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Using Youtube Download Agent Skill

Download YouTube video or audio with yt-dlp and ffmpeg at highest available quality.

913 tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
1
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
127
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/besoeasy/open-skills --skill using-youtube-download

The instruction itself

8 sections, as written by the author

YouTube Download Skill

Teach how to download YouTube videos as video files and MP3 audio, defaulting to highest quality.

Prerequisites

  • yt-dlp (recommended fork of youtube-dl): https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp
  • ffmpeg (for merging/conversion)

Install (Linux/macOS):

python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
# or
sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp && sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

# ffmpeg
sudo apt install ffmpeg   # Debian/Ubuntu
brew install ffmpeg       # macOS (Homebrew)

Windows: use the yt-dlp.exe release and install ffmpeg for Windows.


Download highest-quality video (merged MP4)

This downloads the best video and best audio and merges them into an MP4 (default highest quality).

yt-dlp -f "bestvideo+bestaudio/best" --merge-output-format mp4 -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" <VIDEO_URL>

Notes:

  • -f "bestvideo+bestaudio/best" prefers separate best video and audio streams and falls back to the single best format.
  • --merge-output-format mp4 ensures a widely compatible container.
  • Output template %(title)s.%(ext)s names the file by video title.

To force a max resolution (e.g., 1080p):

yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio/best" --merge-output-format mp4 -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" <VIDEO_URL>

Download as MP3 (highest audio quality)

Extract and convert the best available audio to MP3 (highest quality):

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" <VIDEO_URL>

Options:

  • -x / --extract-audio extracts audio.
  • --audio-format mp3 converts to MP3.
  • --audio-quality 0 tells ffmpeg to use best VBR quality.

If you prefer 320kbps constant bitrate MP3:

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --postprocessor-args "-b:a 320k" -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" <VIDEO_URL>

Download a playlist

Download an entire playlist (preserve order):

yt-dlp -f "bestvideo+bestaudio/best" --merge-output-format mp4 -o "%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" <PLAYLIST_URL>

To download only a single video from a playlist use --no-playlist.


Advanced examples

  • Download best audio only (no conversion):
yt-dlp -f bestaudio -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" <VIDEO_URL>
  • Download a clip by time range (requires ffmpeg post-processing):
yt-dlp -f bestvideo+bestaudio --external-downloader ffmpeg --external-downloader-args "-ss 00:01:00 -to 00:02:00" -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" <VIDEO_URL>

Windows PowerShell examples

.
# Highest-quality video
yt-dlp.exe -f "bestvideo+bestaudio/best" --merge-output-format mp4 -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...

# MP3
yt-dlp.exe -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...

Notes & best practices

  • Respect YouTube's terms of service and copyright laws. Only download content you have rights to or permission to download.
  • Use --no-overwrites to avoid replacing existing files.
  • Use --download-archive archive.txt to avoid re-downloading previously downloaded videos when processing playlists or channels.
  • Use --quiet for scripting and check exit codes for success.
  • Cache and limit requests to avoid rate limits.

This skill covers common yt-dlp patterns to download highest-quality video and audio (MP3). For automation, combine these commands into scripts and use environment variables for URLs and output directories.

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How to use it

Copy the folder

Take besoeasy/using-youtube-download from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.

Install what it needs

The instructions reference pip, brew. Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.