Tasks

Extracting Audio

Copy# Extract best quality audio as MP3
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 "URL"

# Extract audio and keep the original video
yt-dlp -x -k "URL"

Video Selection

Copy# Download best video and best audio separately and merge them
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo+bestaudio" "URL"

# Download video smaller than 50MB
yt-dlp -f "best[filesize<50M]" "URL"

Playlists

Copy# Download entire playlist
yt-dlp --yes-playlist "URL_TO_PLAYLIST"

# Download only specific items from a playlist
yt-dlp --playlist-items 1,2,5,10-15 "URL"

Metadata and Subtitles

Copy# Write subtitles to file
yt-dlp --write-subs --sub-langs "en.*" "URL"

# Embed subtitles in video file
yt-dlp --embed-subs "URL"

# Embed metadata and thumbnail
yt-dlp --add-metadata --embed-thumbnail "URL"

Cheat Sheet

Output Templates

Control the output filename:

Copyyt-dlp -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" "URL"
yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "URL"

Authentication

Copy# Use browser cookies (handy for age-restricted videos)
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser chrome "URL"

# Use netrc file
yt-dlp -n "URL"

Useful Options

Related Tools

• transcribe: Convert downloaded media files to text using transcription tools.