vdl-0.1.3 is not a library.

vdl

A fast, interactive terminal video downloader

Download videos from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Spotify from your terminal — with interactive search, quality selection, metadata preview, and real-time progress bars.

Features

Interactive search — search YouTube by keyword and pick from results with arrow keys, no URL needed
Quality control — choose 1080p, 720p, 480p, audio-only, or video-only per download
Metadata preview — see title, uploader, duration, and views before committing to a download
Real-time progress — animated spinner and byte-level progress bar for every download
Five platforms — YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter/X, and Spotify in one tool
Sandboxed binaries — yt-dlp and ffmpeg are stored in ~/.local/share/vdl/bins and never touch your system PATH
Zero config to start — sensible defaults, with a YAML config file for everything customisable

Installation

cargo install vdl

That's it. On first run, vdl creates a config file at ~/.config/vdl/config.yaml. The first download or update command then downloads yt-dlp and ffmpeg automatically into ~/.local/share/vdl/bins/.

On Termux, vdl auto-detects the environment, applies the certificate bundle path for HTTPS downloads, and falls back to plain progress lines instead of animated spinners.

Prerequisites: Rust 1.75 or newer. Install from https://rustup.rs.

Quick Start

# Download a YouTube video at 1080p
vdl yt --url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

# Search YouTube interactively — no URL needed
vdl yt --search "rust async programming"

# Audio only (saves as .mp3)
vdl yt --url <url> --audio-only

# Download from TikTok
vdl tk --url https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/123

# Download from Twitter/X
vdl tw --url https://twitter.com/user/status/456

# Download from Instagram
vdl ig --url https://www.instagram.com/p/ABC123/

# Download audio from Spotify
vdl sp --url https://open.spotify.com/track/...

# Skip the confirmation prompt
vdl yt --url <url> --yes

Commands

Command	Alias	Description
`vdl yt`	`youtube`	Download from YouTube
`vdl tk`	`tiktok`	Download from TikTok
`vdl ig`	`instagram`	Download from Instagram
`vdl tw`	`twitter`	Download from Twitter/X
`vdl sp`	`spotify`	Download audio from Spotify
`vdl update`	—	Update sandboxed yt-dlp and ffmpeg
`vdl config`	—	Show config file path and contents

Flags (yt, tk, ig, tw)

Flag	Short	Description
`--url <URL>`	`-u`	Direct URL to download
`--search <QUERY>`	`-s`	Search and select interactively (YouTube only)
`--quality <Q>`	`-q`	`best` \| `1080` \| `720` \| `480` \| `360` \| `worst`
`--audio-only`	`-a`	Download audio stream only (.mp3)
`--video-only`	`-v`	Download video stream only (no audio)
`--format <FMT>`	`-f`	`mp4` \| `mkv` \| `webm` \| `mp3` \| `m4a` \| `opus`
`--output <PATH>`	`-o`	Override output directory for this run
`--yes`	`-y`	Skip the confirmation prompt

Configuration

The config file lives at ~/.config/vdl/config.yaml. Run vdl config to see the current path and contents.

# Where downloaded files are saved
download_path: ~/Downloads/vdl

# Default container format: mp4 | mkv | webm | mp3 | m4a | opus
default_format: mp4

# Default video quality: best | 1080 | 720 | 480 | 360 | worst
default_video_quality: 1080

# Per-platform quality overrides
platform_quality:
  youtube:   1080
  tiktok:    720
  instagram: 720
  twitter:   720
  spotify:   best

# Path where yt-dlp and ffmpeg are stored (sandboxed)
bins_dir: ~/.local/share/vdl/bins

# Optional Netscape cookies file for authenticated downloads
cookies_file: null

# Optional browser to import cookies from: chrome | firefox | brave | edge
cookies_from_browser: null

# Show metadata and prompt before every download
confirm_before_download: true

# Number of search results to display
search_results_count: 8

# Auto-detected on Android / Termux
termux_mode: false

# Forced on automatically when termux_mode is true
no_progress: false

For Instagram, Spotify, and login-gated YouTube videos, set either cookies_file or cookies_from_browser before downloading.

License

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. See LICENSE for details.

This project uses yt-dlp and ffmpeg, which are downloaded automatically and stored in a local sandbox directory.

vdl 0.1.3