Video Downloader Agent Skill
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.
Install
one command, takes just this skill from the repositorynpx skills add https://github.com/davepoon/buildwithclaude --skill video-downloaderWhat comes with it
8 071 bytes besides the instructionThe instruction itself
12 sections, as written by the authorYouTube 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 available1080p: Full HD720p: HD480p: Standard definition360p: Lower qualityworst: 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 compatiblewebm: Modern formatmkv: 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
- Download video in 1080p as MP4:
python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -q 1080p
- Download audio only as MP3:
python scripts/download_video.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -a
- 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 aswww,m,music),youtu.be, andyoutube-nocookie.com(includingwww). Other sites are rejected.
yt-dlp installation
The script does not install packages into your system Python (no --break-system-packages).
- If
yt-dlpis on yourPATH, it is used. - Otherwise it creates a local virtualenv at
video-downloader/.venv, installsyt-dlpthere withpip, and runs that binary. - 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-dlpvia PATH or the skill-local.venvas 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
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How to use it
Take davepoon/video-downloader from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
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.
The instructions reference brew.
Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.