Skill: youtube-dl
When to Use
Use this skill when the user asks to:
- Download a YouTube video
- Extract audio from a YouTube video
- Save a video from the internet
- Convert a YouTube video to MP3/audio
- Download video or audio from any supported site
- Get the audio track from a video URL
Supported Sites
yt-dlp supports 1000+ sites including:
- YouTube, YouTube Music
- Vimeo, Dailymotion
- Twitter/X, Reddit, TikTok
- SoundCloud, Bandcamp
- And many more (run
yt-dlp --list-extractorsfor full list)
Input Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
url | Yes | Video/audio URL | https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxx |
format | No | video (default) or audio | audio |
quality | No | best (default), 720, 480, 360 | best |
output | No | Output directory or file path | ~/Downloads/ |
Procedure
-
Get the URL from the user's request
-
Determine if they want video or audio
-
Run the bundled script:
# Download video (best quality) python3 skills/youtube-dl/scripts/download.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxx" # Extract audio only (MP3) python3 skills/youtube-dl/scripts/download.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxx" --format audio # Specific quality python3 skills/youtube-dl/scripts/download.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxx" --quality 720 # Custom output directory python3 skills/youtube-dl/scripts/download.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxx" --output ~/Downloads/ -
The script auto-installs
yt-dlpif needed -
Report the downloaded file path and details to the user
Bundled Scripts
| Script | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
scripts/download.py | Python | Download video/audio using yt-dlp |
Script Usage
# Download best quality video
python3 scripts/download.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
# Audio only (extracts to best available audio format)
python3 scripts/download.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" --format audio
# Specific video quality
python3 scripts/download.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" --quality 720
# Custom output location
python3 scripts/download.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" --output ~/Music/
# Show video info without downloading
python3 scripts/download.py "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" --info
Example
download this youtube video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxx
extract the audio from this video
save this video as mp3
download the video in 720p
get the audio from this youtube link