zuhair-01/claude-skills-and-systems/video-download

Claude Code and agent skill by zuhair-01/claude-skills-and-systems

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Download video and audio from YouTube and 1000+ sites using yt-dlp. No API keys needed. Use when: (1) Downloading a video from YouTube or other sites, (2) Extracting audio from a video URL, (3) Downloading subtitles/captions from a video, (4) Getting video metadata without downloading.

Install

npx vskill@latest install zuhair-01/claude-skills-and-systems/video-download

SKILL.md

video-download

Download video and audio from URLs using yt-dlp directly. No wrapper scripts needed.

Prerequisites

  • yt-dlp: brew install yt-dlp or pip install yt-dlp
  • ffmpeg: brew install ffmpeg or apt install ffmpeg (required for merging video+audio streams)

Update yt-dlp periodically to keep up with site changes: yt-dlp -U or pip install -U yt-dlp.

Commands

Download best quality
bash
yt-dlp "URL" -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" --merge-output-format mp4
Download specific resolution
bash
# 720p
yt-dlp "URL" -f "bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio/best[height<=720]" --merge-output-format mp4
 
# 1080p
yt-dlp "URL" -f "bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio/best[height<=1080]" --merge-output-format mp4
Audio only
bash
yt-dlp "URL" -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0
Download subtitles
bash
# Download video with English subtitles
yt-dlp "URL" --write-subs --sub-langs en --merge-output-format mp4
 
# Download video with multiple subtitle languages
yt-dlp "URL" --write-subs --sub-langs "en,es,fr" --merge-output-format mp4
 
# Download only subtitles (no video)
yt-dlp "URL" --write-subs --sub-langs en --skip-download
Get metadata (no download)
bash
yt-dlp "URL" --dump-json --no-download
List available formats
bash
yt-dlp "URL" -F
Specify output directory
bash
yt-dlp "URL" -o "./downloads/%(title)s.%(ext)s" --merge-output-format mp4

Quality Presets

QualityFormat flag
Best-f "bestvideo+bestaudio/best" (default)
1080p-f "bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio/best[height<=1080]"
720p-f "bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio/best[height<=720]"
480p-f "bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]"
Worst-f "worstvideo+worstaudio/worst"

Output Template Variables

Common variables for -o templates:

VariableDescription
%(title)sVideo title
%(ext)sFile extension
%(id)sVideo ID
%(uploader)sChannel/uploader name
%(upload_date)sUpload date (YYYYMMDD)
%(duration)sDuration in seconds
%(resolution)sVideo resolution

Tips

  • Always use --merge-output-format mp4 to avoid ending up with .webm or .mkv files.
  • Use --no-download with --dump-json for metadata-only queries -- no files written to disk.
  • If a download fails with HTTP errors, update yt-dlp first (yt-dlp -U).
  • Use -f "bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio" to save bandwidth when full resolution is not needed.
  • yt-dlp automatically handles rate limiting and retries.
  • The --dump-json output includes title, duration, uploader, view_count, description, formats, subtitles, and much more.

Troubleshooting

  • "yt-dlp: command not found": Install it (pip install yt-dlp) and ensure your PATH includes pip's bin directory.
  • "ffmpeg: command not found": Install ffmpeg. Without it, downloads fail when video and audio are separate streams (common on YouTube for HD).
  • Downloads fail or return errors: Run yt-dlp -U to update. Sites change frequently and yt-dlp ships fixes regularly.

Security

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  • Model reviewPassed

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Source

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