youtube-helper 1.3.4

YouTube Helper — yt-dlp wrapper for downloading videos / audio / thumbnails, resolving direct media URLs, browsing video stream catalogs, and pulling no-API engagement metadata (channel / video / comments / subtitles) on YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, Twitch VOD, SoundCloud, and any yt-dlp-supported source.

YouTube Helper

🇫🇷 · 🇬🇧

YouTube Helper belongs to a collection of libraries called AI Helpers developed for building Artificial Intelligence.

🌍 AI Helpers

YouTube Helper is a Python library that provides utility functions for downloading videos, audio, and thumbnails from platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, and DailyMotion using yt-dlp. It also supports post-processing tasks such as converting or merging media files with ffmpeg.

Installation

Prerequisites — Python 3.10–3.13 and git, ffmpeg, cross-platform:

• 🍎 macOS (Homebrew): brew install python git ffmpeg
• 🐧 Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip git ffmpeg
• 🪟 Windows (PowerShell): winget install Python.Python.3.12 Git.Git Gyan.FFmpeg

Then install the package:

Install Package

We recommend using Python environments. Check this link if you're unfamiliar with setting one up:

🥸 Tech tips

Install yt-dlp and ffmpeg

To install YouTube Helper, you must install the following dependencies:

• For macOS 🍎

Get brew and install the necessary packages:

brew install yt-dlp
brew install ffmpeg

• For Ubuntu 🐧

sudo apt install yt-dlp
sudo apt install ffmpeg

• For Windows 🪟

  • yt-dlp: Download yt-dlp from its repository and follow the instructions for your system.

  • ffmpeg: Go to the FFmpeg website and follow the instructions for downloading FFmpeg. You'll need to manually add FFmpeg to your system PATH.

Install YouTube Helper:

pip install --force-reinstall --no-cache-dir git+https://github.com/warith-harchaoui/youtube-helper.git@v1.3.3

Usage

For the full catalog of recipes (downloads, stream catalog / picker, direct-URL resolver, composing with video-helper, branding metadata, subtitles & comments), see 📋 EXAMPLES.md.

Quick start — download a video, extract metadata, and download the audio:

import youtube_helper as yth
import video_helper as vh
import audio_helper as ah
import os_helper as osh
import os

osh.verbosity(0)

# Example YouTube URL
youtube_url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7VzlLtp-4"

folder = "yt_tests"
os.makedirs(folder, exist_ok=True)

# Download a video
video = "big-buck-bunny.mp4"
video = os.path.join(folder, video)
yth.download_video(youtube_url, video)

# Extract metadata from the video URL
metadata = yth.video_url_meta_data(youtube_url)
print(metadata["title"])
# Big Buck Bunny

print(metadata["duration"])
# 597

print(metadata["description"])
# Big Buck Bunny tells the story of a giant rabbit with a heart bigger than himself. When one sunny day three rodents rudely harass him, something snaps... and the rabbit ain't no bunny anymore! In the typical cartoon tradition he prepares the nasty rodents a comical revenge.
# 
# Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license
# 
# http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/

print(metadata["channel"])
# Blender

details = vh.video_dimensions(video)
print(details)
# {'width': 1280, 'height': 720, 'duration': 596.458, 'frame_rate': 24.0, 'has_sound': True}

# Download the audio from the video
audio = "big-buck-bunny.mp3"
audio = os.path.join(folder, audio)
yth.download_audio(youtube_url, audio)

audio, sample_rate = ah.load_audio(audio)
print(sample_rate)
# 44100

Legal and Ethical Use

YouTube Helper is a thin wrapper around yt-dlp and ffmpeg. You are responsible for how you use it. Only download or process media that you own, that is in the public domain or under a permissive license (e.g. Creative Commons), or for which you have explicit permission from the rights holder. Respect each platform's Terms of Service and any applicable copyright, privacy, and data-protection laws in your jurisdiction. The authors provide this library for legitimate uses such as personal archiving, accessibility, research, and content you have rights to — not for circumventing access controls or redistributing copyrighted material.

