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YouTube Downloader

Reliably download YouTube videos/audio in high quality and header-protected HLS (m3u8) streams using yt-dlp and ffmpeg.

Image & VideoIntermediate★ 1,323⑂ 212AI score 10/10Last updated: Aug 8, 2026

What it does

  • Downloads YouTube videos up to 4K, merges to MP4, or extracts audio-only MP3.
  • Auto-starts a PO Token provider (Docker bgutil, falling back to a browser-based provider) so you aren't stuck with 360p.
  • Ships troubleshooting playbooks for "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot", 403s, nsig extraction failures, and SSL/fragment errors.
  • Downloads HLS (m3u8) streams from Mux, Vimeo and similar CDNs via ffmpeg with Referer/Origin/User-Agent headers, including separate audio+video merging.
  • Defaults to a non-technical UX: shows thumbnail, title and duration first, then offers quality, subtitle and save-location choices instead of asking you to run commands.

Who it's for

  • Learners and researchers archiving lectures or conference talks for offline viewing.
  • Content creators who need source files for subtitling, clipping, or research.
  • Anyone who has hit the "only 360p available" or 403 wall with yt-dlp.
  • People who found an m3u8 URL in DevTools but can't download it.

Examples

  1. "Grab this YouTube link in 1080p" → fetches metadata, starts the token provider, saves MP4 and reports path, size, and resolution.
  2. "Just pull the audio from this podcast episode as MP3" → runs -x --audio-format mp3, then offers to transcribe the file.
  3. "This course m3u8 returns 403" → adds the Referer header plus -protocol_whitelist, downloads with ffmpeg, and merges the separate audio/video renditions.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/daymade/claude-code-skills/HEAD/youtube-downloader/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on AI Skill Mart.
Copy the youtube-downloader folder from the GitHub repo daymade/claude-code-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/youtube-downloader/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills.git /tmp/claude-code-skills && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/claude-code-skills/youtube-downloader ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal (Terminal on macOS/Linux, WSL or Git Bash on Windows).
  2. Install the dependencies: brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg on macOS, or pip install --upgrade yt-dlp plus your OS package for ffmpeg (yt-dlp 2025.10.22 or newer is required).
  3. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills.git /tmp/claude-code-skills
  4. Copy the skill folder: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/claude-code-skills/youtube-downloader ~/.claude/skills/
  5. Optional: keep Docker Desktop running so the PO Token provider starts automatically; without Docker the skill switches to the browser-based provider.
  6. Restart Claude Code and try a prompt like "Download this YouTube video in 1080p".
  7. If cookies are needed, stay signed in to YouTube in Chrome/Firefox and approve the cookie-access request only when you're comfortable with it.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT