yt-dlp Recipes
For full YouTube support, current yt-dlp requires yt-dlp-ejs and a supported JavaScript runtime. Deno is the recommended runtime and the only one enabled by default. Follow the official EJS setup instructions for your installation method; FFmpeg alone does not provide this support.
Download one URL using the default format selection:
yt-dlp "<URL>"
Make playlist intent explicit:
yt-dlp --yes-playlist "<PLAYLIST_URL>"
yt-dlp --no-playlist "<ITEM_URL>"
Extract audio when the ffmpeg and ffprobe executables are available:
yt-dlp --extract-audio --audio-format m4a "<URL>"
For a page that genuinely requires an existing Firefox login session:
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox --yes-playlist "<URL>"
--cookies-from-browser grants the process access to browser session cookies. Use it only for the intended site and account, avoid logs or shell transcripts that expose cookie material, and prefer an unauthenticated download when possible. Confirm that downloading and retaining the material is permitted by the service and applicable rules.
Options and supported sites change; check the official yt-dlp README before turning a recipe into automation.