Features

Downloads (to disk) — youtube_helper.main

• download_video(url, output_path) / download_audio(url, output_path) / download_thumbnail(url, output_path).
• video_url_meta_data(url) / is_valid_video_url(url) for cheap metadata probes.
• default_ytdlp_options(verbose, ...) for customisable yt-dlp options.

Stream catalog & direct-URL resolution — youtube_helper.streaming

• resolve_direct_url(url, prefer="audio"|"video") → quick "give me one direct ffmpeg-ready URL".
• list_video_streams(url) → enumerate every video format yt-dlp finds (codec, resolution, fps, bitrate, …).
• pick_video_stream(url, prefer_codec=, prefer_format=, max_fps=, language=, cookies_from_browser=) → constrained picker, returns one VideoStreamInfo ready to feed video_helper.extract_frames.
• extract_frames_stream(url, ..., **extract_frames_kwargs) → one-call composition of pick_video_stream + video_helper.extract_frames, auto-wires headers, forwards any extract_frames kwarg (destination, device, batch_size, output_width, frame_step, …). The shortest path from a YouTube / Vimeo / Twitch URL to ML-ready frames.
• Audio stream catalog / picker intentionally lives in podcast-helper (single owner for audio PCM streaming).

No-API engagement metadata — youtube_helper.branding

• channel_info(url) / channel_videos(url, max_videos, include_shorts, include_lives) — channel snapshot + paginated video list with normalised engagement metrics, cross-platform schema.
• video_engagement(url) / engagement_batch([urls]) — per-video views / likes / comments / channel follower count, tolerant batched variant.
• video_subtitles(url, output_dir, langs=("fr","en")) — auto-subtitle download.
• video_comments(url, max_count, cookies_from_browser="firefox"|"chrome"|...) — comments sample.
• is_short(meta) / ensure_recent_ytdlp(min_version) — helpers.
• Built on yt-dlp's public metadata only — no Google Data API, no Vimeo API, no OAuth, no quota.

Multi-surface exposure

youtube-helper is not just a library — the same functions are exposed as a CLI, a FastAPI HTTP surface, and an MCP tool set:

# Python library (default)
import youtube_helper as yth

# argparse-based CLI (installed automatically)
youtube-helper metadata     --url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7VzlLtp-4
youtube-helper audio        --url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7VzlLtp-4 --output out.mp3
youtube-helper resolve      --url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7VzlLtp-4 --prefer audio
youtube-helper channel-info --url https://www.youtube.com/@blender

# click-based CLI twin (needs the [cli] extra)
pip install 'youtube-helper[cli] @ git+https://github.com/warith-harchaoui/youtube-helper.git@v1.3.3'
youtube-helper-click metadata --url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7VzlLtp-4

# FastAPI HTTP surface (needs the [api] extra)
pip install 'youtube-helper[api] @ git+https://github.com/warith-harchaoui/youtube-helper.git@v1.3.3'
uvicorn youtube_helper.api:app --port 8000
# → OpenAPI docs at http://localhost:8000/docs

# MCP tools over FastAPI (needs the [api,mcp] extras)
pip install 'youtube-helper[api,mcp] @ git+https://github.com/warith-harchaoui/youtube-helper.git@v1.3.3'
youtube-helper-mcp                # serves FastAPI + MCP on port 8000

Docker image:

docker build -t youtube-helper .
docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 youtube-helper

An innovative GUI plan (video library board, channel comparator, batch downloader) lives in GUI.md.

The competitive landscape (yt-dlp, pytubefix, YouTube Data API, streamlink, ArchiveBox, …) is analysed in LANDSCAPE.md.

Author

• Warith HARCHAOUI

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Mohamed Chelali and Bachir Zerroug for fruitful discussions.