🎬 sYT

Search • Watch • Download YouTube videos directly from the terminal

No official YouTube API required.

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✨ Overview

sYT is a lightweight terminal-based YouTube client that lets you:

• 🔎 Search videos
• ▶️ Watch instantly
• ⬇️ Download content
• 🎛 Select quality interactively

All from your terminal — without using the official YouTube API.

Designed for keyboard-driven workflows and minimal environments.

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🚀 Features

• API-free YouTube searching
• Terminal-native UI (fzf / dmenu / bemenu)
• Instant playback via mpv
• Multi-video downloads
• Quality selection
• Thumbnail preview support
• Multiple scraping algorithms

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🧩 Dependencies

Tool	Purpose
Python ≥ 3.5	scraping logic
ueberzugpp	image preview
fzf / dmenu / bemenu	interactive menu
jq	JSON formatting
mpv	video playback
yt-dlp	stream extraction
aria2c	downloading

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📦 Installation

1️⃣ Add local bin to PATH

POSIX shells (bash / zsh / dash)

echo 'export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc

Fish shell

echo 'set PATH ~/.local/bin $PATH' >> ~/.config/fish/config.fish

Restart shell afterwards.

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2️⃣ Install ueberzugpp

Install build dependencies:

libxres openslide cmake chafa libvips libsixel python-opencv

Build:

pip uninstall -y cmake
git clone https://github.com/jstkdng/ueberzugpp.git
cd ueberzugpp
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
cmake --build .
mv ./ueberzug ./ueberzugpp

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3️⃣ Install sYT

git clone https://github.com/glowfi/sYT
cd sYT

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cp sYT.py ~/.local/bin/
cp sYT.sh ~/.local/bin/

chmod +x ~/.local/bin/sYT.py
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/sYT.sh

cd ..
rm -rf sYT

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🧠 Algorithms

Algorithm	Description
v1	Pure web scraping (no dependencies, slower)
v2	Invidious API backend (fast, default)

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▶️ Usage

Watch Videos

sYT.sh -p fzf
sYT.sh -p dmenu
sYT.sh -p bemenu

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Select Algorithm

sYT.sh -a v1
sYT.sh -a v2

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Download via Search

sYT.sh -d true -p fzf
sYT.sh -d true -p fzf -ml true

Options:

Flag	Description
-p	menu provider
-d	download instead of play
-ml	multi-download

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Download via Direct Links

Single link:

sYT.sh -fl "https://youtube.com/abcdef" -p fzf

Multiple links:

sYT.sh -flm "url1 url2" -p fzf

dmenu / bemenu prompt mode:

sYT.sh -p dmenu -dl true

Merge audio + video:

sYT.sh -d true -mav true

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Help

sYT.sh -h

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⚠️ Notes

• Depends on YouTube frontend changes
• Uses scraping + Invidious instances
• Respect YouTube terms of service

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🤝 Contributing

Improvements and fixes are welcome.

Small focused PRs preferred.

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📄 License

GPL-3.0