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youtube-downloader

Download YouTube videos with customizable quality and format options. Use this skill when the user asks to download, save, or grab YouTube videos. Supports various quality settings (best, 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p), multiple formats (mp4, webm, mkv), and audio-only downloads as MP3.

Stars
2,987
Source
davepoon/buildwithclaude
Updated
2026-05-26
Slug
davepoon--buildwithclaude--video-downloader
View on GitHubRaw SKILL.md

// install — copy + paste into any project

mkdir -p .claude/skills && curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/davepoon/buildwithclaude/HEAD/plugins/all-skills/skills/video-downloader/SKILL.md -o .claude/skills/video-downloader.md

Drops the SKILL.md into .claude/skills/video-downloader.md. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any agent that loads SKILL.md files from .claude/skills/.

YouTube Video Downloader

Download YouTube videos with full control over quality and format settings.

Quick Start

The simplest way to download a video:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

This downloads the video in best available quality as MP4 to /mnt/user-data/outputs/.

Options

Quality Settings

Use -q or --quality to specify video quality:

  • best (default): Highest quality available
  • 1080p: Full HD
  • 720p: HD
  • 480p: Standard definition
  • 360p: Lower quality
  • worst: Lowest quality available

Example:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -q 720p

Format Options

Use -f or --format to specify output format (video downloads only):

  • mp4 (default): Most compatible
  • webm: Modern format
  • mkv: Matroska container

Example:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -f webm

Audio Only

Use -a or --audio-only to download only audio as MP3:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -a

Custom Output Directory

Use -o or --output to specify a different output directory:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -o /path/to/directory

Complete Examples

  1. Download video in 1080p as MP4:
python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -q 1080p
  1. Download audio only as MP3:
python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -a
  1. Download in 720p as WebM to custom directory:
python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -q 720p -f webm -o /custom/path

Supported URLs

  • HTTPS only — http:// links are rejected.
  • YouTube hosts only — allowed hostnames include youtube.com (and subdomains such as www, m, music), youtu.be, and youtube-nocookie.com (including www). Other sites are rejected.

yt-dlp installation

The script does not install packages into your system Python (no --break-system-packages).

  1. If yt-dlp is on your PATH, it is used.
  2. Otherwise it creates a local virtualenv at video-downloader/.venv, installs yt-dlp there with pip, and runs that binary.
  3. If venv creation or install fails, follow the printed message or install globally, for example: pipx install yt-dlp, brew install yt-dlp, or your OS package manager.

The .venv directory is gitignored and stays inside the skill folder.

How It Works

The skill uses yt-dlp, a robust YouTube downloader that:

  • Resolves yt-dlp via PATH or the skill-local .venv as described above
  • Fetches video information before downloading
  • Selects the best available streams matching your criteria
  • Merges video and audio streams when needed
  • Supports a wide range of YouTube video formats

Important Notes

  • Downloads are saved to /mnt/user-data/outputs/ by default
  • Video filename is automatically generated from the video title
  • Only single videos are downloaded (playlists are skipped by default)
  • Higher quality videos may take longer to download and use more disk space