y2cli

Offline YouTube downloader CLI — works exactly like Y2Mate but runs on your machine with no browser needed. Powered by yt-dlp with ffmpeg bundled via imageio-ffmpeg (no separate ffmpeg install required).

Features

• Download YouTube videos as MP4 (1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p, and more)
• Download audio as MP3
• Interactive format picker (like Y2Mate's UI, in the terminal)
• Built-in ffmpeg — no manual setup
• Local HTTP server mode for the VS Code and browser extensions
• JSON output mode for programmatic use

Install

pip install y2cli

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/Tresorbana/y2cli
cd y2cli
pip install -e .

Usage

# Interactive — prompts for URL and format
y2cli

# Pass URL directly, pick format interactively
y2cli "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

# Direct download, no prompts
y2cli "https://..." --format mp4_720
y2cli "https://..." --format mp3

# Available format IDs
# mp3, mp4_1080, mp4_720, mp4_480, mp4_360  (depends on video)

# Custom output directory
y2cli "https://..." --format mp4_720 --output "C:\Users\You\Videos"

# Get video info as JSON (used by extensions)
y2cli "https://..." --info

# Start local HTTP server (for VS Code / browser extensions)
y2cli --serve
y2cli --serve --port 8080

Downloads save to ~/Downloads/y2cli/ by default.

HTTP Server API

When running y2cli --serve (default port 7272):

Related Projects

• y2cli-vscode — VS Code extension
• y2cli-browser — Chrome/Firefox browser extension

License

MIT